Aircraft For The Many

'Don't worry about the aircraft overhead. They will be ours.'

That confident prediction came from Genera Dwight D. Eisenhower, Supreme Commander Allied Forces, on the eve of the D-Day landings in Normandy. He had every right to sound confident. If Operation Neptune was to succeed, air superiority was crucial, and a massive operation was under way. In the 24 hours of 6 June 1944 some 14,600 sorties were flown by Allied aircraft, involving around 40,000 aircrew, and the RAF were at the forefront of the action.
Operation Neptune was by far the most extensively and skilfully planned military operation in history, and involved unprecedented inter-service and international co-operation. But while many books have been written about the events of D-Day as a whole, Aircraft for the Many is the first to focus specifically on the RAF's awesome contribution to the day's events, the success of which launched the run-in to victory in Europe.
The result of years of meticulous research by the author, the book provides a squadron by squadron, aircraft by aircraft breakdown of the RAF's operational involvement during the liberation of northern Europe. Every aspect is covered, from the mighty aerial armadas of bombers attacking coastal gun batteries to the lone Air-Sea Rescue Walrus amphibian plucking ditched airmen from the English Channel. Aircraft types are presented in their respective categories, their development and activities recorded in immense detail.



by Michael J. F.Bowyer
PSL 1995 1st edition. 320pp profusely illustrated, index, appendices, maps. 17x24 mint, including d/j.






Note:
"Long" descriptions, where shown, may have been taken from the book's dust jacket notes, and as such are relevant to the date of publication (e.g. any references to "previously unpublished photographs" etc.) and not the present.

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