Masquerading as a civilian airliner during the mid-1930s, the Heinkel He 111 medium-range bomber saw its first combat in 1936 with Germany's Condor Legion during the Spanish Civil War. The initial stages of World War II confirmed the design's prominent role in advancing the German blitzkrieg in Poland and France. However, it was during the 1940-41 air battles over Britain that the type's defensive shortcomings became apparent. Easily recognised with its 'greenhouse' nose, the He 111 was one of the most widely used Luftwaffe aircraft of WWII and saw use as a bomber and transport over nearly every warfront. Later models were successfully used in antishipping and glider tug roles. A post-war model, the CASA 2.111, was flown by Spain's air force until the late 1950s, and as a transport into the 1970s. These Spanish models were also seen in such classic war films at The Battle of Britain and Patton.

During the 1980s and early 1990s the Challenger 1 main battle tank played a central role in Britain's armoured forces and it achieved remarkable success in combat, destroying around 300 Iraqi tanks in the Gulf War. With its advanced Chobham armour and hydropneumatic suspension system, it was one of the most sophisticated and effective armoured vehicles of the time and, in a modified form, it is still in service with the Jordanian army. It is also a popular subject with tank modellers and enthusiasts, which is why this volume in the TankCraft series is of such value. Archive photos of the Challenger 1 in service and extensively researched colour profile illustrations depict the tank throughout its operational life. A large part of the book showcases available model kits and aftermarket products, complemented by a gallery of beautifully constructed and painted models in various scales. Technical details as well as modifications introduced during production and in the field are also examined and provide everything the modeller needs to recreate an accurate representation of the Challenger 1.

In May 1940, German troops advanced through Holland, Belgium and France with astonishing speed, forcing the British Expeditionary Force and the French army to retreat to the north-east coast of France. The evacuation plan - Operation Dynamo - was put into effect with the expectation that only about 45,000 men might be rescued. However, by the hasty assembly of a vast armada of disparate vessels (thought to be in the region of 900, of which about 700 were privately owned), 338,226 Allied troops were brought safely back to England. Without the contribution of those Dunkirk Little Ships, as they have come to be known, thousands of British troops would have died on the shores of France, and the ongoing fight against the Axis powers rendered all the more challenging. In this title, Philip Weir reveals the story of the Little Ships which undertook such a great mission, exploring their general role and individual histories, including their preservation and participation in return runs every five years.

This title tells the story of the greatest night bomber of World War II, illustrated with over 275 photographs. It takes you through the design, development, construction and history of the Lancaster, as well as its role in the major battles of the war. It includes first-hand accounts from people who lived through the war in Germany and in Britain, as well as profiles of the pilots who flew and fought over Europe. Stunning photographs of the planes themselves and of the destruction wrought on its target cities bring the devastating power of these machines to life. It features a fascinating and engaging narrative written by a leading military history expert. "The Lancaster Bomber" led the air offensive in the darkest days of World War II. This book describes how the plane was developed to fit into an entirely new role in warfare, and explains how the Lancaster could take the war to the enemy to devastating effect. Also covered is the production of the plane and the modifications made throughout its lifetime. This book shows what it was like to fly a Lancaster over the flak-filled skies of Nazi Germany, and lists where surviving planes can be seen today. This fascinating text is the ultimate reference for anybody with an interest in military history or aviation.

The first two volumes of the History of the Panzerwaffe have described how the Germans transformed armoured warfare from a lumbering and ponderous experiment in World War I into something that could decide the outcome of conflicts, and how the legendary Panzerwaffe overran Western Europe and reached the gates of Moscow to the east, before taking its place in the forefront of German defence from the D-Day landings to the valiant last stand in Berlin. This third volume focuses on the most important units in the Panzerwaffe, and some of the most famous units in the history of warfare: the Panzer Divisions. It details their pre-war origins and how they developed over the course of the war, covering all the specialized units and how they operated on the battlefield. The title is illustrated throughout with many rare and previously unpublished images and the text draws heavily on original German documents.

The Tornado F2 had a troubled introduction to service. Unloved by its crews and procured as a political imperative, it was blighted by failures and was developed to counter a threat that disappeared. Modified rapidly before it could be sent to war, the Tornado F3 eventually matured into a capable weapons system, but despite datalinks and new air-to-air weapons, its poor reputation sealed its fate. The author, a former Tornado F3 navigator, tells the story from an insider's perspective from the early days as one of the first instructors on the Operational Conversion Unit, through its development and operational testing, to its demise. David Gledhill reflects on its capabilities and deficiencies and analyses why the aircraft was mostly underestimated by opponents. Although many books have already described the Tornado F3, the author's involvement in its development will provide a unique insight into this complex and misunderstood aircraft programme and dispel some of the myths surrounding it.

Two Great Knights of Adventure was written by Jacques Mortane in 1936. Mortane was on friendly terms with both Marc Pourpe and Raoul Lufbery and wrote the book as a tribute to the two pilots, both of whom were killed in the First World War. Due to the access that Mortane had to these early aviators, this was the best work on their lives, but it was never translated into English and is long out of print. American author and Lafayette Escadrille expert Dennis Gordon recently had the book translated into English and worked with Raoul Lufbery III to add significant new content via the Lufbery family archive (which accounts for roughly half of this new volume). Marc Pourpe began working with aircraft in 1909, just after completing his schooling at Harrow. By 1911 he had attempted to construct his own aircraft from scratch and learned to fly, before receiving an official license. After receiving his license he began flying in races and exhibitions, first in France and then throughout the empire. He met Raoul Lufbery in Calcutta in 1912 and brought on the young American as a mechanic. Both Pourpe and Lufbery flew in WWI. Pourpe was killed in a crash in 1914, while Lufbery went on to be one of the top aces in the Lafayette Escadrille. Lufbery was killed in 1918.

This is the quite remarkable and true story of Squadron Leader Derek J. Sharp AFC BSc Dip Comp JP RAF and his incredible adventures. Nothing perhaps was more astonishing than his survival after meeting a Mallard duck at 500 mph and his subsequent fight back to become a pilot in command once again. That he survived to age 30 was amazing, that he continued unashamedly on to a ripe old age was nothing short of a miracle. Conceivably he followed the advice written on a fridge magnet in his kitchen `Never drive faster than your Guardian Angel can fly'. Those who knew him would say not a chance! This fascinating book follows the adventures of Sharp from spotty schoolboy to highly respect aviator. He flew everything from fighters to heavy transport, wise old navigators and Her Majesty The Queen. He joined a flying club called the Royal Air Force and unexpectedly found himself at war. That mirrored his namesake, Pilot Officer Derek Sharp who lost his life in a Lancaster in WW2. He lived in a time long before Political Correctness, the Breathalyser and motorcar safety checks. He achieved all that he set out to do, and more. That would undoubtedly be his epitaph.

Key Selling Points: Have you ever wondered what it was like to fly the Phantom? This is not a potted history of an aeroplane, nor is it Hollywood glamour as captured in Top Gun. This is the story of life on the frontline during the Cold War told in the words of a navigator who flew the iconic jet. Unique pictures, many captured from the cockpit, show the Phantom in its true environment and show why for many years the Phantom was the envy of NATO. It also tells the inside story of some of the problems which plagued the Phantom in its early days, how the aircraft developed, or was neglected, and reveals events which shaped the aircraft's history and contributed to its demise. Anecdotes capture the deep affection felt by the crews who were fortunate enough to cross paths with the Phantom during their flying careers. The nicknames the aircraft earned were not complimentary and included the 'Rhino', 'The Spook', 'Double Ugly', the 'Flying Brick' and the 'Lead Sled'. Whichever way you looked at it, you could love or hate the Phantom, but you could never ignore it for its sheer power and lethal payload.The Phantom in Focus: A Navigator's Eye on Britain's Cold War Warrior is unique in that the author flew in the legendary Phantom in the front line and captured beautiful and amazing unpublished photographs that will appeal to historians, military specialists and modellers alike.

Ever since its introduction in the late 1950s, the B-52 Stratofortress has been the United States' primary heavy bomber and a powerful symbol of its immense military might. Its powerful electronic countermeasures equipment (ECM) was thought to make the B-52 immune to ground-to-air missile attack, but in Vietnam, and later conflicts such as Operation Desert Storm in 1991, it came up against the Soviet-designed SA-2 SAM which used heavy salvoes of missiles to bring down the bombers.

The losses of several of its most feared, powerful and supposedly invincible bombers per night to a torrent of Soviet missiles during the closing stages of the Vietnam War was sobering to Americans, but the B-52s' crushing attacks virtually eliminated North Vietnam's defences and forced a peace settlement. This fascinating book analyses the roles of the SA-2 operators and the B-52 Electronic Warfare Officers (EWOs) using specially commissioned artwork as well as first-hand accounts, and traces the cat-and-mouse tactics that each side employed.

The Pilots Information File (PIF) was the standard reference for any general information required of USAAF pilots and flight engineers. The PIF covered items of a general nature that a combat flyer must know in order to fight an air war and survive.

This is an illustrated guide shown in over 100 images. It is an engaging history of the Mustang and Flying Fortress, from their beginnings and early exploits through to the final battles and campaigns of World War II. It includes complete technical specifications detailing dimensions, weights, power, performance and armament. It features over 100 photographs of Mustangs and Flying Fortresses in action, as well as cutaway diagrams showing the interior constructions of these historic combat aircraft. The North American P-51 Mustang and the Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress were among many outstanding combat planes of World War II. The first Mustang was designed using an American airframe linked to the first-rate Rolls-Royce Merlin engine, while the most famous B-17 was the Memphis Belle, the first aircraft to complete a full tour of 25 operational missions. This handbook details the design and development of these classic planes, together with personal accounts from the pilots who flew them. Wartime photographs and cutaway diagrams accompany the expertly written text, making this an essential volume for every aircraft enthusiast.

The launch in 1906 of HMS _Dreadnought_, the worlds first all-big-gun battleship, rendered all existing battle fleets obsolete, but at the same time it wiped out the Royal Navy's numerical advantage, so expensively maintained for decades. Already locked in an arms race with Germany, Britain urgently needed to build an entirely new battle fleet of these larger, more complex and more costly vessels. In this she succeeded spectacularly: in little over a decade fifty such ships were completed, almost exactly double what Germany achieved. It was only made possible by the country's vast industrial nexus of shipbuilders, engine manufacturers, armament firms and specialist armour producers, whose contribution to the creation of the Grand Fleet is too often ignored. This heroic achievement, and how it was done, is the central theme of this book. It charts the rise of the large industrial conglomerates that were key to this success, looks at their reaction to fast-moving technical changes, and analyses the politics of funding this vast national effort, both before and during the Great War. It also attempts to assess the true cost and value of the Grand Fleet in terms of the resources consumed. And finally, it describes the effects of the post-war recession, industrial contraction, and the very different conditions that influenced the last generation of British battleships built before and during the Second World War.

In the early 1950s the United States wished to concentrate its defence resources on the development of a 4,000 mile range intercontinental ballistic missile. As a stop-gap measure, US defence chiefs hoped to assist Britain with the development of its own intermediate range missile. Despite US concerns that British resources were limited the Air Ministry nonetheless proceeded with the missile, called Blue Streak, to fulfil the operational requirement which would give Britain an independent deterrent which should remain invulnerable until the early 1970s. `Blue Streak: Britain's Medium Range Ballistic Missile' traces the path from the political decision to issue the contracts through the early development and testing both in the UK and in Australia. The reasons for the project's cancellation are considered and Blue Streak's subsequent role as the first stage of the ELDO civilian satellite launcher is noted. A requirement of the project was the need to base the missiles in underground launchers to protect them from attack. This aspect of the project is fully covered using recently available information and specially drawn plans.

It was early Cold War days when 17-year-old David Eagles applied to the Fleet Air Arm hoping to be a fighter pilot for his national service. He little imagined the career that would follow. After flying training with the US Navy and Australian Fleet Air Arm, he settled into Fleet Air Arm fighter pilot life. He progressed through Naval Test Pilot duties - where he was forced to eject from a Buccaneer during catapult launch trials - before joining British Aerospace and playing a major part in the cockpit design and flight-testing of the RAF's first fly-by-wire and swing-wing aircraft, the Panavia Tornado. His other experiences include ditching a Firefly into the sea and the near loss of the first British Tornado prototype after a bird strike. Finally, after 6,000 flying hours in sixty different types of aircraft, Eagles finished his career by making the first flight of the EAP, the technology demonstrator for the new Eurofighter Typhoon. Vividly illustrated with photographs, documents and plans, this is a fascinating memoir of naval-flying and test-flying some of the world's most iconic fighters.

Designed as the benchmark against which competitors in the 1912 Military Aeroplane Competition were judged, the B.E.2 outperformed them all and was put into production becoming the most numerous single type in Royal Flying Corps service. The B.E.2c, a later variant, was designed to be inherently stable and was nicknamed the 'Quirk' by its pilots. Intended mainly for reconnaissance, it was hopelessly outclassed by the Fokker Eindecker fighter and its defenceless crews quickly became known as 'Fokker Fodder'. The Eindecker, piloted by top scoring German aces such as Max Immelmann and Oswald Boelcke, made short work of the B.E.2c in the aerial bloodbath coined as the 'Fokker scourge'. Its vulnerability to fighter attack became plain back home and to the enemy who nicknamed the B.E.2c as kaltes fleisch or cold meat. British ace Albert Ball said that it was a 'bloody terrible aeroplane'. B.E.2c crews were butchered in increasing numbers. The B.E.2c slogged on throughout the war, and its poor performance against German fighters, and the failure to improve or replace it, caused great controversy in Britain. One MP attacked the B.E.2c and the Royal Aircraft Factory in the House of Commons stating that RFC pilots were being 'murdered than killed. ' This resulted in a judicial enquiry that cleared the factory and partly instrumental in bringing about the creation of the Royal Air Force.

This volume conveys detailed stories of aerial warfare in the South Pacific, chosen because both Japanese and Allied records can be matched for an accurate accounting. Often the actual outcomes are very different to the exaggerated claims made by both sides upon which many traditional histories have relied to date. Further, for each of the chosen stories photographic or other evidence enables an accurate depiction of the aircraft involved. Through these chosen snapshots Pacific Adversaries portrays the South Pacific conflict as accurately as possible. This first volume describes confrontations between the Japanese Army Air Force (JAAF) and the Allies in New Guinea and the Solomons. JAAF units first arrived in the South Pacific in December 1942 and effectively ceased operations in mainland New Guinea in April 1944. Theirs is a rich and colourful history about which many myths persist. Perhaps the biggest is that their Allied counterparts thought they were mainly fighting "Zeros", a falsehood still published and accepted to this day. In New Guinea the Allies ratcheted up a grueling, coordinated and unrelenting campaign, destroying most JAAF air power on the ground, not in the air. Their assault against Wewak's key bases involved an interwoven and complex strategy which eventually overpowered the Japanese. Never before have detailed accounts matched up adversaries so closely and in doing so shine light on key events in Pacific skies so many years ago.

M4 Sherman was the most popular American tank of World War II. Between February, 1942, and June, 1945, a total of 49.000 units of all versions were produced. Dozens of variants of M4 tanks were created. They differed in the method of hull production (welded, riveted, casted) as well as turret, main armament and additional equipment. Several special versions were also made (especially for the needs of the Normandy landing in 1944): the floating Sherman DD (Duplex Drive), Sherman Crab (with anti-mine trawl), Sherman Dozer (with bulldozer at the front - for demining and engineering tasks), Sherman Zippo (Sherman with a flamethrower mounted instead of the main gun).

Although one of the best medium bombers of the Second World War, fast, tough, and with an excellent bomb load, the Tu-2 is little known in the West. This book provides a comprehensive history of this important aeroplane, complete with its developmental history in the Second World War and later, and its long postwar history, both with the Soviet Union and other countries. First produced in 1942, the Tu-2's initial production ended in 1943, then as its combat capabilities became clear, it was reinstated into production. Because of the stop in production, the Tu-2 was not used in large numbers until the last year of the war, where it proved a very useful weapon indeed. Neither its development nor production stopped with the end of the war, and it was developed into additional variants, including an all-weather fighter. In addition to its service in the Great Patriotic War, it saw service in the Korean War with the Chinese Air Force. This book also features accurate colour profiles of the Tu-2 in the colours of the various nations it was in service with postwar, as well as colour profiles from its wartime service with the Red Air Force.

This is a unique account of the development and operational use of air-to-air flight refuelling since its early beginnings in the USA and the UK to the equipment that is in use today. The author draws upon his life-long career as senior design engineer with the successful British company In-Flight Refuelling who were responsible for the development of the hose and drogue technique now preferred by many of the world's air forces. The story begins in the early 1920s when the art of air refuelling was part of the Barn Storming record-breaking attempts that were popular in the USA. It continues into the late thirties when successful experiments were made by Sir Alan Cobham using the Handley-Page Harrow, Short Empire and Armstrong-Whitworth Whitley aircraft. Amazingly, apart from the enthusiasm of Squadron Leader Atcherley (later to become Air-Vice Marshal), the Royal Air Force were not interested in pursuing this great technical advantage during World War II and it was the USAAF who requested the British invention to experiment with on their B-17s and B-24s; eventually enabling them to carry out retaliatory bombing raids on Tokyo after the attack on Pearl Harbor. Despite successful post-war trials with British civilian airlines it was again the Americans who placed an order with In-Flight Refuelling to equip their B-29s and B-50s. The Korean War saw extended use of operational air-to-air refuelling for the first time and now the 'tanker fleet' is an essential unit in major air-forces around the world.

Cruisers became Britain's essential vessel for protecting battleships, carriers, and convoys versus Japanese, Italian, and Nazi German commerce raiders, submarines, aircraft, and destroyers.
The light cruiser was a natural development of the sailing frigate - a fast multi-purpose warship that could patrol the sea lanes, protect convoys and scout for enemy battle fleets. By the inter-war period the need for this type of ship was even more important, given the increasing need for protection from aircraft, and the need to screen the fleet from submarines or destroyers.
During the 1930's a new group of British light cruisers were commissioned, designed to replace an earlier generation of warships designed during the Great War. These new ships were sleek, fast, and relied on the 6-inch gun - a tried and tested weapon that combined hitting power with a high rate of fire. A second generation of light cruisers followed during the late 1930's, armed with twelve 6-inch guns apiece. One of these - HMS Belfast - is still afloat today.
Finally the threat posed by German aircraft led to the conversion of some older warships into anti-aircraft cruisers - a stopgap measure until a new class of these powerful and much-needed warships entered service. By this time wartime experience had shown that the British light cruiser was one of the most versatile types of ship in the Royal Navy, able to protect other warships, bombard enemy shores, guard life-saving convoys and intercept and destroy enemy warships. These were truly the workhorses of the wartime Royal Navy. While the battleships and carriers grabbed the headlines, these sleek, elegant warships quietly got on with the job of securing control of the seas.

The Fairchild Republic A-10 Thunderbolt II, commonly nicknamed the "Warthog" due to its unusual and ungainly appearance, became the most effective close-air-support aircraft that has ever served for the US Air Force and Air National Guard. Designed around the GAU-8/A Avenger autocannon, the aircraft was a highly effective tank killer during Operation Desert Storm. The Warthog continues to serve, from its first appearance in 1976 through subsequent wars up to the present time, and well into the future. This concise, illustrated book covers the construction, development, and combat history of this unusual aircraft and features superb detail and combat photography. Part of the Legends of Warfare series.

Soaring high above the fields and cities of Europe and Asia as well as the vast expanse of the Pacific, Allied and Axis pilots engaged in a deadly battle for control of the skies in World War II. Whoever won the skies would win the war. Published in association with the National Museum of World War II Aviation, Storm of Eagles is a fully illustrated coffee-table book that brings together classic as well as never-before-seen wartime images. Compiled by one of the world's premier aviation photographers and historians, this remarkable volume is a must-have for anyone interested in World War II aviation.