`A must-have for any serious scholar of the Pacific War' -Air & Space `An illuminating roadmap following the rise of Japanese naval aviation from its inception in 1909 to its devastating capability on the eve of the Pacific war' -Sea Power `Undoubtedly one of the most important books concerning World War II to appear in the last decade' -The Hook This acclaimed sequel to the Peattie/Evans prize-winning work, Kaigun, illuminates the rise of Japanese naval aviation from its genesis in 1909 to its thunderbolt capability on the eve of the Pacific War. In the process of explaining the navy's essential strengths and weaknesses, the book provides the most detailed account available in English of Japan's naval air campaign over China from 1937 to 1941. A final chapter analyzes the utter destruction of Japanese naval air power by 1944. Peattie traces the development of the Imperial Navy's land-based air power as well as the evolution of its carrier forces. He also treats the salient aspects of Japan's naval air service: training, personnel, tactics, doctrine, technology, and industrial base. In doing so, Peattie combines data found in previous handbooks with important new information derived from Japanese-language sources. Includes extensive appendices, detailed drawings and data on Japanese carriers and naval aircraft, and information on Japanese naval air bases and land-based air groups as of 7 December 1941. About the Author Mark R. Peattie is the author, co-author, and co-editor of many books, including the award-winning Kaigun: Strategy, Tactics, and Technology in the Imperial Japanese Navy, 1887-1941, coauthored with the late David Evans.

Number 3 in the Luftwaffe Profile Series describes the design and use of the Heinkel He 219 UHU.

Sherwood recounts the story of American Air Force pilots in the Korean War and the development of a lasting fighter-pilot culture The United States Air Force fought as a truly independent service for the first time during the Korean War. Ruling the skies in many celebrated aerial battles, even against the advanced Soviet MiG-15, American fighter pilots reigned supreme. Yet they also destroyed virtually every major town and city in North Korea, demolished its entire crop irrigation system and killed close to one million civilians. The self-confidence and willingness to take risks which defined the lives of these men became a trademark of the fighter pilot culture, what author John Darrell Sherwood here refers to as the flight suit attitude. In Officers in Flight Suits, John Darrell Sherwood takes a closer look at the flight suit officer's life by drawing on memoirs, diaries, letters, novels, unit records, and personal papers as well as interviews with over fifty veterans who served in the Air Force in Korea. Tracing their lives from their training to the flight suit culture they developed, the author demonstrates how their unique lifestyle affected their performance in battle and their attitudes toward others, particularly women, in their off-duty activities.

This book presents the development and operational use of the Soviet/Russian Mikoyan MiG-29. The MiG-29 was the Soviet response to the new generation of air-superiority fighter aircraft fielded by NATO, such as the American F-15 and F-16. The aircraft entered service with the Soviet Air Force in 1982, and was soon flown by many Eastern Bloc air forces. The fighters performance came as surprise to the West, and modernized variants are still in service today. Described in superb detail are the many MiG-29 variants, and export models that flew in such countries as Algeria, Cuba, Hungary, India, Malaysia, North Korea, Peru, Poland, Sudan, Syria, Ukraine, and many others. Aircraft technical systems and armaments are also discussed in detail.

To Serve My Country, to Serve my Race is the story of the historic 6888th, the first United States Women's Army Corps unit composed of African-American women to serve overseas. While African-American men and white women were invited, if belatedly, to serve their country abroad, African-American women were excluded for overseas duty throughout most of WWII. Under political pressure from legislators like Adam Clayton Powell, Jr., the NAACP, the black press, and even President Roosevelt, the U.S. War Department was forced to deploy African-American women to the European theater in 1945. African-American women, having succeeded, through their own activism and political ties, in their quest to shape their own lives, answered the call from all over the country, from every socioeconomic stratum.Stationed in France and England at the end of World War II, the 6888th brought together women like Mary Daniel Williams, a cook in the 6888th who signed up for the Army to escape the slums of Cleveland and to improve her ninth-grade education, and Margaret Barnes Jones, a public relations officer of the 6888th, who grew up in a comfortable household with a politically active mother who encouraged her to challenge the system. Despite the social, political, and economic restrictions imposed upon these African-American women in their own country, they were eager to serve, not only out of patriotism but out of a desire to uplift their race and dispell bigoted preconceptions about their abilities. Elaine Bennett, a First Sergeant in the 6888th, joined because I wanted to prove to myself and maybe to the world that we would give what we had back to the United States as a confirmation that we were full- fledged citizens. Filled with compelling personal testimony based on extensive interviews, To Serve My Country is the first book to document the lives of these courageous pioneers.It reveals how their Army experience affected them for the rest of their lives and how they, in turn, transformed the U.S. military forever.

The immediate post-VJ-Day period of RAF history is often consigned to be little more than a footnote in most published accounts. In this first detailed look at the RAF in the Middle and Far East regions in the three years following the end of the war, the RAF's role in stemming the flow of immigrants into Palestine and flying whilst under terrorist attack in Palestine is examined. Further chapters highlight the RAF's roles in Iraq, Cyprus and flying strike missions over Aden, and then look at the RAF's operations over India including some of the first humanitarian airdrops for which the RAF became famous. Attention is then turned to the RAF's return to the Malayan peninsular and how the RAF became embroiled in the beginnings of the Malayan Emergency. Finally, Rapid Rundown: RAF Operations East of Suez 1945-1948 looks at the RAF's involvement beyond the boundaries of the Empire with Spitfires flying over Siam, French Indo-China and Japan, and how it flew combat operations in the Dutch East Indies. The book is copiously illustrated with many unpublished images and is enlivened by many RAF veterans' first-hand and eyewitness accounts.

Herman Knell was nineteen and living in Wurtzburg in March of 1945 when hundreds of Allied planes arrived overhead, unleashing a torrent of bombs on the city. Wurtzburg's tightly packed medieval housing exploded in a firestorm, killing six thousand people in one night and destroying 92 percent of the city's structures. Despite the fact that Wurtzburg had no strategic value, the city emerged from World War II second only to Dresden in material destruction inflicted from the air. The experience led Knell to years of research on the history, development, and effects of the strategy of area bombing.To Destroy a City is the result of the author's long and unrelenting investigation. His analysis of this form of warfare, which reached its zenith during World War II, covers the history and the development of wide-area bombing since 1914, examines its wartime effectiveness and the consequences. But the extra dimension that Knell's book offers is his firsthand experience of the tension, fear, tentative defiance, and, finally, utter catastrophe of being on the receiving end of overwhelming air power. For Americans, who fortunately did not experience bombing during the war, this is essential reading.

Though Bicentennial aircraft schemes and markings, along with many of the aircraft of that period, have all but faded into obscurity, this colorful volume not only preserves their images, but reflects the spirit that prevailed during that historic period in U.S. aviation history. Presented here for the first time are the vivid, patriotic colors and schemes worn by aircraft during a time when the nation, still trying to purge itself of Vietnam, was swept with overdue patriotism; a time that compelled legions in civil and military air service to proudly wave their flag by decorating the aircraft that were their livelihood, or simply their hobby. One can only marvel at the meticulously-applied designs that transformed many aircraft into flying billboards of Americana. This volume is a boon to aviation enthusiasts, historians and modelers alike. Wayne Mutza is also the author of Grumman Albatross, and Lockheed P2V Neptune (both titles are available from Schiffer Publishing Ltd.).

Feb 22, 1944-July 21, 1944

The author of the bestselling Darwin Spitfires casts a forensic eye over the role that Allied air forces played - or failed to play - in crucial World War II campaigns in New Guinea. This is the story of the early battles of the South West Pacific theatre - the Coral Sea, Kokoda, Milne Bay, Guadalcanal - presented as a single air campaign that began with the Japanese conquest of Rabaul in January 1942. It is a story of both Australian and American airmen who flew and fought in the face of adversity - with incomplete training, inadequate aircraft, and from poorly set up and exposed airfields. And they persisted despite extreme exhaustion, sickness, poor morale and the near certainty of being murdered by their Japanese captors if they went down in enemy territory.

The 365th Fighter Squadron was part of the much-traveled 358th Fighter Group. Beginning combat with the 8th Air Force, traded to the 9th Air Force, and later assigned to the First Tactical Air Force, the 365th flew from bases in England, France, and ultimately Germany itself. As with many tactically oriented outfits, the squadron did not run up a huge score against enemy aircraft, yet, claims from strafing and bombing of a multitude of targets were impressive. This book presents the 365th's day-to-day operations and is interspersed with quotes from the group and squadron records, Missing Aircrew Reports, and the men themselves. In addition, an exhaustive appendix and nearly two hundred photographs give readers a look into the combat activities of this long overlooked Army Air Force unit.

Among the different Luftwaffe units that formed the Legion Condor, one in particular stands out for its important Naval Air contribution: the Aufklarungsstaffel See/88 (AS./88 or the Maritime Reconnaissance Squadron), although it was also officially designated the Seefliegerstaffel AS./88 or Naval Air Squadron AS./88. AS./88 Squadron employed the following aircraft during the Spanish campaign: Heinkel He 59 bomber, torpedo and reconnaissance seaplanes; He 60 close reconnaissance/bomber seaplanes; He 115 A-0 reconnaissance/torpedo seaplanes; and float-fitted Junkers Ju 52s. Presented here are previously unpublished aspects regarding the operations and war service of both the personnel and aircraft of AS./88, which, during a period of three years, participated directly in the Spanish Civil War of 1936-1939 on the Nationalist side.

In the summer of 1944, as the Second World War drew to a close, an unusual airplane took to the skies over Leipzig-Brandis on its maiden flight. It was the prototype version of the Ju 287 V1, a four-engine jet bomber. With its forward swept wings, the design was a critical milestone in the annals of aviation technology and made the Ju 287 the first swept-wing design in the world. One of the world's most interesting airplanes is revealed through many previously unpublished reports, photographs and drawings. It is an airplane whose revolutionary design played a major role in the postwar development of jet aircraft, in both the East and the West. This book fills a gap in the material covering the first chapter of the jet era.

The Lockheed P-80/F-80 Shooting Star was the first American operational jet fighter. David McLarens new book chronicles the development and early trials of the aircraft during Lockheeds groundbreaking attempts to create a viable jet fighter, in a period when jet propulsion was still an innovative unknown. This period also saw engineers and test pilots like Kelly Johnson and Tony LeVier facing many challenges, incidents and accidents as they attempted to create a new fighter from yet untested aerodynamic theories, and engines that were still under development. Also discussed are the record breaking transcontinental and absoulte speed records set by the Shooting Star. Detailed analysis of the Shooting Stars combat record in Korea shows why the F-80 flew more combat missions than any aircraft in the war theater. Also presented is a summation of all USAF, USAFR, and foreign countries that flew the P-80/F-80. David McLaren is also the author of Lockheed F-94 Starfire(with Marty Isham), and Beware the Thunderbolt!: The 56th Fighter Group in World War II (both titles are available from Schiffer Publishing Ltd.).

The development of non-rigid, semi-rigid and rigid airships from pre-WWI to WWII.

The first of two volumes of the classified Air Historical Branch study of Fighter Command and the Air Defence of the United Kingdom. It covers pre-war expansion of the Command, the creation of the first integrated air defence system, and an account of Dunkirk and the Battle of Britain.

This work examines the evolution of the RAF's operational requirements for its home defence air force - for bombers to mount a deterrent counter offensive and for fighters to provide direct defence of Britain. It discusses the management processes, policies and decisions relevant to operational requirements on the basis of a detailed study of Air Ministry papers of the time. By tracing the development of operational requirements, the author exposes the thinking behind the RAF's quest for effective fighter and bomber aircraft. He describes the ideas and concepts of air warfare that were adopted in the 1920s, and shows how these evolved into the Air Staff's requirements for the aircraft which the RAF entered and fought in World War II.

Looking ahead to future airpower requirements, this engaging and ground-breaking book on the history and future of American combat airpower argues that the USAF must adapt to the changes that confront it or risk decline into irrelevance. To provide decision makers with the necessary analytical tools, Jeffrey J. Smith uses organizational modeling to help explain historical change in the USAF and to anticipate change in the future. While the analysis and conclusions it offers may prove controversial, the book aims to help planners make better procurement decisions, institute appropriate long-term policy, and better organize, train, and equip the USAF for the future.

In NATO's Gamble, Henriksen discloses the origins and content of NATO's strategic and conceptual thinking on how the use of force was to succeed politically in altering the behavior of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (FRY). The air campaign, known as Operation Allied Force, was the first war against any sovereign nation in the history of NATO and the first major combat operation conducted for humanitarian purposes against a state committing atrocities within its own borders. This book examines the key political, diplomatic, and military processes that shaped NATO and U.S. management of the Kosovo crisis and shows how air power became the main instrument in their strategy to coerce FRY to accede to NATO's demands. Dag Henriksen is a lecturer in air power at the Royal Norwegian Air Force Academy.

This comprehensive examination of Soviet air power analyzes the three branches of the USSR Military Air Forces-Frontal Aviation, Long-Range Aviation, and Military Air Transport-and Naval Aviation and the National Air Defense, emphasizing World War II and postwar developments.

For the first time, this richly illustrated book offers a comprehensive, detailed examination of the legendary Messerschmitt Bf 110, Me 210, and Me 410 series. By 1935 the Bf 109 had made Messerschmitt the leading manufacturer of fighter aircraft in Germany. The twin-engined Bf 110 followed on its heels in 1936, a type the Luftwaffe took on in large numbers as a long-range fighter, heavy-fighter, fighter-bomber, night-fighter and reconnaissance platform. As its successor, Messerschmitt developed the better performing Me 210, which flew for the first time in 1939. But this airframe soon began manifesting serious design flaws, and accidents with the Me 210 quickly started piling up due to the type's questionable flight handling characteristics. The Luftwaffe refused to accept any more aircraft as a result, and at a stroke the type's overzealous full scale production ground to a halt. More powerful engines and a number of design changes saw this aircraft produced from 1943 to 1944 under the designation of Me 410, and as such the type gave an excellent accounting of itself in service with the Luftwaffe.

This is the story of Kent's Garden Airfield, so called because of its location on an escarpment, overlooking Hythe and Romney Marsh. An airfield born out of necessity during the First World War. Following 1918 many record breaking flights began at Lympne. During the 1920's and 1930's, a time which saw the expansion of the RAF, civilian and RAF units shared the airfield and its facilities. Imperial Airways and other civilian airlines, often used the airfield, being on route to France. At the same time the Cinque Ports Flying Club was founded, many air races and flying displays took place. With the declaration of the Second World War on 3 Sptember 1939, it was realised that it was the ideal location for the RAF, being close to the coast. Lympne was host to many RAF units and squadrons during the war. When peace came private flying returned and later airlines such as Silver City and Skways operated their services to Europe. Flying continued into the early 1970's, but following closure, the airfield was developed and industrial units constructed, little remains today of this once important airfield.

Organised chronologically by type, German Aircraft of World War I offers a highly-illustrated guide to the main types of aircraft used by the German Air Force during World War I. The book offers a comprehensive survey of German aircraft, from the Albatros B.1 and Fokker E.II of the early years, to the more sophisticated Fokker D.VII and Junkers CL.1 of the final months of the war. All the major and many minor types are featured, including monoplanes, biplanes, single-seater fighters, two-seater fighters, bombers, ground attack aircraft, night bombers, giant bombers and floatplanes. This includes both well-known and lesser- known models, such as the LVG and Pfalz single-seater fighters, the Gotha and Zeppelin Staaken large bombers, AEG ground attack aircraft, and the Albatross, Halberstadt and Brandenburg two-seater biplanes. Each featured profile includes authentic markings and colour schemes, while every separate model is accompanied by exhaustive specifications. Packed with 110 full-colour artworks with detailed specifications, German Aircraft of World War I is a key reference guide for military modellers and World War I enthusiasts.

Using specially commissioned artwork and detailing technical specifications, this book explores the Bf 109's different roles occasioned by wartime necessity, from its employment as a fighter to its evolution as a fighter-bomber. One of the principal types in the Luftwaffe's inventory at the beginning of World War II, the piston-engined Bf 109 was central to the many initial victories that the Germans achieved before coming up against the unbeatable RAF during the Battle of Britain. Nevertheless, by the second half of 1940 the Bf 109's operability was widened due to operational needs and it was flown as a fighter-bomber for precision attacks in Southern England. At first ad hoc conversions were made 'in the field' to allow the aircraft to carry a bomb or extra fuel tank. Such modifications were soon formalised by Messerschmitt, which created the Jabo Bf 109s. Drawing from pilots' first-hand accounts, author Malcolm V. Lowe explores the number of specialised units, including Lehrgeschwader 2 and dedicated fighter-bomber sections of standard fighter units such as 10. Staffel of Jagdgeschwader 26, which flew this highly specialised fighter-bomber. Including technical specifications, rare photographs and outstanding artwork, this book explores the Jabo versions of the Bf 109E, F and G both on the production line and with the addition of Rustsatze field conversion kits.