Courage in the Skies

Ref: 2618

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{detailed description}Courage in the Skies powerfully describes the rise of air power as the most significant military force of the twentieth century. Spanning eight decades, from the Battle of the Somme to the Gulf War in 1991, this is a story of great individual courage, resourceful tactical operations, sometimes fatal errors and startling innovations in technology. All the principal phases of land-based and carrier-borne air warfare are covered and all the principal powers - Britain, the United States, the old Soviet Union, Germany and Japan - have their place in this panoramic work, which through a combination of first-hand, personal accounts and an accurate historical perspective, provides a unique record of air warfare.
Flying aces of the First World War - the famous `Red Knight' Baron von Richthofen, Oswald Boelcke, Albert Ball, James McCudden and Mick Mannock - with their primitive biplanes, and the blooding of the new German Luftwaffe in the Spanish Civil War, serve as a prelude to the Second World War when tactical air warfare was forced into a new and more deadly dimension.
The advent of the fearsome Stuka dive-bomber and the fighter-dominated contest of the Battle of Britain were followed by the development of greater co-operation between air and ground forces used to great effect in the western Desert and North Africa. The emergence of the Japanese as a new force in air power after the bombing of Pearl Harbour led to the US Navy's closely fought carrier-borne operations in the Pacific. As the initiative changed from one side to the other the round-the-clock offensive against the Third Reich, pressed to the limit by precision bombing from Bomber Command and the US Eighth Air Force, brought about the development of new electronic devices and tactics for the great massed air battles over Germany in 1944.
Korea and Vietnam took air warfare into the sophisticated realm of high technology; in Vietnam, napalm and rocket attacks became a force together with 'smart' bombs which could pinpoint targets with lethal accuracy, all a far cry from the pre-radar days at the beginning of the Second World War. More recently, British success in the battle for the Falklands relied heavily on the close co-operation of the air crews with naval and land-based forces. The book
culminates with Operation Desert Storm which brought the United States and her allies together with the most powerful air fleet ever assembled. Seventy thousand missions of bombardment and a strike plan formulated through computer technology demonstrated the way forward for air power into the 21st century.
{Author / Publisher / Date}by J. E. "Johnnie" Johnson and P. B. "Laddie" Lucas
published by Stanley Paul 1992 1st edn. 208pp profusely illustrated, index 20x26
{condition}near fine, d/j very good
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