At the end of the Second World War over 55,000 air crew of Bomber Command had lost their lives, in this authoritative book, the Author selects a number of men, some well known like Leonard Cheshire, Hughie Edwards, but many less known such as Nick Knilans, Syd Clayton and Jo Lancaster, and details their careers, relating episodes that reflect the qualities that made them outstanding. Bomber Barons shows the development of Bomber Command from compartively unorganised, non-cohesive raids of the early part of the war to the highly-trained and deadly offensive weapon it became under Sir Arthur Harris, from 1942 AOC-in-C of Bomber Command, the greatest baron of them all.
At the end of the Second World War over 55,000 air crew of Bomber Command had lost their lives, in this authoritative book, the Author selects a number of men, some well known like Leonard Cheshire, Hughie Edwards, but many less known such as Nick Knilans, Syd Clayton and Jo Lancaster, and details their careers, relating episodes that reflect the qualities that made them outstanding. Bomber Barons shows the development of Bomber Command from compartively unorganised, non-cohesive raids of the early part of the war to the highly-trained and deadly offensive weapon it became under Sir Arthur Harris, from 1942 AOC-in-C of Bomber Command, the greatest baron of them all.
“This document is intended to cover the history of the Fifth Bombardment Group from the era immediately preceding WWII, through the war years until V-J Day 1945. It is presented against a summary background of the entire life of the organization.”
They don’t call him Caution Jones for nothing. An ace pilot, ever since his barnstorming father was killed in an air stunt, Jones has stuck strictly to business—as the no-nonsense general manager of Trans-Continental Airlines. But, like Robert Redford in The Great Waldo Pepper, he’s about to find that, sometimes, if you want to get anywhere, you have to throw caution to the wind. The race is on for a monster contract: the U.S. Postal Service. But to get it, Trans-Continental will have to circle the globe and beat its top competitor to the prize. And there’s only one pilot with the skill to do it: Caution Jones. He’ll have to dust off his wings and soar to heights even his father never dreamed of. The wild blue yonder has never been wilder as Jones discovers that the competition will go to any length to bring his plane down. But an even greater challenge sits in his own cockpit—his co-pilot. She’s blonde, she’s brazen, and she just might get Caution Jones to take the biggest risk of all. . . . L. Ron Hubbard, the pilot, was a sensation in his flying days. As an article in the July 1934 issue of The Pilot magazine said: “Wherever two or three pilots are gathered together around the Nation’s Capital, whether it be a Congressional hearing, or just in the back of some hangar, you’ll probably hear the name of Ron Hubbard mentioned . . . for the flaming haired pilot hit the city like a tornado a few years ago and made women scream and strong men weep by his aerial antics. He just dared the ground to come up and hit him.” And straight from the cockpit to the typewriter, Hubbard brought all the thrills and chills of his flight experience to his stories. Includes the aviation adventure Boomerang Bomber, in which a former U.S. Army officer undertakes a mission for the Chinese only to end up in the crosshairs of Japan’s Imperial military. In a world of double- and triple-crosses, this is one conflict that can only be settled in battle . . . in the sky. “Wild adventure.” —The Midwest Book Review
This illustrated study explores, in detail, the RAF's first concentrated air campaign of World War II against one of the hardest and most important targets in Germany – the industrial heartland of the Ruhr that kept Hitler's war machine running. Between March and July 1943, RAF Bomber Command undertook its first concentrated bombing campaign, the Battle of the Ruhr, whose aim was nothing less than the complete destruction of the industry that powered the German war machine. Often overshadowed by the famous 'Dambusters' single-raid attack on the Ruhr dams, the Battle of the Ruhr proved much larger and much more complex. The mighty, industrial Ruhr region contained not only some of the most famous and important arms makers, such as the gunmakers Krupp of Essen, but also many other industries that the German war economy relied on, from steelmakers to synthetic oil plants. Being such a valuable target, the Ruhr was one of the most heavily defended regions in Europe. This book examines how the brutal Ruhr campaign was conceived and fought, and how Bomber Command's relentless pursuit of its objective drew it into raids on targets well beyond the Ruhr, from the nearby city of Cologne to the Skoda works in Czechoslovakia. Drawing on a wide-range of primary and secondary sources, this is the story of the first titanic struggle in the skies over Germany between RAF Bomber Command and the Luftwaffe.
From Iraq to Bosnia to North Korea, the first question in American foreign policy debates is increasingly: Can air power alone do the job? Robert A. Pape provides a systematic answer. Analyzing the results of over thirty air campaigns, including a detailed reconstruction of the Gulf War, he argues that the key to success is attacking the enemy's military strategy, not its economy, people, or leaders. Coercive air power can succeed, but not as cheaply as air enthusiasts would like to believe.Pape examines the air raids on Germany, Japan, Korea, Vietnam, and Iraq as well as those of Israel versus Egypt, providing details of bombing and governmental decision making. His detailed narratives of the strategic effectiveness of bombing range from the classical cases of World War II to an extraordinary reconstruction of airpower use in the Gulf War, based on recently declassified documents. In this now-classic work of the theory and practice of airpower and its political effects, Robert A. Pape helps military strategists and policy makers judge the purpose of various air strategies, and helps general readers understand the policy debates.
