William Wolf brings his meticulous research to describe the little known Douglas B-18 Bolo which was America's most numerous front line bomber at the time of Pearl Harbor. Over the years the story of the airliner turned bomber has languished in obscurity and the few articles on the subject in popular aviation magazines have emphasized its faults and maligned it as a budget bomber that had few virtues. Wolf's comprehensive book is the first ever on the subject and gives the reader the definitive description and appraisal of this neglected bomber's development, testing, manufacture, the aircraft per se, and combat experience.
The B-18 was lauded by crew members as a superb anti-submarine aircraft. The B-18 and its obscure development, the handsome B-23 were precisely the right aircraft, at the right time, to help America defeat the serious Axis submarine threat in the Caribbean and train most of the B-17 crews who headed overseas.
A tale of a lifelong passion for a WWII aircraft that changed the author’s life: “It is almost like an adventure novel except it is true” (Air Classics). This book tells the story of a Dutch boy who grew up during the 1950s in postwar Borneo, where he had frequent encounters with an airplane, the Douglas DC-3, a.k.a. the C-47 Skytrain or Dakota, of World War II fame. For a young boy living in a remote jungle community, the aircraft reached the proportions of a romantic icon as the essential lifeline to a bigger world for him, the beginning of a special bond. In 1957, his family left the island and all its residual wreckage of World War II, and he attended college in The Hague. After graduation, he started a career as a corporate executive—and met the aircraft again during business trips to the Americas. His childhood passion for the Dakota flared up anew, and the fascination pulled like a magnet. As if predestined, or maybe just looking for an excuse to come closer, he began a business to salvage and convert Dakota parts, which meant first of all finding them. As the demand for these war relic parts and cockpits soared, he began to travel the world to track down surplus, crashed, or derelict Dakotas. He ventured deeper and deeper into remote mountains, jungles, savannas, and the seas where the planes are found, usually as ghostly wrecks but sometimes still in full commercial operation. In hunting the mythical Dakota, he often encountered intimidating or dicey situations in countries plagued by wars or revolts, others by arms and narcotics trafficking, warlords, and conmen. The stories of these expeditions take the reader to some of the remotest spots in the world, but once there, one is often greeted by the comfort of what was once the West’s apex in transportation—however now haunted by the courageous airmen of the past.
Merriam Press Military History. Detailed history of each of 33 aircraft wreck sites visited and investigated by the authors, with photos of the aircraft before the accident, and numerous photos of the crash site and evidence found at the site. Includes Washington, Oregon and Idaho state crash locator lists. 354 color photos, 42 B&W photos.
In April, 1942, President Roosevelt urged the military high command to prepare a devastating carrier-launch raid against the Japanese home islands. And the only person who dared to lead the mission was the best-known risk-taker in the U.S. Air Force, Lieutenant Colonel James H. Doolittle.
North America is replete in aviation history, both military and civilian. The sheer size of the United States dictated an early interest in air defense and profoundly influenced the nation's dependence on air travel. It is no wonder that the United States developed as an air-faring nation. A large part of the leadership that contributed to that development can be traced to America's Air Force. Indeed, its proud military heritage is embodied in the dedicated individuals who have served and continue to do so-and in the marvelous aircraft they have flown. The preservation and public display of these aircraft is a labor of love for many, including the editor of this book. If you are an enthusiast of military aviation history, or one with a passing interest who simply wishes to learn more, you will find a wealth of information in these well-researched pages.
The Battle of the Atlantic was the longest campaign of World War II, lasting the entirety of the war in Europe from September 1939 to May 1945. It was also one of the war’s most complex campaigns, involving strategy, operations, tactics, logistics, politics, diplomacy, and alliances. During the war’s first two years, the United States was drawn deeper into partnership with Great Britain, and closer toward conflict with Germany, in the waters of the North Atlantic. Franklin Roosevelt realized this theater’s importance: “I believe the outcome of this struggle is going to be decided in the Atlantic.” And so American, British, and Canadian forces battled Germans at sea and in the air to protect the flow of first materiel and then men from the United States to the United Kingdom. The sea part has been well covered: how German U-boats and other warships hunted Allied convoys and how the Allies ultimately turned the tide. Not so much the air war. In Six Air Forces over the Atlantic, Joseph Molyson tells the story of the Battle of the Atlantic from the perspective of the air forces—and airmen—who waged it from the skies above the icy waters of the North Atlantic. He blends big-picture attention to strategy and tactics with dramatic episodes of air-to-air and air-to-sea combat, including the engagement in which a British light bomber captured a German U-boat near Iceland. He details the close eye Franklin Roosevelt kept on the campaign, the effect B-24 Liberator bombers had, and the rise of the Royal Air Force Coastal Command as a true U-boat-busting force. The result was victory in the Atlantic, as well as a significant contribution to victory in World War II.
