A History of the Mediterranean Air War, 1940–1945
A History of the Mediterranean Air War, 1940–1945

Author: Christopher Shores

Publisher: Grub Street Publishers

Published: 2012-06-19

Total Pages: 962

ISBN-13: 190980875X

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This first volume in the seminal series on World War II aerial combat, pilots, and tactics that “reads like an encyclopedia on the subject” (Portland Book Review). In the early days of World War II, both Allied and Axis powers extended the theater of war to North Africa, where hard-fought battles were conducted in the harsh desert. But before anyone could claim victory on the ground, they had to hold dominion in the air. Here, historian Christopher Shores has combined his books Fighters over the Desert and Fighters over Tunisia into one volume, as well as adding updated information about the deadly fighter aircraft, reconnaissance aircraft, and maritime units active in the Mediterranean. Full of in-depth research and featuring essential maps, this is “an intimate introspection by these men of their experiences and the respect that they shared not only for each other but also their adversaries” (The Military Reviewer).

A History of the Mediterranean Air War, 1940–1945. Volume 2
A History of the Mediterranean Air War, 1940–1945. Volume 2

Author: Christopher Shores

Publisher: Grub Street Publishing

Published: 2014-07-19

Total Pages: 736

ISBN-13: 191069097X

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This second volume in the seminal series on aerial combat, pilots, and tactics in Libya and Egypt in the middle of World War II. In volume two of this series, historian Christopher Shores begins by exploring the 8th Army’s movements after Operation Crusader when they were forced back to the Gazala area in northeastern Libya, as well as their defeat in June, 1942, the loss of Tobruk, and the efforts of Allied air forces to protect their retreating troops. Shores continues with the heavy fighting that followed in the El Alamein region. This features the Western Desert Air Force and the arrival of the first Spitfires. The buildup of both army and air forces and the addition of new commanders on the ground aided the defeat of Rommel’s Deutsche Afrika Korps at Alam el Halfa, after which came the Second Battle of El Alamein. With the arrival of the United States Army Air Force, the Allied air forces gained dominance over the Axis. Shores recounts the lengthy pursuit of the Italo-German forces right across Libya, including the capture of Tripoli and the breakthrough into Southern Tunisia. This allowed a linkup with other Allied forces in Tunisia (whose story appears in Volume 3). Included with the action are stories of some of the great fighter aces of the Desert campaign such as Jochen Marseille and Otto Schulz of the Luftwaffe, Franco Bordoni-Bisleri of the Regia Aeronautica and Neville Duke, Billy Drake, and “Eddie” Edwards of the Commonwealth air forces. Finally, Shores touches on the Allied and Axis night bombing offensives and the activities of the squadrons cooperating with the naval forces in the Mediterranean.

Strangling the Axis
Strangling the Axis

Author: Richard Hammond

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Published: 2020-06-25

Total Pages: 295

ISBN-13: 1108807259

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This is a major reassessment of the causes of Allied victory in the Second World War in the Mediterranean region. Drawing on a unique range of multinational source material, Richard Hammond demonstrates how the Allies' ability to gain control of the key routes across the sea and sink large quantities of enemy shipping denied the Axis forces in North Africa crucial supplies and proved vital to securing ultimate victory there. Furthermore, the sheer scale of attrition to Axis shipping outstripped their industrial capacity to compensate, leading to the collapse of the Axis position across key territories maintained by seaborne supply, such as Sardinia, Corsica and the Aegean islands. As such, Hammond demonstrates how the anti-shipping campaign in the Mediterranean was the fulcrum about which strategy in the theatre pivoted, and the vital enabling factor ultimately leading to Allied victory in the region.

RAF WWII Operational and Flying Accident Casualty Files in The National Archives
RAF WWII Operational and Flying Accident Casualty Files in The National Archives

Author: Mary Hudson

Publisher: Air World

Published: 2020-12-14

Total Pages: 454

ISBN-13: 1526783533

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“A journey through the original RAF Casualty Branch files, and all the other available sources of information relating to RAF wartime casualties.” —Military Historical Society At its height during the Second World War, the RAF totaled 185,000 personnel. All information concerning casualties was carefully complied at the Air Ministry and now, from these the official records, those covering operational losses (in the air and on the ground) and flying accidents are being made available to the public through The National Archives. This huge collection of casualty files contains a wealth of contemporary documentation from a variety of sources including captured German records. It includes official documents, examples of which are given, accounts of searches undertaken to establish the fate of the missing, places of burial, copies of information received from the International Red Cross and from sources within enemy occupied lands, as well as letters from family and friends some of which reveal dark secrets of bigamy, adultery, illegitimacy, debt and dishonor. In this groundbreaking book, Mary Hudson has used her expert knowledge to provide an invaluable guide to the understanding of these records for use by researchers and family members alike. “An intriguing work bringing the fruits of many years of inside experience into the hands of those trying to find the missing piece in the jigsaw of a family tree or any RAF historian.” —The Shackleton Association “Fascinating . . . illustrates the dedication of the teams who handled the difficult issues of death and the missing in a very compassionate and dedicated manner.” —Journal of The Orders & Medals Research Society

Bomber Boy
Bomber Boy

Author: Dereck French

Publisher: Amberley Publishing Limited

Published: 2020-01-15

Total Pages: 491

ISBN-13: 1445684667

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A vivid and insightful account of the early World War Two air war from a bomber pilot's perspective.

Departed Warriors
Departed Warriors

Author: Jenny Murland

Publisher: Troubador Publishing Ltd

Published: 2008-09-25

Total Pages: 338

ISBN-13: 9781906510701

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Takes the reader from the shores of Britain with the first volunteer army to leave for South Africa to fight in the Second Boer War, and to the battlefronts of the Great War of 1914-18. This work offers an account of two generations of a family who fought for their country and the impact it had upon their lives.

Coming Down in the Drink
Coming Down in the Drink

Author: Sean Feast

Publisher: Pen and Sword

Published: 2017-03-30

Total Pages: 214

ISBN-13: 1473891558

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Coming Down in the Drink is the story of Flight Lieutenant John Brennan DFC. John is an Irishman who need not have fought in the war at all. A sense of adventure took him to London where he trained as a chef before joining the RAF and qualifying as a wireless operator/air gunner.Posted to 148 Squadron in the Middle East in 1941, John was soon in the fray as the front gunner of a Wellington, flying daily sorties to Benghazi in what was known as the mail run, bombing enemy ships that were offloading vital supplies to Rommel and the Afrika Korps. As much at risk from faulty engines as enemy action, John completed a tour of almost 300 hours of operational flying, including an operation in March 1942 in which his Wellington suffered an engine failure and came down in the sea. He thus became a member of the Goldfish Club.Posted home and commissioned, he spent time instructing in Scotland, surviving yet another accident in which his pilot crashed into a mountainside. Volunteering for a second tour, John joined 78 Squadron in the summer of 1944, being crewed with one of the flight commanders. He completed his tour, this time as a wireless operator, in March 1945, by which time they were operating in daylight in support of the Allied advance. He was awarded the DFC.John is one of the only surviving wartime members of the Goldfish Club, and has a fascinating record of 63 operations that covers both the forgotten bombing war in the Middle East in 1941/42, operating from strips of sand in the barren desert, to a main force heavy bomber squadron in the snow of Yorkshire at the end of the war.