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The Air Marshals

The Air Marshals

Ref: 4432

In stock

Price: £10.00

sadly, flyingbooks is now closed.

{detailed description}Strategic bombing, and the men who organized it, was (and still is) one of the most controversial issues of the Second World War. Here was an aspect of warfare that came to fruition within twenty years, compared with the two hundred years taken to develop gunpowder in its most sophisticated form. "The Air Marshals" examines this devastating method of warfare, ultimately aimed at breaking the morale of whole nations; in particular it investigates the means and motives of the Western leaders who developed and implemented it: Portal of Great Britain, Arnold of America and Göring of Germany.
The air war begins with the contest between Göring and the redoubtable Dowding, whose victory over the Germans both changed the course of the war and frustrated Göring's personal plan to achieve victory through air power alone.
There was conflict among the Allies as well as against the enemy - Britain advocated saturation bombing by night, America precision bombing by day - rival theories that were practiced simultaneously. Allen Andrews describes how the American commander got his way in a personal duel with Portal. On the night of "Bomber" Harris's first thousand-bomber raid on Germany, Arnold declared that he was "as thrilled as the Prime Minister himself", but be reflected on the irony that he had chosen this, of all nights, to convince Churchill and his R.A.F. advisers of the advantages of the American daylight strategy.
There were also repercussions from Allied policy: the increasing scale of destruction by bomber forces induced the Germans to increase their fighter forces and these in turn became a priority target. Eventually, Tedder, with the support of Portal, proved himself the commander with sufficient experience and personality to create a truly allied air force.
"The Air Marshals" views the war in the air with a wide sweep, relating how it was conducted on both sides on the highest levels. Allen Andrews draws shrewd and unorthodox portraits of powerful men, without forgetting that the decisions they took around the conference table wrought fearful slaughter. Nor does he hesitate to confront the slayers with the slain, be it Arnold or Harris. The world will never again experience the like of the Air Marshals' war of 1939-45. This exciting narrative is its record.
{Author / Publisher / Date}by Allen Andrews
Published by Macdonald 1970 1st edn. 299pp illustrated, index. 15x22
{condition}good, in slightly creased d/j.
{delivery info}
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first class (1-2 days)£4.75
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