Air War

The dramatic account of one of America's most celebrated - and controversial - military campaigns: the Doolittle Raid. In December 1941, as American forces tallied the dead at Pearl Harbor, President Franklin Roosevelt gathered with his senior military counselors to plan an ambitious counterstrike against the heart of the Japanese Empire: Tokyo.

Germany is on the brink of defeat, it's armies pushed back on all fronts. The air force turns to wonder weapons to try turn the tide. No, this is not 1945, it's 1918 and will result in what became known as Black September for the Allies. Felix Wolff would rather not kill his cousin Ted. But if he gets the chance, he will. Ted is an American fighting for the British, while Felix is flying for the Germans in Fokker DVII, an aircraft far superior to Ted's. Both men love the same woman. The three had grown up together and were closer than brothers, and it was she who caused the rift between ...

August 1990: Iraqi forces under the command of Saddam Hussein invaded the tiny emirate of Kuwait. In response, the US military led a coalition of thirty-four nations in what became known as Operation Desert Storm—a violent air and ground campaign to eject the Iraqis from Kuwait. At the tip of the spear were the men of the US Air Force’s 58th Fighter Squadron. Based on hours of interviews and archival research by author Mike Guardia, this book reveals an intimate, no-holds-barred account of modern aerial combat…as told by the men who lived it.

In Marshall's Great Captain, author Kathy Wilson details Andrews's extraordinary life and career. The first biography dedicated to the namesake of Joint Base Andrews, this book sheds a light on Andrews's crucial role in orchestrating US involvement in WWII, as well as the professional relationship between Andrews and Marshall. Wilson raises Andrews's legacy to its legitimate place within the annals of both air power and WWII history and posits that there is a high probability that Andrews was Marshall's first choice for the office of Supreme Allied Commander.

There are few moments in American history in which the course of events tipped so suddenly and so dramatically as at the Battle of Midway. At dawn of June 4, 1942, a rampaging Japanese navy ruled the Pacific. By sunset, their vaunted carrier force (the Kido Butai) had been sunk and their grip on the Pacific had been loosened forever. In this absolutely riveting account of a key moment in the history of World War II, one of America's leading naval historians, Craig L. Symonds, paints an unforgettable portrait of ingenuity, courage, and sacrifice.

The First Counterspy is the story of spy, counterspy, and an American family unwittingly caught in its web. Until this case, the FBI had never recruited civilian counterspies to catch a Soviet agent. The first two were Larry Haas, a leading aviation engineer at Bell Aviation, and Leona Franey, head librarian at Bell's technical library. The FBI pitted them against Andrei Ivanovich Schevchenko, operating legally as one of the highest Soviet officials in the United States during WWII, and illegally as head of a wide-ranging spy network hidden within the American aviation industry.

Flyboys is the true story of young American airmen who were shot down over Chichi Jima. Eight of these young men were captured by Japanese troops and taken prisoner. Another was rescued by an American submarine and went on to become president. The reality of what happened to the eight prisoners has remained a secret for almost 60 years.

DIAMONDS – EIGHT MILLION DOLLAR’S WORTH. ARE THEY STILL WAITING IN THEIR SECRET PLACE? It was the Japanese Zeroes which brought terror and death and destruction to the peaceful pearling town of Broome in 1942. It was the partners on the pearl lugger Lucinda who found the lone aircraft shot down by the Zeros, and the diamonds. It was the diamonds which viciously dissolved that partnership and allowed themselves to be hidden in the secret place. And now the sons of those partners each race to claim those diamonds, the crying stones. With mistrust fighting hate and with anger curbed by ...

The OH-58D Kiowa Warrior—a deep reconnaissance scout and attack aircraft—was legendary to those it supported. Regularly flying mere feet off of the ground while intentionally drawing enemy fire, almost everyone called Kiowa pilots crazy. Responsible for hunting elusive enemy fighters and protecting those under their charge, Kiowa crews displayed a fierce and intense devotion that was unparalleled.

In War for the Hell of It, Cobleigh shares his perspectives in a deeply personal account of a fighter pilot's life, one filled with moral ambiguity and military absurdities offset by the undeniable thrill of flying a fighter plane. With well-crafted prose that puts you into his Phantom's cockpit, Cobleigh vividly recounts the unexplainable loss of his wingman, the useless missions he flew, the need to trust his reflexes, eyesight, aggressiveness, and his survival instincts in the heat of combat.

At the height of World War II, LOOK Magazine profiled a small upstate New York community for a series of articles portraying it as the wholesome, patriotic model of life on the home front. Seventy years later, a history teacher tracks down the veterans with a connection to “Hometown, USA” who fought the war in the air over Europe, men who were tempered in the tough times of the Great Depression and forged in battle.

Here are thrilling, never-before-heard stories of the Army's elite aviation unit - the most daring and professional helicopter crews in the world. Special Operations pilots are notoriously reticent; they don't talk about their missions, at least not to anyone outside their small community. But now, with the publication of The Night Stalkers, Durant and Steven Hartov shed a fascinating light on these mysterious super commandos and take readers into a world they have only imagined.

Is a library worth risking your life for? What about a library that holds something you can’t afford to lose?Nora Addison believes in books—believes in them enough to walk through a world war just to get to work every morning. But when physical exhaustion leads to the unthinkable, and Nora finds herself trapped in a rubble-filled gutter, the last person she’s prepared to answer to is the particular air warden who arrives to dig her out. Frank Willis knows why he came to London. Risking his life to save bombing victims is a legitimate reason for plunging into a waking nightmare. ...

Relive six decades of flying helicopters, including an extended tour in Vietnam and the mountains of Afghanistan, with a little Iraq, Kuwait, and National Guard thrown in. This is Minuteman: Two, Three…Go! recounts Wayne Chasson’s times, from the early, young, and dumb days to becoming a more seasoned pilot of Huey and other helicopters in three American wars and the National Guard here at home. Chasson relives it all for us in this gritty and honest memoir — with humility, humor, and gratitude — as he himself is still trying to figure out how he made it through alive.

Book two in the series. The Cold War began just after World War II and ended with the demise of the Soviet Union in about 1990. The most critical point in the war, most often thought to be the missile crisis in ‘62, may have instead been in those first five years of President Reagan’s presidency, the early 80s. Khrushchev dead, leadership in the Kremlin in flux. Poland, led by the labor union Solidarity, revolting against years of domination. Soviet introduction of mobile SS-20 tactical nuclear missile into the forward theater answered by deployment of ground launched cruise missiles, ...

Sherman Lead is the gripping story of a year flying the F-4 in combat during the Vietnam War, told through the eyes of a fighter pilot. Operating out of Ubon Royal Thai Air Base, Thailand in 1968-69, Gail Peck and his squadronmates in the 433rd Tactical Fighter Squadron of the 8th Tactical Fighter Wing were tasked with flying combat missions into North Vietnam and Laos. The F-4 was heavily involved in the air-to-ground mission at this time, with targets being well defended by enemy anti-aircraft artillery and surface-to-air missiles.

Former SAS Trooper Logan is part-owner of a gun store on the outskirts of Los Angeles. After some difficult times, things are working out for him and his partner, Freya Olsen. But still not great. Money is tight, and they need to bring in more trade. Not the kind of trade like the guy who enters the store, shortly after a murderous Islamic attack on a nearby synagogue. The would-be customer, an Arab, asks Logan to repair an illegal malfunctioning M-60. Like one that was used in the recent attack, probably obtained illegally from a US armory. Under the law, he must refuse. A refusal that ...

China attacks a tiny Pacific island nation. Their only hope is an appeal to the United Nations in New York for military aid. The sole surviving government member is in New York when the attack begins. The one person who can convince the UN to act, and she becomes the primary target for the Chinese spy network that has infiltrated government and police. She turns to a man with no connection to the US government. A Brit who served in Afghanistan with the British SAS, alongside US Navy SEALs. His name is Logan. Logan wants no further clashes with the US and its vast tentacles of law ...

The night of 16 May, 1943: Nineteen specially adapted Lancaster bombers take off from RAF Scampton in Lincolnshire, each with a huge 9000-lb cylindrical bomb strapped underneath it. Their mission: to destroy three dams deep within the German heartland, which provide the lifeblood to the industries supplying the Third Reich's war machine.

The AC-130 gunship was quickly developed in 1968 to provide fire support for ground forces in Vietnam. Twenty-eight C-130 cargo aircraft were converted into AC-130s for night attack operations. The AC-130 was crude, ugly, ad hoc, and detested by many within the USAF...but it worked, and it worked well. Likewise, AC-130 crews were deemed unruly “biker gangs” but performed magnificently in every major US military operation from 1976 to 1995. Most of these combat operations were cloaked in secrecy, but records once classified for up to 20 years have now been opened.