Air War

The Tuskegee Airmen heroically fought for the right to be officers of the US military so that they might participate in World War II by flying overseas to help defeat fascism. However, after winning that battle, they faced their next great challenge at Freeman Field, Iowa, where racist white officers barred them from entering the prestigious Officers' Club that their rank promised them. The Freeman Field Mutiny, as it became known, would eventually lead to the desegregation of the US armed forces, forever changing the course of American history and race relations.

The loss of British bombers over Occupied Europe began to reach alarming levels in 1941. Could it be that the Germans were using a sophisticated form of radar to direct their night fighters and anti-aircraft guns at the British bombers? British aerial reconnaissance discovered what seemed to be a rotating radar tower on a clifftop at Bruneval, near Le Havre. The truth must be revealed. The decision was taken to launch a daring raid on the Bruneval site to try and capture the technology for further examination.

Beginning on August 17, 1942, American heavy bomber crews of the Eighth Air Force took off for combat in the hostile skies over occupied Europe. The final price was staggering. 4,300 B-17s and B-24s failed to return; nearly 28,000 men were taken prisoner or interned in a neutral country, and a further 26,000 made the ultimate sacrifice. Luck of the Draw is more than a war story. It’s the incredible, inspiring story of Frank Murphy, one of the few survivors from the 100th Bombardment Group, who cheated death for months in a German POW camp after being shot out of his B-17 Flying Fortress.

December, 1944: The Nazi supervillains in the SS Occult Bureau have learned that Glen Miller's horn is actually an ancient Instrument of Power... and Hitler wants it badly. Now, as Captain Miller flies to a USO concert in France in the same plane as stage magicians Tazara and Magerock, piloted by Commander Harry Bailey, a nefarious spell is cast to take mystical remote control of that plane and divert it to Berlin. But the ghost of Amelia Earhart has overheard this evil plot and carried a warning to the Allies, specifically to a former German pilot from WWI now incarnate as a shambling ...

In 1942, the Solomon Islands formed the stepping stones toward Rabaul, the main base of Japanese operations in the South Pacific, and the Allies primary objective. The stunning defeat of Japanese forces at the Naval Battle of Guadalcanal in November marked the turning point in the war against Japan and the start of an offensive in the Central Solomons aimed at New Georgia. New Georgia: The Second Battle for the Solomons tells the story of the land, sea, and air battles fought there from March through October 1943.

When the US president, Harry S Truman, declared the Truman Doctrine in March 1947, he could not have known that the resultant Cold War would persist for over forty years until the dissolution of the Soviet Union in December 1991. In addition to nuclear and conventional military friction between the Eastern and Western blocs, the struggle for dominance involved a remarkable range of activities including the space race, psychological efforts, espionage, even rivalry at sporting functions and technological events.

Simultaneous release of the thrilling new volume of true stories from airmen of the Second World War, from the author of Flak (also available in audio by Bolinda). Michael Veitch's life-long obsession with the aircraft of the Second World War led him to conclude that every single person who flew, or flew in them, has at least one extraordinary story to tell. With most of these veterans in their 80's, he knew that it was a matter of urgency to find them now, before their personal stories disappear forever.

As the Imperial Japanese Army and Navy rolls south to the oil-rich Netherlands East Indies, a handful of Allied airmen and sailors stand in their way. Two brothers, Jack and Charlie Davis, pilots in the US Army Air Forces, are among that handful who face overwhelming odds to buy time for America to gear up to fight the war in the Pacific.

The history of the Guinea Pig Club, the band of airmen who were seriously burned in aeroplane fires, is a truly inspiring, spine-tingling tale. Plastic surgery was in its infancy before the Second World War. The most rudimentary techniques were known only to a few surgeons worldwide. The Allies were tremendously fortunate in having maverick surgeon Archibald McIndoe - nicknamed ‘the Boss’, or ‘the Maestro’ - operating at a small hospital in East Grinstead in the south of England. McIndoe constructed a medical infrastructure from scratch.

England, 1952. Lawyer Toby Whitby’s poor eyesight stole his chance to serve his country. When the lawyer’s boss is murdered, Toby inherits the case of a lifetime. But his opportunity to reunite an Earl’s daughter with her kidnapped child is anything but ordinary. After his search for the child reaches America, the people connected with the case start turning up dead. As the body count rises, Toby realizes there’s far more to his client’s story than she’s willing to share. Can Toby reunite a family, or will his pursuit of the truth get him killed?

"A" Force explores an area of World War II deception history that has often been neglected. While older studies have focused on the D-day deception campaign and Britain's infamous double-agents, this work explores the origins of Britain's deception activities to reveal how the British became such masterful deceivers. This is the first work to focus exclusively on "A" Force and the origins of British deception, examining how and why the British first employed deception in World War II. More

It was the evening of 16 May 1943. Nineteen modified Lancaster bombers from 617 Squadron RAF, under the command of youthful Wing Commander Guy Gibson, roared into the night sky from their Lincolnshire base. They were on a top-secret Bomber Command mission, codenamed Operation Chastise, now regarded as one of the most dangerous and audacious bombing raids of World War II - an attack on the formidable, well-defended dams of Germany’s Ruhr Valley. Slung beneath the belly of each aircraft was one of the war’s greatest secrets - a bouncing bomb.

During the Second World War, Flt Lt Richard Stevens led an extraordinary campaign as an RAF nightfighter. Known to contemporaries as "Cat's Eyes" and by the height of his success in July 1941 as the "Lone Wolf", Flt Lt Stevens was the RAF's highest scoring nightfighter pilot with 14 victories. What makes his story unique is that all this was achieved without the aid of radar or another crew member. Instead, Flt Lt Stevens used extraordinary skill, instinct, and innate marksmanship.

On 5 December 2002, trainee pilot Nathan Gray walked away from an 'unsurvivable' crash at RAF Wittering in Cambridgeshire. His instructor, seated behind him, was killed instantly. Despite the physical pain and mental scars, he found the strength and resilience to continue his flying career. Today Commander Nathan Gray is one of the UK's elite test pilots - the best of the best.

The term fighter ace grew in prominence with the introduction and development of aerial combat in the First World War. The actual number of aerial victories required to officially qualify as an "ace" has varied but is usually considered to be five or more. For the Luftwaffe, a number of its fighter pilots, many of whom had fought with the Legion Condor in Spain, had already gained their Experte, or ace, status in the Battle of France.

Antes da Segunda Guerra Mundial, muitos militares não acreditavam que o avião pudesse mudar os rumos de um conflito. Mas uma turma de aviadores idealistas, a Máfia dos Bombardeiros, levantou a questão: “E se o bombardeio de precisão destruísse pontos vitais na posição do inimigo e ainda tornasse a guerra menos letal?” Quando essa nova crença no poder aéreo é posta à prova, os resultados são muito diferentes do esperado. Mas a Máfia mantém sua convicção e a leva às últimas consequências na guerra no Pacífico.

In this extraordinary audiobook, Robert D. Kaplan lets listeners experience up close the American military worldwide in the air, at sea, and on the ground. Hog Pilots, Blue Water Grunts provides a riveting ground-level portrait of the Global War on Terrorism on several continents.

RUCKSACK GRUNT - A VIETNAM VETERAN'S MEMOIR A Vietnam War Memoir with an Underlying Love Story.A narrative about a naïve teenage boy’s evolutionary journey from his safe suburban neighborhood in Pennsylvania to the dangerous Central Highlands in Vietnam to becoming a Vietnam War Veteran as he remembers it and still struggles today to understand it all. The events of this narrative take place from 1969-1972, beginning with a young teenage boy’s love for and his marriage proposal to his high school sweetheart. Robert then decided that the best path to obtaining an education and a “real...

In the wake of World War II, the European continent was devastated, and the conflict left the Soviet Union and the United States as uncontested superpowers. This ushered in over 45 years of the Cold War, and a political alignment of Western democracies against the Communist Soviet bloc that produced conflicts pitting allies on each sides fighting, even as the American and Soviet militaries never engaged each other.

For Ed Sykes, aka World's Greatest Fighter Pilot, saying something is impossible only makes him want to do it more! The Patch and the Stream Where the American Fell tell his inspiring story of never giving up, whether that be achieving his dream of being a fighter pilot or fulfilling the oath: "Leave No Man Behind."