For 100 years, the world's oldest independent air force, the RAF, forged a distinguished record in military air operations from the First World War through to recent operations over Iraq and Syria. There is, however, a field of endeavour in which the Royal Air Force has excelled: selling its public image. Of the three armed services, the air force is the one perfectly placed to advertise its wares 'at home' with the facilities to accommodate large audiences, through scintillating flying displays with ever more impressive aircraft and large airfields with readily available facilities. Originally centred on the RAF station at Hendon in North London, the RAF held its first public 'Air Pageant' in 1920. A grand affair, it continued as an annual event until 1937 when it was succeeded by the widespread 'Empire Air Day' held at several RAF stations until war intervened in 1939. The RAF came to true military prominence during the Second World War, particularly the 'Battle of Britain'; this then became the focus of the celebration and commemoration. However, the Battle of Britain Displays constantly contracted, eventually to zero, but for much of their existence were the most impressive air shows around the globe.

The implications of a major war in an increasingly industrial world would be far-reaching and incalculable. Releasing Dangerous Forces discusses the ramifications and places special emphasis on the fast growing potential for collateral effects: the release of dangerous forces from civil artifacts. The key issues at stake are not only the unprecedented loss of human life but also the threat to basic human life support systems, both economic and environmental, placing the future of all human existence in doubt.

China's nuclear capability is crucial for the balance of power in East Asia and the world. As this book reveals, there have been important changes recently in China's nuclear posture: the movement from a minimum deterrence posture toward a medium nuclear power posture; the pursuit of space warfare and missile defence capabilities; and, most significantly, the omission in the 2013 Defence White Paper of any reference to the principle of No First Use. Employing the insights of structural realism, this book argues that the imperatives of an anarchic international order have been the central drivers of China's nuclear assertiveness. The book also assesses the likely impact of China's emerging nuclear posture on its neighbours and on the international strategic balance, especially with the United States. The book concludes by examining China's future nuclear directions in the context of its apparent shift toward a more offensive-oriented international strategy.

The balance of power in South Asia is tenuous. Neighbouring states with nuclear arsenal pose a serious threat in times of conflict and the danger of escalation into a nuclear holocaust in South are ever-present. This book locates the change in India's war doctrine at the turn of the century, following the Kargil War in 1999 between India and Pakistan. It examines how war policy was shaped by the threat posed by India's neighbours and the need for greater strategic assertion. It also reveals that this change was forced by the military's need to adapt itself to the nuclear age. Finally, it raises questions of whether the Limited War doctrine has made India more secure. An astute analysis of not only India's military strategy but also of military doctrine in general, this book will be valuable to scholars and researchers of defence and strategic studies, international relations, peace and conflict studies, South Asia studies as well as government and military institutions.

First published in 1974 "Attributes of Memory" rejected the prevalent stress on the "structure" of memory. It suggests that the view of memory as a sequence of stores through which information passes is mistaken. Instead, the author emphasizes the coding "process" of memory by which the nominal stimulus, the stimulus as presented, is transformed into the functional stimulus, the stimulus as coded. Dr Herriot proposes that there are many different forms of coding, and that efficiency of recall or recognition performance is a function of the nature of coding employed. He suggests that the subject s linguistic system is the most frequently employed linguistic device; that is, that the underlying attributes and rules of language are used automatically when material is verbal. Since the basic function of language is to communicate meaning, those forms of coding which are meaningful in nature are most effective in memory.

The book cites a great deal of experimental evidence, including many studies of the time. As well as stating a point of view, it should be useful to undergraduate and postgraduate students as a review of the early literature, read in its historical context."

Soviet Tank Units 1939-45 offers an highly-illustrated guide to the main armoured fighting vehicles used by the Red Army during World War II. This compact volume includes sample unit structures and orders of battle from company up to corps level, providing an organizational context for key campaigns throughout the war. Organised chronologically, the book offers a comprehensive survey of Soviet-employed armoured fighting vehicles by campaign, including the German invasion of 1941, the defence of Moscow, the Stalingrad counter-offensive, the battles of Kharkov and Kursk, Operation 'Bagration', and the final defeat of Axis forces in Berlin, Vienna and Budapest in May 1945. All the major and many minor tank that saw action on the Eastern Front is featured. The guide also includes numerous Lend-Lease Armoured fighting vehicles well as many examples of Soviet light vehicles, self-propelled guns, tractors and trucks. Packed with 250 full-colour artworks and photographs with exhaustive specifications, Soviet Tank Units 1939-45: Identification Guide is a key reference source for military modellers and World War II enthusiasts.

Web of Prevention provides a timely contribution to the current debate about life science research and its implications for security. It is an informative guide for both experts and the public. It is a forward-looking contribution covering both ends of the equation and creates momentum for the current discussion on effective preventive measures and effective control measures. While there are no guarantees for preventing misuse, there are nonetheless crucial steps the world community can take towards the overarching goal of a global network for the life sciences. This book sheds light on concrete steps toward the achievement of this worthy goal.

"This book with its collection of essays provides an in-depth analysis of the various mutually reinforcing elements that together create and strengthen a web of prevention - or of assurance - that is vital to ensure that the advances in the life sciences are not misused to cause harm. All those engaged in the life sciences and in policy making in governments around the world should read this book so they can take steps to strengthen the web preventing biological weapons."
From the Foreword by Dr Gabriele Kraatz-Wadsack, Chief, Weapons of Mass Destruction Branch, Office for Disarmament Affairs, United Nations.

"Since September 11, 2001 in many countries renewed attention has been given to how research in the life sciences might inadvertently or intentionally facilitate the development of biological or chemical weapons. This state-of-the-art volume examines the full extent of the issues and debates. Coverage includes an overview of recent scientific achievements in virology, microbiology, immunology and genetic engineering with a view to asking how they might facilitate the production of weapons of mass destruction by state, sub-state or terrorist organizations. Consideration is given to what we have and haven't learned from the past. Employing both academic analysis and reflections by practitioners, the book examines the security-inspired governance regimes for the life sciences that are under development. Ultimately the authors examine what is required to form a comprehensive and workable web of prevention and highlight the importance of encouraging discussions between scientists, policy makers and others regarding the governance of vital but potentially dangerous research."
Dr Graham S. Pearson, Visiting Professor of International Security, University of Bradford, UK and previously Director-General, Chemical and Biological Defence Establishment, UK

An essential new account of how anti-submarine warfare is conducted, with a focus on both historic and present-day operations.

This new book shows how until 1944 U-boats operated as submersible torpedo craft which relied heavily on the surface for movement and charging their batteries. This pattern was repeated in WWII until Allied anti-submarine countermeasures had forced the Germans to modify their existing U-boats with the schnorkel. Countermeasures along also pushed the development of high-speed U-boats capable of continuously submerged operations.

This study shows how these improved submarines became benchmark of the post-war Russian submarine challenge. Royal Navy doctrine was developed by professional anti-submarine officers, and based on the well-tried combination of defensive and offensive anti-submarine measures that had stood the press of time since 1917, notwithstanding considerable technological change.

This consistent and holistic view of anti-submarine warfare has not been understood by most of the subsequent historians of these anti-submarine campaigns, and this book provides an essential and new insight into how Cold War, and indeed modern, anti-submarine warfare is conducted.

Technical history of Germany's World War II experiments with vertical takeoff aircraft, including the Natter and other rare and unusual types.

This book is about the future of nuclear weapons, geopolitics, and strategy. It examines the legacy of nuclear weapons on US thinking about some concepts of strategy and geopolitics, namely deterrence, extended deterrence, alliances, and arms control. The purpose of this is to demonstrate just how fundamentally nuclear weapons have influenced American thinking about these concepts. It argues that, given the extent of nuclear weapons' influence on these concepts and the implications for international security, further reductions beyond current Strategic Arms Reduction Talks (START) levels, and the more absolute idea of nuclear disarmament, may not necessarily be prudent ideas. Nuclear weapons have contributed to the avoidance of major war between states, made alliances more credible and last longer, and have made arms control relatively easier to conceptualize and manage. As such, the author argues, these concepts may become even more difficult to manage in a world where nuclear weapons are marginalized.

Eugen Sanger's proposed manned, bi-fuel, liquid rocket-powered orbital bomber was truly mid-1940s high tech. The world's first intercontinental bomber project, the Sanger orbital bomber's total flight time was expected to be no more than two hours. Fascinating stuff. The complete story is told here for the first time.

"In Contrails over the Mojave" George Marrett takes off where Tom Wolfe's "The Right Stuff" ended in 1963. Marrett started the Air Force Test Pilot School at Edwards AFB only two weeks after the school's commander, Col. Chuck Yeager, ejected from a Lockheed NF-104 trying to set a world altitude record. He describes life as a space cadet experiencing 15 Gs in a human centrifuge, zero-G maneuvers in a KC-135 "Vomit Comet," and a flight to 80,000 feet in the F-104A Starfighter. After graduating from Yeager's "Charm School," he was assigned to the Fighter Branch of Flight Test Operations, where he flew the latest fighter aircraft and chased other test aircraft as they set world speed and altitude records.

Marrett takes readers into the cockpit as he "goes vertical" in a T-38 Talon, completes high-G maneuvers in an F-4C Phantom, and conducts wet-runway landing tests in the accident-prone F-111A Aardvark. He writes about Col. "Silver Fox" Stephens setting a world speed record in the YF-12 Blackbird and Bob Gilliland testing speed stalls in the SR-71 spy plane, but he also relives stories of crashes that killed test pilot friends. He recounts dead-sticking a T-38 to a landing on Rogers Dry Lake after a twin-engine failure and conducting dangerous tail hook barrier testing in a fighter jet without a canopy. A mysterious UFO sighting in the night sky above the Mojave Desert, known as "The Edwards Encounter," also receives Marrett's attention. Whether the author is assessing a new aircraft's performance or describing the experiences of test pilots as they routinely faced the possibility of death, this look at the golden age of flight testing both thrills and informs.

The Todd-Bath Iron Shipbuilding Co. was formed in South Portland, Maine, in 1940, followed by the South Portland Shipbuilding Corp. in 1942. This book details the formation of the two shipyards, and the congressional investigation of South Portland's operation that resulted in the merger of both companies into the New England Shipbuilding Corporation in April, 1943. Included is a list of all 2,710 Liberty ships delivered by U.S. shipyards, giving each ship's namesake and detailed descriptions of the companies that built the ships and the steamship companies that operated them during the war. Also featured is the Jeremiah O'Brien. Built by New England Ship in 1943 and one of only two operational Liberty ships left in the world, its service history and crew information are given along with its, postwar restoration and return to Normandy in 1994.

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 classic, definitive series continues with this volume on Czech panzers and armored vehicles in German use from 1920-1945. Spielberger, a leading expert in the field of German military vehicles, presents the wide variety of variants on the 35(t) and 38(t) chassis: self-propelled artillery, anti-tank guns, flak, mortars, flamethrowers, Hetzer, half-tracks, trucks, personnel carriers, etc.

This book, first published in 1982, brings together for the first time accounts of the fates of some of those extinct monsters of the seas - the battleships. It catalogues the sinkings of major ships from the Italian Re d'Italia in 1866 to the end of the battleship era and the rise of the carriers in World War II. The result is a valuable contribution to naval history as navies moved from the age of sail to the present day.

Operational and technical history of Germany's World War II jet bomber and reconnaissance aircraft.

This book covers the use and development of the Panzer 35(t) armored fighting vehicle.

Junkers Ju 88 and Its Variants in World War II

Recent scholarship has challenged the assumption that military commanders during the First World War were inflexible, backward-looking and unwilling to exploit new technologies. Instead a very different picture is now emerging of armies desperately looking to a wide range of often untested and immature scientific and technological innovations to help break the deadlock of the Western Front. Nowhere is this better illustrated than in the development of tank warfare, which both the British and the French hoped would give them a decisive edge in their offensives of 1917 and 1918. Whilst the British efforts to develop armoured warfare have been well chronicled, there has been no academic study in English on the French tank force - the Artillerie Speciale - during the Great War. As such, this book provides a welcome new perspective on an important but much misunderstood area of the war. Such was the scale of the French tanks' failure in their first engagement in 1917, it was rumoured that the Artillerie Speciale was in danger of being disbanded, yet, by the end of the war it was the world's largest and most technologically advanced tank force. This work examines this important facet of the French army's performance in the First World War, arguing that the AS fought the war in as intelligent and sensible a manner as was possible, given the immature state of the technology available. No amount of sound tank doctrine could compensate for the fragility of the material, for the paucity of battlefield communication equipment and for the lack of tank-infantry training opportunities. Only by 1918 was the French army equipped with enough reliable tanks, as well as aircraft and heavy-artillery, to begin to exercise a mastery of the new form of combined-arms warfare. The successful French armoured effort outlined in this study (including a listing of all the combat engagements of the French tank service in the Great War) highlights a level of military effectiveness within

This book covers the most popular and common high powered services rifles (battle rifles) of the post-war period and studies the current problems in Afghanistan that have led to the returning use of these rifles after several generations of absence due to the development of the assault rifle. There is also a chronological historical summary of the development of the modern service rifle.

This volume examines how the Ottoman Army was able to evolve and maintain a high level of overall combat effectiveness despite the primitive nature of the Ottoman State during the First World War.

Structured around four case studies, at the operational and tactical level, of campaigns involving the Ottoman Empire and the British Empire: Gallipoli in 1915, Kut in 1916, Third Gaza-Beersheba in 1917, and Megiddo in 1918. For each of these campaigns, particular emphasis is placed on examining specific elements of combat effectiveness and how they affected that particular battle.

The prevalent historiography attributes Ottoman battlefield success primarily to external factors - such as the presence of German generals and staff officers; climate, weather and terrain that adversely affected allied operations; allied bumbling and amateurish operations; and inadequate allied intelligence. By contrast, Edward J. Erickson argues that the Ottoman Army was successful due to internal factors, such as its organizational architecture, a hardened cadre of experienced combat leaders, its ability to organize itself for combat, and its application of the German style of war.

Ottoman Army Effectiveness in World War I will be of great interest to students of the First World War, military history and strategic studies in general.

This book covers in photos and text all of the conversion kits that were available for the Luftwaffe's Bf 109.

Covers the use and design of the Panzer IV armored fighting vehicle.

Three Knots to Nowhere: A Cold War Submariner on the Undersea Frontline follows my experiences in the United States Navy, from 1966 through 1972 They include my background, Boot Camp, Electricians School, United States Naval Nuclear Program, USS Henry Clay, SSBN overhaul in Charleston S.C., transit to Hawaii, and deterrent patrols out of Guam. The work begins with me and the crew of one of the most powerful weapons on Earth, the Fleet Ballistic Missile (FBM) submarine, USS Henry Clay manning Battle Station Missile. What follows is a fresh perspective of the secret world of submarine life. It blends introspective insights, interesting and humorous antidotes, and many undocumented aspects of submarine life. It also exposes aspects about life under the sea no one else has revealed. It is the most complete representation of submarine duty to date. The narrative focuses on the enlisted men-the backbone of the submarine service. Its level of detail will appeal to submariners and laypeople.