Category: Books / Calendars / Publications

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Unveiling Okinawa 1945: Dive into the Royal Navy’s Epic Carrier Campaign

Soon to be released from Osprey Publishing and author Angus Konstam is Okinawa 1945: The Royal Navy’s biggest carrier campaign. The title is described as “a fully illustrated study explaining the British Pacific Fleet’s campaign against the Japanese in the Sakishima Islands, and its overlooked role in the battle for Okinawa.”

In this book, naval expert Angus Konstam offers a newly researched account of the Fleet Air Arm’s air campaign in the Sakashimas. By 1945, the carriers and their aircrews were well worked up, and ready to tackle challenging and important targets. He explains the capabilities of the late-war Fleet Air Arm at Okinawa, and analyses their effectiveness against Japan’s still-dangerous airpower. Famously, at Okinawa the Royal Navy’s armoured carriers proved much more resilient to kamikaze strikes than the wooden-topped carriers of the Americans. Packed with spectacular original artwork, photographs, diagrams and maps, this book is a superbly illustrated history of the Royal Navy’s most extensive carrier campaign.

The 96 page paperback book is currently available for pre-order with release slated for January 27.

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Now Available For Pre-Order: Part 2 of Series on Vickers Wellington

Part 2 of Gregorz Korcz’s series on the Vickers Wellington I & II is now available for pre-order. The series focuses on the aircraft that, along with the Handley Page Hampden and Armstrong Whitworth Whitley, carried the main weight of the RAF’s growing bombing offensive against the Third Reich. It was also being the backbone of all four Polish bomber squadrons as well as the OTU training establishments, where Polish crews gained their combat proficiency..

This volume in the Polish Wings series presents the history of the Vickers Wellington bombers in the Ic and II versions in Polish Air Force service in exile between 1940 and 1942. The first part covers Nos. 300 and 301 Squadrons and 18 OTU, while the second describes the combat operations of Nos. 304 and 305 Squadrons. The book includes: a detailed history of the Polish Wellington crews in action, numerous archival photographs, many previously unpublished, colour profiles by Andrzej M. Olejniczak, comprehensive listings of operational sorties.

The 68 page title is slated for release on March 15. Part 1 of the series is also available for pre-order with release set for January.

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Double Sunrise: How Qantas Reopened Australia’s Severed Air Route to Britain in WWII

In his new book Double Sunrise, author Geoff Goodall explores Qantas Empire Airways Indian Ocean wartime services between 1943 and 1946.

The Japanese conquest cut Australia off from Britain in early 1942, leaving the country isolated. From June 1943, Qantas revived the Perth-to-Ceylon route—the world’s longest at the time—creating 27-hour, radio-silent flights that witnessed two sunrises, giving birth to the “Double Sunrise” service; five months later, the route extended to Karachi. In mid-1944, faster Qantas Liberators joined, shortening the Ceylon–Exmouth Gulf leg, followed by the introduction of Qantas Lancastrians in 1945. Despite wartime isolation, the service ran accident-free until a Lancastrian vanished on a final Indian Ocean leg in March 1946, after which operations returned to Singapore routes. Sir Hudson Fysh later called the wartime Indian Ocean service the most fascinating and romantic achievement of Qantas.

The 134 page paperback book is currently available for pre-order with release set for December 15.

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New Release: See the U‑2 Spy Plane Through Soviet Eyes

In the upcoming book The U-2 Over the Soviet Union: America’s Famous Cold War Spy Plane from a Soviet Perspective, Air World and author Dmitry Degtev provide a dramatic account of the U-2 shootdown revealing Soviet missile dominance and the era’s secret intelligence struggles.

Based on documents held in the CIA’s archives, declassified documents released by the Russian Ministry of Defence, and the memoirs of participants in the events in question, this book explores the true story of the preparation, implementation, and consequences of the U-2 reconnaissance flights over the Soviet Union, Eastern Europe and Cuba between 1956 and 1962. For the first time, the author reveals the military plans that were activated in the Eastern Bloc to combat the U-2 missions, and how the Soviets tried unsuccessfully to create a fighter-interceptor to operate in the stratosphere. This book also reveals which secret locations and objects were photographed by the U-2, including those which remained unidentified, and investigates where the secret centre of the Russian atomic project was actually located and whether the U-2 was able to find it. What was the true reliability and value of the information received from America’s U-2 operations?

The reader will discover which objects were confiscated from Francis Gary Powers, the pilot of the U-2 brought down, following his capture, and why was he had been issued with women’s jewelry and watches before his fateful flight? The Soviet view of the incursions by Powers and his fellow U-2 pilots is laid bare – revealing just why the Powers’ name is as widely known in Russia as that of the cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin.

The 256 page book is currently available for pre-order in hardcover and Kindle editions, with release slated for January 10.

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Flying Shuttleworth Aircraft: New Edition of “From Bleriot to Spitfire” Released in US

Recently released in the US is the latest edition of From Bleriot to Spitfire: Flying the Historic Planes of the Shuttleworth Collection by Scott Butler.

The aeroplanes of the Shuttleworth Collection span the first 40 years of aviation from the 1909 Blériot to the late 1940s; these rare and often unique machines are still regularly flown and displayed over the aerodrome at Old Warden in Bedfordshire. This book, written by the Collection’s pilots, past and present, puts the reader in the cockpits of these amazing machines as they fly over the English countryside.

The new edition is 208 pages. It is available in Hardcover and Kindle formats.

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Dakotas Unleashed: 46 Group’s D-Day to VE Day Heroics Detailed in New Book

In his newly released book Dakota Squadrons in Action From D-Day to V.E. Day: Airborne, Support and Supply Operations in the Liberation of Europe, author Clive Bennett provides “a microscopic examination of No. 46 Group’s flight operations, day by day, squadron by squadron, often down to crew names and takeoff/landing times.”

RAF Transport Command’s 46 Group, formed in January 1944 and operating Douglas C-47 Dakotas from RAF Broadwell, Blakehill Farm, and Down Ampney, provided critical airborne support, resupply, and casualty evacuation during WWII’s final phase. From D-Day on June 6, 1944, its squadrons delivered troops, paratroopers, and gliders over France, with WAAF ‘Flying Nightingales’ nurses aiding wounded on return flights—though LACW Margaret Campbell died in an October 1944 crash. During Operation Market Garden in September 1944, they conducted daily resupplies, earning Flight Lieutenant David Lord a posthumous Victoria Cross for bravery under flak, and in March 1945’s Operation Varsity, they enabled the war’s last major airborne assault, significantly aiding the defeat of Nazi Germany.

The 304 page title is available in hardcover and Kindle formats.

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Bomber Crew Morale in WW2: New Book Reveals How RAF Airmen Faced Impossible Odds

Soon to be released by Air World and author Peter Croft is Bomber Crew Morale in WW2: How Bomber Command’s Airmen Faced Terrible Odds in the Second World War.

During World War II, 125,000 aircrew served in RAF Bomber Command, and 55,573—about 44%—were killed. Despite these grim odds, crews continued flying nightly missions, showing extraordinary courage and determination. RAF leadership tried to sustain morale through discipline, good equipment, and effective leadership, but much depended on the airmen themselves. Their patriotism, stoicism, and strong camaraderie helped them endure constant danger, from enemy fire to mechanical failures and accidents. Even without combat, simply flying remained a perilous task.

This new release “honors the bravery of Bomber Command’s men—those who survived and those whose lives were cut short—and reflects on their extraordinary courage in the face of seemingly insurmountable odds.”

The 280 page, hardcover book is currently available for pre-order with release slated for January 30.

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Gardening with Bombs: New Book Reveals RAF’s Secret WWII Campaign

New from Tempest and author Jane Gulliford Lowes is The Invisible Campaign: Bomber Command Gardening Operations 1940-1945 which details the crucial yet little-known aerial minelaying operations by RAF Bomber Command which successfully disrupted Axis shipping between 1940–1945.

The Invisible Campaign, based on Air Ministry and Admiralty archival material, together with squadron records, veteran accounts and logbooks as well as contemporary publications and press releases, provides the most detailed account of Bomber Command’s minelaying operations and their effects ever written.

Historian Jane Gulliford Lowes looks at the aims of the campaign and how it was implemented, together with the measure of its success and how it compared against the mining operations implemented by the Luftwaffe and Kriegsmarine. The role of Arthur ‘Bomber’ Harris in overseeing minelaying operations is assessed and the experiences of the men who delivered the campaign, particularly the hazards they faced, are explored.

Featuring a foreword by renowned historian James Holland, The Invisible Campaign – Bomber Command Gardening Operations 1940-1945 sheds new light on a little-discussed but important and ultimately highly successful aspect of Bomber Command and is a must-read for anyone interested the RAF’s in wartime bombing operations.

The 300 page, hardcover title is currently available for pre-order with release slated for December 30.

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From Ohio to Supersonic: Inside the Secret World of the SR-71 and Skunk Works

Helion and Comapny will soon release the posthumous memoir of Colonel Richard E.”Butch” Sheffield, a U.S. Air Force officer, SR-71 Blackbird Reconnaissance Systems Officer (RSO) and Director of Special Projects for the Skunk Works (where Sheffield handled beyond Top Secret projects).

Chosen in 1964 for the ultra-secretive SR-71 Blackbird programmer, Butch was among the first crew members trained by Lockheed’s Skunk Works. He went on to fly some of the most daring reconnaissance missions of the Cold War – including the first SR-71 over North Korea and a supersonic overflight of the North Pole with no chance of recovery. In 1967, he became the first Air Force officer to eject from an SR-71 and survive. Six weeks later, he returned to flying at Mach 3.

Butch’s extraordinary career didn’t end in the cockpit. At the Pentagon, he was a key figure behind the early development of GPS and led operations involving the SR-71 and U-2. As an investigator for Congress, he was granted over 300 code word clearances to probe the nation’s most sensitive intelligence programs. Later, as the Skunk Works’ lone representative in Washington D.C., he became the quiet conduit between Lockheed’s black projects and the halls of power.

The 400 page book is currently available for pre-order with release slated for January 15.

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New Book Documents the Fascinating Story of Spitfire R6644 and its Pilots

Air World and Dilip Sarkar (MBE FRHistS FRAeS) will soon introduce their new 328 page book A Spitfire’s Story: The Invisible Thread: Spitfire R6644 and the Pilots Who Flew It

Supermarine Spitfire Mk.IA R6644 was built at Woolston and test-flown by Jeffrey Quill on 30 May 1940 before joining 5 Operational Training Unit at Aston Down, where it trained pilots including likely Richard Hillary and at least two aces among “The Few.” In February 1941, it transferred to 65 Squadron, flown by ace Paddy Finucane, then to 308 (Polish) Squadron in April. On 11 May 1941, Polish pilot Franciszek Surma abandoned R6644 near Malvern due to an engine fire during a radar intercept of a friendly Blenheim, parachuting safely before his later death over Dunkirk.

This book not only explores the men who flew R6674 throughout its wartime service, but also brings the story up to date by detailing the excavation of the Spitfire’s crash site in 1987.

The book is currently available for pre-order with release set for December 31.

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