In Cold War Skies
In Cold War Skies

Author: Michael Napier

Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing

Published: 2020-08-20

Total Pages: 322

ISBN-13: 1472836898

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Throughout the second half of the 20th century, international relations across the globe were dominated by the Cold War. From 1949 until the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, US and Soviet strategic forces were deployed across the Arctic Ocean in North America and Northern Russia, while the best-equipped armed forces that the world had ever seen faced each other directly across the 'Iron Curtain' in Europe. In Cold War Skies examines the air power of the major powers both at a strategic and at a tactical level throughout the 40 years of the Cold War. In this fascinating book, acclaimed historian Michael Napier looks at each decade of the war in turn, examining the deployment of strategic offensive and defensive forces in North America and Northern Russia as well as the situation in Europe. He details the strategic forces and land-based tactical aircraft used by the air forces of the USA, USSR, NATO, Warsaw Pact countries and the European non-aligned nations. He also describes the aircraft types in the context of the units that operated them and the roles in which they were used. The text is supported by a wide range of first-hand accounts of operational flying during the Cold War, as well as numerous high-quality images.

Hot Skies of the Cold War
Hot Skies of the Cold War

Author: ALEXANDER. MLADENOV

Publisher:

Published: 2020-02-19

Total Pages:

ISBN-13: 9781912866915

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After the end of the Second World War, Bulgaria fell in total dependency upon the Soviet Union as a direct result of the 1944 Yalta agreement on the 'spheres of influence' division of Europe. The Bulgarian Air Force was radically reformed in the Soviet style and rapidly re-equipped with huge numbers of front-line aircraft.The strengthening of the Bulgarian air arm became a high priority as the Cold War in the Balkans gathered speed, and small incidents near the southern and western borders of the country began to occur with increasing frequency. The extensive 'Sovietisation' of the Bulgarian air arm led to the eventual change of its official title in late 1949, becoming identical to its Soviet counterpart, the Voennovazdushni Sily (VVS), featuring a structure identical to that of a Soviet front-line air army.In April 1951, the Bulgarian Air Force entered the jet era with the delivery of the first batch of Yak-23 fighters, followed not after long by the MiG-15.The hot period of the Cold War in the early and mid-1950s saw frequent night overflights by US aircraft ferrying CIA teams to be delivered by parachute to Bulgarian territory, and often to Romania and the southern parts of the Soviet Union.This tense situation required a constant high alert state, but the Bulgarian jet fighters and anti-aircraft artillery proved largely unsuccessful in countering the night intrusions. They were more successful, however, in countering the flights of high-altitude balloons with photo reconnaissance equipment launched by the US intelligence in an effort to gather information on the countries behind the Iron Curtain.The only occasion of a foreign aircraft being shot down was El Al Flight 402, a Super Constellation on a regular passenger flight between London to Tel Aviv via Vienna and Istanbul. The ill-fated airliner, known as one of the greatest victims of the Cold War tensions, nervousness and distrust, was attacked by Bulgarian MiG-15 fighters on 27 June 1955 after it erroneously strayed off course into Bulgarian territory, killing all 58 people onboard.The formation of the Soviet Union-dominated Warsaw Pact Treaty Organisation on May 14, 1956 heralded the beginning of a new era in the VVS' development. As one of the most enthusiastic Warsaw Pact members, Bulgaria was readily supplied with huge numbers of combat jets, anti-aircraft artillery, surface-to-air missile systems and early warning radars in an effort to boost up the pact's southern flank defence.

Eyes in the Sky
Eyes in the Sky

Author: Theresa B Tabak

Publisher: Naval Institute Press

Published: 2010-03-15

Total Pages: 517

ISBN-13: 1612510140

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Dino A. Brugioni, author of the best-selling account of the Cuban Missile crisis, Eyeball to Eyeball, draws on his long CIA career as one of the world's premier experts on aerial reconnaissance to provide the inside story of President Dwight D. Eisenhower's efforts to use spy planes and satellites to gather intelligence. He reveals Eisenhower to be a hands-on president who, contrary to popular belief, took an active role in assuring that the latest technology was used to gather aerial intelligence. This previously untold story of the secret Cold War program makes full use of the author's firsthand knowledge of the program and of information he gained from interviews with important participants. As a founder and senior officer of the CIA's National Photographic Interpretation Center, Brugioni was a key player in keeping Eisenhower informed of developments, and he sheds new light on the president's contributions toward building an effective and technologically advanced intelligence organization. The book provides details of the president's backing of the U-2's development and its use to dispel the bomber gap and to provide data on Soviet missile and nuclear efforts and to deal with crises in the Suez, Lebanon, Chinese Off Shore Islands, Tibet, Indonesia, East Germany, and elsewhere. Brugioni offers new information about Eisenhower's order of U-2 flights over Malta, Cyprus, Toulon, and Israel and subsequent warnings to the British, French, and Israelis that the U.S. would not support an invasion of Egypt. He notes that the president also backed the development of the CORONA photographic satellite, which eventually proved the missile gap with the Soviet Union didn't exist, and a variety of other satellite systems that detected and monitored problems around the world. The unsung reconnaissance roles played by Jimmy Doolittle and Edwin Land are also highlighted in this revealing study of Cold War espionage.

To Rule the Skies
To Rule the Skies

Author: Brent D Ziarnick

Publisher: Naval Institute Press

Published: 2021-02-15

Total Pages: 253

ISBN-13: 1682475883

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To Rule the Skies: General Thomas S. Power and the Rise of Strategic Air Command in the Cold War fills a critical gap in Cold War and Air Force history by telling the story of General Thomas S. Power for the first time. Thomas Power was second only to Curtis LeMay in forming the Strategic Air Command (SAC), one of the premier combat organizations of the twentieth century, but he is rarely mentioned today. What little is written about Power describes him as LeMay's willing hatchet man--uneducated, unimaginative, autocratic, and sadistic. Based on extensive archival research, General Power seeks to overturn this appraisal. Brent D. Ziarnick covers the span of both Power's personal and professional life and challenges many of the myths of conventional knowledge about him. Denied college because his middle-class immigrant family imploded while he was still in school, Power worked in New York City construction while studying for the Flying Cadet examination at night in the New York Public Library. As a young pilot, Power participated in some of the Army Air Corps' most storied operations. In the interwar years, his family connections allowed Power to interact with American Wall Street millionaires and the British aristocracy. Confined to training combat aircrews in the United States for most of World War II, Power proved his combat leadership as a bombing wing commander by planning and leading the firebombing of Tokyo for Gen. Curtis LeMay. After the war, Power helped LeMay transform the Air Force into the aerospace force America needed during the Cold War. A master of strategic air warfare, he aided in establishing SAC as the Free World's "Big Stick" against Soviet aggression. Far from being unimaginative, Power led the incorporation of the nuclear weapon, the intercontinental ballistic missile, the airborne alert, and the Single Integrated Operational Plan into America's deterrent posture as Air Research and Development Command commander and both the vice commander and commander-in-chief of SAC. Most importantly, Power led SAC through the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962. Even after retirement, Power as a New York Times bestselling author brought his message of deterrence through strength to the nation. Ziarnick points out how Power's impact may continue in the future. Power's peerless, but suppressed, vision of the Air Force and the nation in space is recounted in detail, placing Power firmly as a forgotten space visionary and role model for both the Air Force and the new Space Force. To Rule the Skies is an important contribution to the history of the Cold War and beyond.

Aerial Warfare
Aerial Warfare

Author: Frank Ledwidge

Publisher:

Published: 2020

Total Pages: 161

ISBN-13: 0198804318

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Aerial warfare has dominated western war-making for over 100 years, and despite regular announcements of its demise, it shows no sign of becoming obsolete. Frank Ledwidge offers a sweeping global history of air warfare, introducing the major battles, crises, and controversies where air power has taken centre stage.

Under a War-Torn Sky
Under a War-Torn Sky

Author: L.M. Elliot

Publisher: Usborne Publishing Ltd

Published: 2015-04-01

Total Pages: 264

ISBN-13: 1409591344

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Shot down on a mission, 19-year-old bomber pilot Henry is alone in a treacherous land. Desperate to get back to his family and the girl he loves, he is forced to rely on the kindness of strangers and the cunning of the French Resistance. But in his battle to survive the deadly journey across Nazi-occupied Europe, he must face a terrible choice: can he take someone's life to save his own?

Strange Skies Over East Berlin #1
Strange Skies Over East Berlin #1

Author: Jeff Loveness

Publisher: Boom! Studios

Published: 2019-10-16

Total Pages: 31

ISBN-13: 1646689704

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Herring is a disillusioned American spy stationed on the eastern side of the Berlin Wall, struggling with his role in a Cold War that seems to have no end. But when he's sent on a mission behind enemy lines to infiltrate East German intelligence, he soon learns the Soviets have a secret weapon that could change the tides of the conflict: an alien monster that they don't understand, and can't control. The Soviets are about to learn that they’re not in charge of the monster – it’s already in their minds and has twisted them to its will. Now Herring must find a way to understand the impossible – before it transforms him into a monster unlike any other. Writer Jeff Loveness (Judas) and Lisandro Estherren (Redneck) team up for a story in the spirit of Cold War classics, for fans of period piece science fiction as well as alien action such as Barrier.

A Fiery Peace in a Cold War
A Fiery Peace in a Cold War

Author: Neil Sheehan

Publisher: Vintage

Published: 2010-10-05

Total Pages: 577

ISBN-13: 0307741400

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The US-Soviet arms race, told through the story of a colorful and visionary American Air Force officer—melding biography, history, world affairs, and science to transport the reader back and forth from individual drama to world stage. "Compulsively readable and important.” —The New York Times Book Review In this never-before-told story, Neil Sheehan—winner of the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award -- details American Air Force officer Bernard Schriever’s quest to prevent the Soviet Union from acquiring nuclear superiority, and describes American efforts to develop the unstoppable nuclear-weapon delivery system, the intercontinental ballistic missile, the first weapons meant to deter an atomic holocaust rather than to be fired in anger. In a sweeping narrative, Sheehan brings to life a huge cast of some of the most intriguing characters of the cold war, including the brilliant physicist John Von Neumann, and the hawkish Air Force general, Curtis LeMay.

Cold War Holidays
Cold War Holidays

Author: Christopher Endy

Publisher: Univ of North Carolina Press

Published: 2005-12-15

Total Pages: 308

ISBN-13: 0807863513

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Moving beyond traditional state-centered conceptions of foreign relations, Christopher Endy approaches the Cold War era relationship between France and the United States from the original perspective of tourism. Focusing on American travel in France after World War II, Cold War Holidays shows how both the U.S. and French governments actively cultivated and shaped leisure travel to advance their foreign policy agendas. From the U.S. government's campaign to encourage American vacations in Western Europe as part of the Marshall Plan, to Charles de Gaulle's aggressive promotion of American tourism to France in the 1960s, Endy reveals how consumerism and globalization played a major role in transatlantic affairs. Yet contrary to analyses of globalization that emphasize the decline of the nation-state, Endy argues that an era notable for the rise of informal transnational exchanges was also a time of entrenched national identity and persistent state power. A lively array of voices informs Endy's analysis: Parisian hoteliers and cafe waiters, American and French diplomats, advertising and airline executives, travel writers, and tourists themselves. The resulting portrait reveals tourism as a colorful and consequential illustration of the changing nature of international relations in an age of globalization.