Luftvåben og luftkrigsførelse

The full story of the service and combats missions of 220 Yugoslav aviators in early 1941.Immediately following the end of the First World War, the air force of the newly-formed Southern Slav State, the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes, was forced to rely mainly on war-time Serbian Air Service aircraft and material left after the withdrawal of the French Armée de l'Air from the Balkans in 1919/1920. This equipment was supported by the addition of French war surplus stocks which started arriving in 1921.In 1929 the monarchy changed its name to the Kingdom of Yugoslavia. Then, from 1930, the official name of the air service branch its military was changed to what is commonly known in the West as the Royal Yugoslav Air Force (RYAF). The obsolete First World War aircraft were replaced from 1925 onwards by stop-gap solutions purchased mainly from France, some from the Czechoslovakian Republic as well as from the first domestic factories.From 1936, the RYAF again began to reorganize and modernize, with the purchase of the most modern aircraft available at that time. These aircraft were imported from the UK, Germany and Italy, some being built under license in domestic factories. During this period the Kingdom of Yugoslavia succeeded, as much as conditions allowed, to equip its air force with the most advanced fighter and bomber types of the period.For the Kingdom of Yugoslavia, the Second World War started on 6 April 1941. The military coup d'etat of 27 March 1941 and anti-German demonstrations in Belgrade clearly aligned the kingdom with the Allies. That same day, Hitler ordered the implementation of Unternehmen 25 (Operation 25) - the attack against Kingdom of Yugoslavia. Hitler had also secured Mussolini's support for this campaign, while Hungary, Romania and Bulgaria gave active or passive backing in exchange for territorial claims in Yugoslavia.Despite all the odds, the airmen of the RYAF fought gallantly in the defense of their homeland, with fighters taking on the German and Italian bombers and their escort fighters - including the Axis types in service with the RYAF.Eventually, due to the deteriorating situation on the front and the ever-increasing risk of the king and his government being captured, the decision was taken to evacuate by air to Greece. In the summer of the 1941 some 220 Yugoslav aviators gathered in Egypt and continued the fight against Axis, this time in the colors of the RAF. This is the full story of their service and combats in the early months of that year.

An illustrated account of the dramatic engagement between the Luftwaffe's Me 163 units and Allied bombers during the closing years of World War II.In the summer of 1944, US Army Air Force (USAAF) aircrews flying over the Third Reich reported observing small, high-speed 'batlike' aircraft flying close to their formations. The Luftwaffe's extraordinary Messerschmitt Me 163 rocket-powered interceptor was making its devastating debut with Jagdgeschwader (JG) 400. Capable of reaching high altitudes in the shortest possible time by using a volatile rocket fuel, the Me 163 was the Luftwaffe's most impressive yet dangerous aircraft, and the fastest in the world. Luftwaffe expert Robert Forsyth details the testing of the aircraft and its lethal SG 500 'Fighter Fist' weapons system, as well as its deployment against the B17s and B24s of the USAAF's Eighth Air Force and, from late 1944, the Lancasters and Halifaxes of RAF Bomber Command. These duels started a deadly form of warfare, with the bomber squadrons striking at Germany's synthetic oil refineries and jet airfields, and the Me 163s of JG 400 trying to stop them using cutting-edge aeronautical technology.Using specially commissioned artwork, original photographs and rare first-hand interviews with the pilots that fought the decisive dogfights, this exciting book describes the pivotal encounters over Northern Europe.

The full history of how the United States targeted and destroyed the Japanese capital from the air, in a ten-month long campaign by the US Army Air Force and the US Navy.In November 1944, the US Army Air Force launched a 111-plane B-29 strike against Tokyo, the first raid since the morale-boosting Doolittle Raid of 1942. From then until August 13, 1945, the United States would attack Tokyo 25 times, 20 from B-29s based in the Marianas and five from US Navy carrier task forces. The campaign included the single deadliest air raid in human history, when around 100,000 people were killed by the firestorm created by the Operation Meetinghouse raid of March 10, 1945. This book, the first to examine the full history of the United States' air campaign against the greatest target in Japan, looks at the USAAF's and US Navy's efforts to use air power to eliminate Tokyo's strategic value to the Empire. It considers how the campaign developed from daylight bombing to firebombing and anti-ship mining, and finally how the target was handed over to the US Navy, whose carrier-based bombers and fighter-bombers continued to strike Tokyo during July and August 1945.Using specially commissioned battlescenes, strategic maps and diagrams, this volume presents a detailed picture of how Tokyo was vanquished from the air.

The first book to cover the full history of the RAF's air war against Hamburg, one of the most important target cities in Germany. The city of Hamburg became synonymous with the destructive power of RAF Bomber Command when, during summer 1943, the city suffered horrific destruction in a series of four heavy firebombing attacks, Operation Gomorrah. However, few know how varied or long the Hamburg campaign was. In this book, RAF air power expert Dr Richard Worrall presents the complete history of the RAF's air campaign against the city, a campaign that stretched well beyond the devastating fire raids of 1943. Dr Worrall explains how Germany's second city was an industrial centre of immense proportions and proved a consistent target for Bomber Command throughout World War II. It was home to oil refineries, U-boat pens, and ship-building and submarine-building yards, all sustained by a large industrial workforce. Bomber Command evolved tactically and technically throughout the war, and the Luftwaffe's defensive capabilities would do likewise in response. Drawing on a wide range of primary and secondary sources available on this topic, and packed with photos, artwork, maps and diagrams, this is an important new history of the air campaign against the industrial and naval heart of Nazi Germany.

The story of the hardest-fought air war of the jet era, where highly trained Israeli air forces almost met their match against Egypt and Syria's high-tech MiGs and missiles.The Yom Kippur War, or October War of 1973 was perhaps the most intensive and savage air war in history. It pitted more than 300 Israeli combat aircraft - including modern US-built Phantoms and Skyhawks - against nearly 1,000 advanced Soviet-built jets from Egypt, Iraq, Libya, and Syria. During a war lasting just 19 days, each side flew an average of more than 1,000 sorties per day, and both sides lost around one-third of their aircraft.Veteran Middle East aviation historian Shlomo Aloni explains how, in contrast to the striking success of the Six-Day War, Israel's prewar plans failed in 1973. Since the Six-Day War, Israel had modernized its air force and planned in detail for this air war. But the IDF underestimated the effectiveness of the latest Soviet air defense technology and doctrine, particularly the new SA-6 missile system.With archive photos, spectacular combat artwork, 3D diagrams, and maps, this book unravels the complexities of one of the fiercest air wars of modern times, and explains how Israel's eventual victory was achieved against the odds and at a grave cost.

A detailed, illustrated account of the air campaign that accompanied the Red Army's final push towards Berlin, in which massed Soviet air power defeated the Luftwaffe's high-tech Me 262 jets and Mistel exploding drones. The last months of World War II on the Eastern Front saw a ferocious fight between two very different air forces. Soviet Air Force (VVS) Commander-in-Chief Alexander Novikov assembled 7,500 aircraft in three powerful air armies to support the final assault on Berlin. The Luftwaffe employed some of its most advanced weapons including the Me 262 jet and Mistel remotely-guided bomb aircraft. Using photos, 3D diagrams, maps and battlescene artwork, William E. Hiestand, a military analyst with a longstanding interest in Soviet military history, explains how Germany's use of high-tech weaponry and massed Soviet air assaults was not just the culmination of World War II air combat, but also pointed to how the future rivalry with NATO would play out. The VVS used powerful and flexible air armies to control and employ its huge force of aircraft - organizational and employment concepts that would shape Soviet plans and preparations for combat during the Cold War. For the first time, this volume explains how air power helped win the war on the Eastern Front, and how victory shaped Soviet air power doctrine for the decades to come.

Using diary entries, interviews and first-hand accounts, this vivid narrative brings to life the struggle in the air over the island of Guadalcanal between August 20 and November 15, 1942.The battle of Guadalcanal was the first offensive operation undertaken by the US and its allies in the Pacific War. The three months of air battles between August 20, 1942, when the first Marine air unit arrived on the island, and November 15, when the last enemy attempt to retake the island was defeated, were perhaps the most important of the Pacific War. "Cactus," the code name for the island, became a sinkhole for Japanese air and naval power, as they experienced losses that could never be made good. For 40 years, the late Eric Hammel interviewed more than 150 American participants in the air campaign at Guadalcanal, none of whom are still alive. These interviews are the most comprehensive first-person accounts of the battle assembled by any historian. More importantly, they involved the junior officers and enlisted men whose stories and memories were not part of the official history, and thus provide a unique insight. In The Cactus Air Force, Pacific War expert Thomas McKelvey Cleaver worked closely with Eric to build on his collection of diary entries, interviews and first-hand accounts to create a vivid narrative of the struggle in the air over the island of Guadalcanal between August 20 and November 15, 1942.

Area 51, a top-secret military installation hidden in the desert northwest of Las Vegas, has been shrouded in mystery since 1955. Now, aerospace historian Peter Merlin cuts through the myths and conspiracy folklore to reveal in extraordinary detail the true story of how a ramshackle temporary outpost was ultimately transformed into one of the nation's premier flight test and evaluation facilities for advanced aviation technology and high-tech weapons. Other books focus on the early years of the Groom Lake test site (circa 1955 to 1969); Dreamland covers that period in greater detail and also continues the story well into the modern era. This compelling narrative is based on a treasure trove of declassified documents and interviews and is richly illustrated with more than 700 images, many never published before. Along with collecting declassified government documents, interviews, photos, and other material, the author developed extensive contacts in libraries and archives, submitted numerous Freedom of Information Act requests, conducted oral-history interviews with veterans, and discovered a surprising amount of material that was never classified in the first place. Author Peter Merlin has appeared in more than a dozen film and television documentaries for the History Channel, Discovery, National Geographic, Smithsonian, and others. This manuscript was produced to the same rigorous academic standard as the author's works published by NASA and the American Institute for Aeronautics and Astronautics.

This new book on the SR-71 provides a excellent compliment to Schiffer Military's "Lockheed SR-71 Blackbird: The Illustrated History of America's Legendary Mach 3 Spy Plane" by James Goodall, which is a much larger, more expensive book; this also serves as a replacement for the strong-selling book on the aircraft by Bill Holder, which was released in 2002 and is now out of print.

Through his letters home, combat reports, and extensive interviews with author Bill Cullen, Bob Harper describes his harrowing experiences on board the Flying Fortresses of the Eighth Air Force.

This new book provides a visual guide to every F-15 variant, from the first airframes produced in the early 1970s to the brand new F-15EX Eagle II.

A first-person historical account of being deployed to Afghanistan in 2009 as a midlevel, bourbon-drinking helicopter pilot

This new entry in the "Legends of Warfare" series features detailed photographic coverage of all variants of the Airacobra including prototypes, trainer versions, production models C through Q, and the P-400.

The Grumman F8F was a fast, agile, carrier-borne fighter aircraft developed as the ultimate dogfighter for the Pacific Theater. This is the most complete collection of Bearcat photography in print.

This is an important book on one of the most controversial campaigns of the Second World War. 'When we came out above ground there was rubble everywhere, asphalt on the roads had melted in the heat. My only thought was to get out of this hellhole.' Ivar Corneliussen, Waffen-SS trooper

A Legends of Flights Illustrated to the Douglas DC-3, the airliner from which the famous C-47 Skytrain military transport was derived.

The book is a complete history of T-6/SNJ/HARVARD (Texans) Closed Course Pylon racing from Cleveland 1946 to Reno 2019 with details of all races, a who's who of who raced, when, what aircraft they flew, who finished, who crashed and photos of every aircraft that carried a race number from #0 to #736.A narrative of each venue that held Texan racing is provide by location and dates races were held with race results and participants.

The Douglas C-124 Globemaster II is an American heavy-lift cargo aircraft that served with various air commands within the USAF in the 1950s and '60s until it was retired in 1974. With over 170 images, this book traces the history of the C-124 from its creation through to its introduction to Strategic Air Command and usage with other air commands.

The Hellenic Air Force is one of the most powerful in Europe. With 37 helicopters, 343 fixed-wing aircraft including 206 fighter jets, as well as surveillance drones and surface-to-air missile systems in its service, it plays a key role in protecting Greece and its allies in the Mediterranean. In recent years, Greece's fleet of combat aircraft, particularly fighter jets, has been upgraded to ensure the force retains its position within NATO's structure. Alongside combat aircraft, the Hellenic Air Force has a significant domestic role that requires a fleet of water bombers to protect the country and its infrastructure from forest fires. Alongside are helicopters fulfilling search and rescue missions and training aircraft to ensure continuity of service throughout all the Air Force's specialist branches.

Russia has an extensive history of domestic military aircraft manufacture and a vast array of air power at its disposal. Despite comprehensive plans to upgrade, renew and replace ageing aircraft and weaponry, heavy sanctions have exposed the country's reliance on Western technology, and challenged Russia's ability to acquire materials and equipment. Russia's air capability has been tested in its war in Ukraine and the weaknesses of its power exposed.This comprehensive guide details the different types of aircraft that the Russian military has at its disposal including fighters, bombers, surveillance, intelligence and reconnaissance aircraft, helicopters, support vehicles, uncrewed weaponry, and maritime aircraft. Within these categories, each aircraft type is detailed, including its production history, life upgrades, weaponry capability and current use in warfare. A detailed specification provides aircraft dimensions, weight, performance, powerplant and armament where appropriate. Packed with more than 275 photographs, this book also provides an overview of Russia's aerospace forces, with command centres, units and squadrons for the army, navy and air powers all detailed.

Mosquito History of a Legend is a fascinating telling of the development of the de Havilland DH.98 Mosquito, a British twin- engined, light bomber introduced during WWII. This lavishly illustrated book is the ultimate guide to the development of the airplane and the many variants of the Mosquito and the various missions it flew during WWII including in the Battle for Normandy and D Day. The Mosquito was as fast as the German Luftwaffe fighters that opposed it. Unusual in that its frame was constructed mostly of wood, it was nicknamed the "Wooden Wonder"or "Mossie". The Mosquito was often flown in special raids, such as Operation Jericho (an attack on Amiens Prison in early 1944), and precision attacks against military intelligence, security, and facilities such as Gestapo headquarters. On January 30, 1943, the 10th anniversary of Hitler being made chancellor and the Nazis gaining power, a morning Mosquito attack knocked out the main Berlin broadcasting station while Hermann Göring was speaking, taking his speech off the air.

"RAND researchers examine the reasons behind Russia's evolution toward a unified strategic operation, as well as the capabilities that would be necessary to execute key conventional offensive tasks in such an operation"--

This book compiles the 4-view color profiles, scale plans, and photo details of the single variant of the Romanian PZL P.24 E.

This book compiles the 4-view color profiles, scale plans, and photo details of the single variant of the Royal Navy's Fairey Gannet AS.1.