Tag: military history

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From Biplanes to Jets: The RAF’s Long Watch in the Far East

Newly released from author Steve Bond and Grub Street Publishing is RAF Boys in the Far East: True Tales of the RAF in India, South East Asia and Hong Kong.

For 82 years the Royal Flying Corps (RFC), which in 1918 became the Royal Air Force (RAF), maintained a permanent military aviation presence in the Far East. Throughout that time a huge variety of squadrons, flying many different aircraft types, together with all the necessary operational, technical and administrative support, took on all that was asked of them. The first RFC units arrived in India in 1915. RAF India grew substantially in the interwar period and throughout World War Two. Various changes in the command structure finally saw the creation of the Far East Air Force (FEAF) in June 1949, covering South East Asia and Hong Kong. In the 1960s the UK government decided to withdraw all forces East of Suez and on 31 October 1971 the FEAF disbanded and most UK forces withdrew from Singapore at this time. The last RAF unit to leave the region was 28 Squadron flying. They had been operating Whirlwind and Wessex helicopters in Hong Kong until the territory was handed back to China in 1997. RAF Boys in the Far East illustrates what it was like for those air and ground crew who were there by telling their stories in their own words, supported by explanation of the situations at the time and photographs primarily drawn from veterans’ own collections. The stories are as varied as the locations, the units and the personnel; everyday operations, exercises, triumph and tragedy, off duty time, and of course, the humour for which the RAF is renowned. Chapters focus on differing aircraft roles and their operations, including emphasis on the war years in India and Burma, and the Singapore era with actions such as Operation Firedog and the Indonesian Confrontation. Today those veterans who look back on their time served in the FEAF do so with a great deal of pride, and rightly so. This is their story.

The 256 page book is available in hardcover, Kindle and audiobook editions.

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Defeating the Zero: How a Tactical Innovation Overcame Japan’s Deadly Fighter

Coming soon from Air World and author R J Gorman is Defeating the Japanese Zeros: Lieutenant Commander John S. ‘Jimmie’ Thach: One U.S. Navy Pilot and his Part in the Victory in the Pacific , detailing how a brilliant U.S. aerial tactic overcame Japan’s deadly Zero fighter, turning Midway into a decisive Pacific victory.

Lieutenant Commander John S. “Jimmie” Thach of the U.S. Navy recognized the threat posed by the Zero and devised a tactic to counter it. With the Japanese preparing to attack Midway Atoll, Thach trained his pilots in the “Thach Weave,” a revolutionary formation designed to offset the Zero’s superior performance. This tactic proved highly effective in air combat and allowed Thach’s squadron to neutralize the Japanese advantage. The battle at Midway became a turning point in the Pacific War. The U.S. Navy’s victory, aided by Thach’s tactical innovation, crippled Japan’s offensive capabilities. After Midway, the Japanese would never win another major battle, while the Americans would never lose one, marking a decisive shift in the war’s outcome.

The 240 page, hardcover book is currently available for pre-order with release slated for January 30.

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Defenders of the Reich: The Luftwaffe’s Fierce Battle Against America’s Bombers

Recently released by Osprey Publishing and author Robert Forsyth is Defenders of the Reich: The Luftwaffe’s War Against America’s Bombers, which tells the story of the Luftwaffe fighter arm’s desperate defense of the Third Reich from the growing Allied bomber offensive in WW2.

The Reichsverteidigung (Defence of the Reich) was a do or die campaign that saw the very best fighter pilots in the Luftwaffe attempt to defend German skies from increasingly large formations of RAF and USAAF medium and heavy bombers. Flying both piston-engined and, eventually, the first jet-engined fighters to see operational service, the Jagdflieger employed a wide range of weapons and tactics in an effort to blunt the Allied air offensive across Nazi Germany and Occupied Europe.

Defenders of the Reich focusses on the story of the pilot, his aircraft, his weaponry, his draining, dangerous missions and Luftwaffe tactics against the USAAF and the RAF bombers from the summer of 1942 through to VE Day. They fought until they were all but obliterated as USAAF and RAF fighters decimated their ranks in the air and targeted their airfields in devastating strafing attacks.

Leading Luftwaffe historian Robert Forsyth uses German and Allied archival documents coupled with interviews with former Jagdwaffe pilots, to tell the history of this last-ditch aerial campaign from the perspective of the Luftwaffe.

The 466 page book is available in hardcover, Kindle and audiobook editions.

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Arming the Luftwaffe: Machine Guns, Cannon and Aerial Artillery that Powered German Air Combat, 1939–1945

Soon to be released from Pen and Sword History and author Tim Heath is German Aircraft Weaponry: Machine Guns, Cannon and Aerial Artillery in Luftwaffe Service, 1939-1945. The book examines the use of the humble rifle calibre machine gun as an aircraft weapon along with the efforts to develop suitable cannon with greater destructive power for aircraft use, the advances made during the inter-war years and the various barrelled weaponry either used or proposed by the German Luftwaffe in the Second World War.

This work encompasses not only the technical and operational appraisals of the various weapons used by the German Luftwaffe aircrews, which include some of Germany’s leading surviving fighter aces of the Second World War, but also the armourers tasked with their day-to-day maintenance, the instructors and technicians on the ground, and those who found themselves at the receiving end of their firepower both in the air and on the ground. This unique work encompasses many new and previously unpublished testimonies as told by those who were there in their own words and for the first time.

The 256 page hardcover book is currently available for pre-order with release slated for March 30.

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Fighting Falcons: New WWII Pacific Air War History Landing Soon

Coming soon from Naval Institute Press and author Peter F. Owen is Fighting Falcons: The Campaigns of VMF-221 in the Pacific . The book “offers a compelling account of Marine Fighting Squadron 221 (VMF-221), a unit that played a key role in the Pacific during World War II.”

Author Peter F. Owen examines the operational realities behind the squadron’s missions, analyzing the Marine Corps’ performance in the Pacific air war. He explores how missteps at higher levels of command shaped outcomes in the air, and he sheds light on the complex logistics and maintenance challenges crucial to success. Based on extensive research, Fighting Falcons provides new insight into how Marine aviation functioned at the squadron level. The book delivers a valuable perspective on one of the Marine Corps’ notable fighter squadrons and the larger story of how the United States fought—and learned—its way to victory in the Pacific.

The 304 page book is currently available for pre-order in hardcover and Kindle editions with release slated for March 17.

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Bloody Skies Incoming: XV Fighter Command’s Untold War

Coming soon from Osprey and author Thomas McKelvey Cleaver is the new book Bloody Skies: XV Fighter Command Against all Odds, which details the operations of the USAAF’s overlooked XV Fighter Command that protected bombers during the campaign against the Romanian oil fields in World War II.

Formed in the fall of 1943, the Fifteenth Air Force was popularly known as the “The Forgotten Fifteenth,” as its achievements were overshadowed by more glamorous exploits of the Eighth Air Force in the air war over Germany. Nevertheless, the Fifteenth’s contribution to Allied victory was crucial, and a vital part of that was the role played by the escorting fighter groups from the XV Fighter Command who protected the B-17s and B-24s from the Luftwaffe in the skies over Romania.

In this new history of the campaign, renowned aviation historian Tom Cleaver tells the story of the Fifteenth’s air war through first-person accounts of the fighter pilots of the Fifteenth Fighter Command, including such famous units as the Red Tails – the Tuskegee Airmen – the 82nd Fighter Group and the 325th’s “Checkertail Clan,” and with his ability to place wartime events in their greater context.

The 320 page book is currently available for pre-order in hardcover and Kindle editions. Release is scheduled for March 10.

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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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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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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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