RAF Bomber Command Losses of the Second World War 8

RAF Bomber Command Losses of the Second World War 8

Author: W. R. Chorley

Publisher: Midland Publishing

Published: 2003

Total Pages: 284

ISBN-13: 9781857801569

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This series has been of enduring interest over many years, and is still highly sought after. Apart from the obvious interest to aviation historians, many people researching family history find these books invaluable, as so many families had someone in an RAF bomber squadron, who failed to return from active service. With the interest in family history increasing all the time and with many now seeking detailed information about wartime careers of relatives, the series will continue to be used by those seeking to find out more about fathers, grandfathers and other relatives who flew with, and died in the service of Bomber Command during World War 2.


Bomber Offensive

Bomber Offensive

Author: Arthur Harris

Publisher: Pen and Sword

Published: 2005-03-01

Total Pages: 288

ISBN-13: 1844152103

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Sir Arthur Harris - Bomber Harris - remains the target of criticism and vilification by many, while others believe the contribution he and his men made to victory is grossly undervalued. He led the men of Bomber Command in the face of appalling casualties, had fierce disagreements with higher authority and enjoyed a complicated relationship with Winston Churchill. Written soon after the close of World War 2, this collection of Sir Arthur Harris's memoirs reveals the man behind the Allied bombing offensive that culminated in the destruction of the Nazi war machine but also many beautiful cities, including Dresden.


Flak

Flak

Author: Edward B. Westermann

Publisher: University Press of Kansas

Published: 2001-11-12

Total Pages: 432

ISBN-13: 0700614206

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Air raid sirens wail, searchlight beams flash across the sky, and the night is aflame with tracer fire and aerial explosions, as Allied bombers and German anti-aircraft units duel in the thundering darkness. Such "cinematic" scenes, played out with increasing frequency as World War II ground to a close, were more than mere stock material for movie melodramas. As Edward Westermann reveals, they point to a key but largely unappreciated aspect of the German war effort that has yet to get its full due. Long the neglected stepchild in studies of World War II air campaigns, German flak or anti-aircraft units have been frequently dismissed by American, British, and German historians (and by veterans of the European air war) as ineffective weapons that wasted valuable material and personnel resources desperately needed elsewhere by the Third Reich. Westermann emphatically disagrees with that view and makes a convincing case for the significant contributions made by the entire range of German anti-aircraft defenses. During the Allied air campaigns against the Third Reich, well over a million tons of bombs were dropped upon the German homeland, killing nearly 300,000 civilians, wounding another 780,000, and destroying more than 3,500,000 industrial and residential structures. Not surprisingly, that aerial Armageddon has inspired countless studies of both the victorious Allied bombing offensive and the ultimately doomed Luftwaffe defense of its own skies. By contrast, flak units have virtually been ignored, despite the fact that they employed more than a million men and women, were responsible for more than half of all Allied aircraft losses, forced Allied bombers to fly far above high-accuracy altitudes, and thus allowed Germany to hold out far longer than it might have otherwise. Westermann's definitive study sheds new light on every facet of the development and organization of this vital defense arm, including its artillery, radar, searchlight, barrage balloon, decoy sites, and command components. Highlighting the convergence of technology, strategy, doctrine, politics, and economics, Flak also provides revealing insights into German strategic thought, Hitler's obsession with micromanaging the war, and the lives of the members of the flak units themselves, including the large number of women, factory workers, and even POWs who participated.


Royal Air Force Fighter Command Losses of the Second World War

Royal Air Force Fighter Command Losses of the Second World War

Author: Norman L. R. Franks

Publisher: Crecy Publishing

Published: 2000

Total Pages: 212

ISBN-13:

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This third volume of Fighter command losses deals with the final 16 months of the war. Plans for the Allied invasion of Europe were well under way in November 1943 when the 'Fighter command' nomenclature was put aside temporarily due to the RAF's fighter force being divided into two.