German Flak Defences Vs Allied Heavy Bombers

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German Flak Defences vs Allied Heavy Bombers

Author : Donald Nijboer
Publisher : Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN 13 : 1472836723
Total Pages : 81 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (728 download)

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Book Synopsis German Flak Defences vs Allied Heavy Bombers by : Donald Nijboer

Download or read book German Flak Defences vs Allied Heavy Bombers written by Donald Nijboer and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2019-10-31 with total page 81 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Since the end of World War II, the strategic bombing of Germany has inspired numerous studies, countless books and several documentary films, and it is not surprising. With more than one million tons of bombs dropped, close to 300,000 civilians killed, 700,000 wounded and in excess of 3,500,000 industrial and residential structures destroyed, the Allied bomber offensive was industrial war on a grand scale. The air battle that raged over Germany has often been described as a battle between Allied and German fighters but what has been frequently missed by historians on all sides is the impact of German anti-aircraft defences (flak). Though often dismissed as ineffective and a waste of valuable material and personnel, the German flak arm made a major contribution to the defence of the Third Reich – at least half of the American aircraft shot down over Germany fell to flak, and according to the RAF Official History, it was estimated that flak accounted for 1229 of 3302 aircraft lost by Bomber Command between 1942 and April 1945. Additionally, the strategic role of flak extended beyond simply shooting down aircraft – its other, more important task was to force bombers to drop their ordnance sooner or from a higher altitude, thus reducing bombing accuracy. Both these roles are explored in depth in this detailed study of the German flak defences and of their adversaries, the Allied heavy bombers. Containing full-colour illustrations including cockpit scenes and armament views, this is the definitive guide to the much-overlooked conflict between Allied planes and German anti-aircraft defences.

Flak

Author : Edward B. Westermann
Publisher :
ISBN 13 :
Total Pages : 440 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (91 download)

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Book Synopsis Flak by : Edward B. Westermann

Download or read book Flak written by Edward B. Westermann and published by . This book was released on 2001 with total page 440 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Air raid sirens wail, searchlight beams flash across the sky, and the night is aflame with tracer fire and aerial explosions, as Allied bombers and German anti-aircraft units duel in the thundering darkness. Such "cinematic" scenes, played out with increasing frequency as World War II ground to a close, were more than mere stock material for movie melodramas. As Edward Westermann reveals, they point to a key but largely unappreciated aspect of the German war effort that has yet to get its full due.Long the neglected stepchild in studies of World War II air campaigns, German flak or anti-aircraft units have been frequently dismissed by American, British, and German historians (and by veterans of the European air war) as ineffective weapons that wasted valuable materiel and personnel resources desperately needed elsewhere by the Third Reich. Westermann emphatically disagrees with that view and makes a convincing case for the significant contributions made by the entire range of German anti-aircraft defenses.During the Allied air campaigns against the Third Reich, well over a million tons of bombs were dropped upon the German homeland, killing nearly 300,000 civilians, wounding another 780,000, and destroying more than 3,500,000 industrial and residential structures. Not surprisingly, that aerial Armageddon has inspired countless studies of both the victorious Allied bombing offensive and the ultimately doomed Luftwaffe defense of its own skies. By contrast, flak units have virtually been ignored, despite the fact that they employed more than a million men and women, were responsible for more than half of all Allied aircraft losses, forced Allied bombers to fly far abovehigh-accuracy altitudes, and thus allowed Germany to hold out far longer than it might have otherwise.Westermann's definitive study sheds new light on every facet of the development and organization of this vital defense arm, includi

P-47 Thunderbolt vs German Flak Defenses

Author : Jonathan Bernstein
Publisher : Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN 13 : 1472846303
Total Pages : 149 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (728 download)

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Book Synopsis P-47 Thunderbolt vs German Flak Defenses by : Jonathan Bernstein

Download or read book P-47 Thunderbolt vs German Flak Defenses written by Jonathan Bernstein and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2021-10-28 with total page 149 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Since the end of World War 2, the tactical air war over Europe has been largely overlooked by historians and authors alike in favour of analysis of the higher profile strategic bombing campaign. Involving just as many aircraft as the daylight heavy bombing campaign, the fighter-bombers (principally of the Ninth Air Force) wreaked considerably more havoc on German ground forces. Indeed, Thunderbolt units undertaking such missions effectively complemented the strategic campaign, ensuring the defeat of Nazi Germany. P-47 pilots paid a high price to achieve this victory, however, as the German flak arm was well equipped (nearly a quarter of all war-related production was devoted to anti-aircraft weaponry) with weapons of various calibres to counter tactical air power's low to medium altitude threat. The USAAF four numbered air forces that saw action over the European continent suffered significant fighter-bomber losses to flak. The principle fighter-bomber from the summer of 1944 through to VE Day was the P-47D, with both dedicated ground attack units and squadrons that had completed their bomber escort tasking seeking out targets of opportunity across occupied Western Europe. While heavy-calibre anti-aircraft fire was intended to both shoot down enemy aircraft and force bombers to drop their ordnance sooner or from higher altitudes, thus reducing bombing accuracy, low-altitude flak batteries put up a virtual 'wall of steel' for enemy fighter-bombers to fly through. Damaging a low-flying fighter-bomber made it easier for other flak gunners to track, engage and destroy it. Innovations like lead-computing gunsights gave gunners a higher probability of intercepting low-altitude fighters. Conversely, the appearance of air-to-ground rockets beneath the wings of P-47s gave pilots better standoff range and a harder-hitting punch when dealing with low and medium altitude flak units. This volume analyses the tactics and techniques used by both P-47 fighter-bomber pilots and German flak gunners, featuring full-colour illustrations to examine the Allied tactical air power in Europe from 1943 and how German defences were overpowered by the air threat.

Flak in World War II

Author : Donald Nijboer
Publisher : Rowman & Littlefield
ISBN 13 : 081176592X
Total Pages : 232 pages
Book Rating : 4.8/5 (117 download)

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Book Synopsis Flak in World War II by : Donald Nijboer

Download or read book Flak in World War II written by Donald Nijboer and published by Rowman & Littlefield. This book was released on 2018-09-01 with total page 232 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: More than half of the U.S.’s aircraft losses in Europe in World War II were due to German antiaircraft artillery, and many of the American aircraft shot down by Luftwaffe fighters had first been driven out of formation by flak and made easy prey for the fighters. A world away in the Pacific, American flak guns aboard naval ships formed the last line of defense against Japanese kamikazes. Historian Donald Nijboer relies on firsthand accounts, newly discovered files, photos, diagrams, and maps to reveal the forgotten contribution of flak in World War II, from doctrine and tactics to combat stories on the ground and in the air about what it was like to fly into the teeth of antiaircraft fire.

Me 163 vs Allied Heavy Bombers

Author : Robert Forsyth
Publisher : Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN 13 : 1472861876
Total Pages : 142 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (728 download)

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Book Synopsis Me 163 vs Allied Heavy Bombers by : Robert Forsyth

Download or read book Me 163 vs Allied Heavy Bombers written by Robert Forsyth and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2024-04-25 with total page 142 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An illustrated account of the dramatic engagement between the Luftwaffe's Me 163 units and Allied bombers during the closing years of World War II. In the summer of 1944, US Army Air Force (USAAF) aircrews flying over the Third Reich reported observing small, high-speed 'batlike' aircraft flying close to their formations. The Luftwaffe's extraordinary Messerschmitt Me 163 rocket-powered interceptor was making its devastating debut with Jagdgeschwader (JG) 400. Capable of reaching high altitudes in the shortest possible time by using a volatile rocket fuel, the Me 163 was the Luftwaffe's most impressive yet dangerous aircraft, and the fastest in the world. Luftwaffe expert Robert Forsyth details the testing of the aircraft and its lethal SG 500 'Fighter Fist' weapons system, as well as its deployment against the B17s and B24s of the USAAF's Eighth Air Force and, from late 1944, the Lancasters and Halifaxes of RAF Bomber Command. These duels started a deadly form of warfare, with the bomber squadrons striking at Germany's synthetic oil refineries and jet airfields, and the Me 163s of JG 400 trying to stop them using cutting-edge aeronautical technology. Using specially commissioned artwork, original photographs and rare first-hand interviews with the pilots that fought the decisive dogfights, this exciting book describes the pivotal encounters over Northern Europe.

P-47 Thunderbolt vs German Flak Defenses

Author : Jonathan Bernstein
Publisher : Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN 13 : 1472846273
Total Pages : 81 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (728 download)

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Book Synopsis P-47 Thunderbolt vs German Flak Defenses by : Jonathan Bernstein

Download or read book P-47 Thunderbolt vs German Flak Defenses written by Jonathan Bernstein and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2021-10-28 with total page 81 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Since the end of World War 2, the tactical air war over Europe has been largely overlooked by historians and authors alike in favour of analysis of the higher profile strategic bombing campaign. Involving just as many aircraft as the daylight heavy bombing campaign, the fighter-bombers (principally of the Ninth Air Force) wreaked considerably more havoc on German ground forces. Indeed, Thunderbolt units undertaking such missions effectively complemented the strategic campaign, ensuring the defeat of Nazi Germany. P-47 pilots paid a high price to achieve this victory, however, as the German flak arm was well equipped (nearly a quarter of all war-related production was devoted to anti-aircraft weaponry) with weapons of various calibres to counter tactical air power's low to medium altitude threat. The USAAF four numbered air forces that saw action over the European continent suffered significant fighter-bomber losses to flak. The principle fighter-bomber from the summer of 1944 through to VE Day was the P-47D, with both dedicated ground attack units and squadrons that had completed their bomber escort tasking seeking out targets of opportunity across occupied Western Europe. While heavy-calibre anti-aircraft fire was intended to both shoot down enemy aircraft and force bombers to drop their ordnance sooner or from higher altitudes, thus reducing bombing accuracy, low-altitude flak batteries put up a virtual 'wall of steel' for enemy fighter-bombers to fly through. Damaging a low-flying fighter-bomber made it easier for other flak gunners to track, engage and destroy it. Innovations like lead-computing gunsights gave gunners a higher probability of intercepting low-altitude fighters. Conversely, the appearance of air-to-ground rockets beneath the wings of P-47s gave pilots better standoff range and a harder-hitting punch when dealing with low and medium altitude flak units. This volume analyses the tactics and techniques used by both P-47 fighter-bomber pilots and German flak gunners, featuring full-colour illustrations to examine the Allied tactical air power in Europe from 1943 and how German defences were overpowered by the air threat.

P-47 Thunderbolt Vs German Flak Defenses

Author : Jonathan Bernstein
Publisher : Osprey Publishing
ISBN 13 : 147284629X
Total Pages : 0 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (728 download)

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Book Synopsis P-47 Thunderbolt Vs German Flak Defenses by : Jonathan Bernstein

Download or read book P-47 Thunderbolt Vs German Flak Defenses written by Jonathan Bernstein and published by Osprey Publishing. This book was released on 2021-10-26 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A detailed look at the tactics and techniques used by both P-47 fighter-bomber pilots and the German flak gunners charged with preventing their attacks. Analysis will focus on the employment of Allied tactical air power in Europe from 1943 and how German defenses struggled to counter the overwhelming air threat. Since the end of World War 2, the tactical air war over Europe has been largely overlooked by historians and authors alike in favor of analysis of the higher profile strategic bombing campaign. Involving just as many aircraft as the daylight heavy bombing campaign, the fighter-bombers (principally of the Ninth Air Force) wreaked considerably more havoc on German ground forces. Indeed, Thunderbolt units undertaking such missions effectively complemented the strategic campaign, ensuring the defeat of Nazi Germany. P-47 pilots paid a high price to achieve this victory, however, as the German flak arm was well equipped (nearly a quarter of all war-related production was devoted to anti-aircraft weaponry) with weapons of various calibers to counter tactical air power's low to medium altitude threat. The USAAF four numbered air forces that saw action over the European continent suffered significant fighter-bomber losses to flak. The principle fighter-bomber from the summer of 1944 through to VE Day was the P-47D, with both dedicated ground attack units and squadrons that had completed their bomber escort tasking seeking out targets of opportunity across occupied Western Europe. While heavy-caliber anti-aircraft fire was intended to both shoot down enemy aircraft and force bombers to drop their ordnance sooner or from higher altitudes, thus reducing bombing accuracy, low-altitude flak batteries put up a virtual 'wall of steel' for enemy fighter-bombers to fly through. Damaging a low-flying fighter-bomber made it easier for other flak gunners to track, engage, and destroy it. Innovations like lead-computing gunsights gave gunners a higher probability of intercepting low-altitude fighters. Conversely, the appearance of air-to-ground rockets beneath the wings of P-47s gave pilots better standoff range and a harder-hitting punch when dealing with low and medium altitude flak units. This volume analyzes the tactics and techniques used by both P-47 fighter-bomber pilots and German flak gunners, featuring full-color illustrations to examine the Allied tactical air power in Europe from 1943 and how German defenses were overpowered by the air threat.

D-Day Bombers

Author : Stephen Darlow
Publisher : Grub Street Publishing
ISBN 13 : 1909166456
Total Pages : 256 pages
Book Rating : 4.9/5 (91 download)

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Book Synopsis D-Day Bombers by : Stephen Darlow

Download or read book D-Day Bombers written by Stephen Darlow and published by Grub Street Publishing. This book was released on 2014-07-19 with total page 256 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book is largely an eye-witness account of the heavy bomber contribution to the success of the D-Day landings and therefore to the winning of the war in Europe. It is told using considerable first-hand experience from the veterans of the campaign, something not really covered in any other books on the subject, together with background information from primary source documents on the tactics and strategy employed. Eight different aircrews, five RAF and three USAAF, tell widely differing stories of operations before, during and after D-Day. Their vivid and dramatic accounts are supplemented by numerous contributions from other aircrew and ground crew veterans, army personnel and French civilians, which have been carefully gathered by Stephen Darlow from interviews with veterans and their relatives, through correspondence and contemporary diaries. Certain raids have been selected and described in detail and there are numerous previously unpublished photographs. As Winston Churchill wrote: '…This is no war of chieftains or of princes, of dynasties or national ambition; it is a war of peoples and of causes. There are vast numbers, not only in this island but in every land, who still render faithful service in the war, but whose names will never be known, whose deeds will never be recorded…' Here is their story, sixty years on.

Air Force Combat Units of World War II

Author : Maurer Maurer
Publisher : DIANE Publishing
ISBN 13 : 1428915850
Total Pages : 520 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (289 download)

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Book Synopsis Air Force Combat Units of World War II by : Maurer Maurer

Download or read book Air Force Combat Units of World War II written by Maurer Maurer and published by DIANE Publishing. This book was released on 1961 with total page 520 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Germany and the Second World War

Author : Horst Boog
Publisher : Oxford University Press
ISBN 13 : 0191089842
Total Pages : 931 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (91 download)

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Book Synopsis Germany and the Second World War by : Horst Boog

Download or read book Germany and the Second World War written by Horst Boog and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2006-05-04 with total page 931 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: By the spring of 1943, after the defeat at Stalingrad, the writing was on the wall. But while commanders close to the troops on Germany's various fronts were beginning to read it, those at the top were resolutely looking the other way. This seventh volume in the magisterial 10-volume series from the Militärgeschichtliches Forschungsamt [Research Institute for Military History] shows both Germany and her Japanese ally on the defensive, from 1943 into early 1945. It looks in depth at the strategic air war over the Reich and the mounting toll taken in the Battles of the Ruhr, Hamburg, and Berlin, and at the "Battle of the Radar Sets" so central to them all. The collapse of the Luftwaffe in its retaliatory role led to hopes being pinned on the revolutionary V-weapons, whose dramatic but ultimately fruitless achievements are chronicled. The Luftwaffe's weakness in defence is seen during the Normandy invasion, Operation overlord, an account of the planning, preparation and execution of which form the central part of this volume together with the landings in the south of France, the setback suffered at Arnhem, and the German counter-offensive in the Ardennes. The final part follows the fortunes of Germany's ally fighting in the Pacific, Burma, Thailand, and China, with American forces capturing islands ever closer to Japan's homeland, and culminates in her capitulation and the creation of a new postwar order in the Far East. The struggle between internal factions in the Japanese high command and imperial court is studied in detail, and highlights an interesting contrast with the intolerance of all dissent that typified the Nazi power structure. Based on meticulous research by MGFA's team of historians at Potsdam, this analysis of events is illustrated by a wealth of tables and maps covering aspects ranging from Germany's radar defence system and the targets of RAF Bomber Command and the US 8th Air Force, through the break-out from the Normandy beachhead, to the battles for Iwo Jima and Okinawa.

Germany and the Second World War

Author : Horst Boog
Publisher : Oxford University Press
ISBN 13 : 9780198228899
Total Pages : 931 pages
Book Rating : 4.2/5 (288 download)

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Book Synopsis Germany and the Second World War by : Horst Boog

Download or read book Germany and the Second World War written by Horst Boog and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 1990 with total page 931 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This is the second in the comprehensive ten-volume Germany and the Second World War. The five volumes so far published in German take the story to the end of 1941, and have achieved international acclaim as a major contribution to historical study. Under the auspices of the Militargeschichtliches Forschungsamt (Research Institute for Military History), a team of renowned historians has combined a full synthesis of existing material with the latest research to produce what will be the definitive history of the Second World War. This volume surveys the first year of the war deliberately begun by Nazi Germany. The authors examine the train of interconnected political and military events, and set military operations against the background of Hitler's war policy and general aims, both immediate and long term. The authors show that the conflict took a course quite different from that which Hitler had intended, but nevertheless resulted in a series of conquests for the Third Reich.

Mission to Berlin

Author : Robert F. Dorr
Publisher : Zenith Press
ISBN 13 : 1610602625
Total Pages : 336 pages
Book Rating : 4.6/5 (16 download)

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Book Synopsis Mission to Berlin by : Robert F. Dorr

Download or read book Mission to Berlin written by Robert F. Dorr and published by Zenith Press. This book was released on 2011-05-15 with total page 336 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From Hell Hawks! author Bob Dorr, Mission to Berlin takes the reader on a World War II strategic bombing mission from an airfield in East Anglia, England, to Berlin and back. Told largely in the veterans’ own words, Mission to Berlin covers all aspects of a long-range bombing mission including pilots and other aircrew, groundcrew, and escort fighters that accompanied the heavy bombers on their perilous mission.

Operation Barbarossa: the Complete Organisational and Statistical Analysis, and Military Simulation Volume IIA

Author : Nigel Askey
Publisher : Lulu.com
ISBN 13 : 1304453294
Total Pages : 724 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (44 download)

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Book Synopsis Operation Barbarossa: the Complete Organisational and Statistical Analysis, and Military Simulation Volume IIA by : Nigel Askey

Download or read book Operation Barbarossa: the Complete Organisational and Statistical Analysis, and Military Simulation Volume IIA written by Nigel Askey and published by Lulu.com. This book was released on 2013-11-01 with total page 724 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Operation Barbarossa: Volume IIA concerns the Wehrmacht. All the significant German weapon systems and combat squads used in the campaign are analysed using the quantitative methodology detailed in Volume I, along with the contextual history. An assessment of each weapon system's inherent 'combat power' is provided, as well as attributes such as the relative anti-tank, anti-personnel and anti-aircraft values. Volume IIA then focuses on the detailed Kriegstarkenachweisungen (KStN, or TOE) for German land units (including those in the West), as well as the unit's actual organisation and equipment. All significant units in the German Army (Heer), Waffen SS, Luftwaffe and security forces are included; ranging from the largest panzer divisions, down to small anti-aircraft companies, military-police units, Landesschutzen battalions, and rail-road and construction companies. In all cases the data is presented in detailed tables, using the weapon systems and combat squads previously analysed.

The Bomber War

Author : Robin Neillands
Publisher :
ISBN 13 :
Total Pages : 488 pages
Book Rating : 4.:/5 (89 download)

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Book Synopsis The Bomber War by : Robin Neillands

Download or read book The Bomber War written by Robin Neillands and published by . This book was released on 2001 with total page 488 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "In this book, Robin Neillands examines every detail of the campaign: the strengths and fundamental flaws in doctrine, the technical difficulties and developments from night-time navigation through bomb-aiming to fighter escort, and above all the day-by-day, night-by-night endurance of the crews, flying to the limit in discomfort and danger, facing flak and enemy fighters, and well aware of their likely fate if shot down. Oral history plays a key part in this account; it is illuminated throughout by the personal experiences not only of British but of American, Australian, Canadian and other Allied fliers as well, and also of German aircrew and civilians."--BOOK JACKET.Title Summary field provided by Blackwell North America, Inc. All Rights Reserved

Black Thursday: The Story of the Schweinfurt Raid

Author : Martin Caidin
Publisher : Lulu.com
ISBN 13 : 138769524X
Total Pages : 188 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (876 download)

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Book Synopsis Black Thursday: The Story of the Schweinfurt Raid by : Martin Caidin

Download or read book Black Thursday: The Story of the Schweinfurt Raid written by Martin Caidin and published by Lulu.com. This book was released on 2018-03-25 with total page 188 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Martin Caidin's Black Thursday: The Story of the Schweinfurt Raid tells of the United States Air Force's massive bombing raid into Nazi Germany's industrial heartland on Thursday, October 14, 1943. On that fateful day two hundred and ninety one hulking B-17 Flying Fortresses - escorted by squadrons of nimble P-47 Thunderbolts - miraculously fought their way through swarms of Messerschmitt Me-109's, Focke-Wulf FW-190's, Heinkel He-113's and more on their way to cripple the enemy's vital ball-bearings plant at Schweinfurt.

The North African Air Campaign

Author : Christopher M. Rein
Publisher : University Press of Kansas
ISBN 13 : 0700618783
Total Pages : 302 pages
Book Rating : 4.7/5 (6 download)

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Book Synopsis The North African Air Campaign by : Christopher M. Rein

Download or read book The North African Air Campaign written by Christopher M. Rein and published by University Press of Kansas. This book was released on 2012-11-30 with total page 302 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In the summer of 1942, Axis forces controlled almost the entire southern shore of the Mediterranean. Less than a year later, they had been swept from the African continent-thanks in no small part to efforts of the fledgling U.S. Army Air Force. Indeed, USAAF in North Africa emerged as a senior partner in the Alliance, supplying aircraft and crews at a rate the other partners were unable to match. Going beyond the spare analysis of North African air operations in previous accounts, Christopher Rein shows how American fighter planes and heavy bombers, employed in almost exclusively tactical and operational roles, played a pivotal role in the Alliance's successful ground campaigns. This aerial armada also had a significant negative impact on enemy logistics through its bombing raids on Axis ports, shipping, and airfields. In the process, USAAF helped foster and develop a pattern of inter-service cooperation that remains at the foundation of American close-air-support doctrine today. Rein chronicles the emergence of USAAF in the late interwar and early WWII periods as a more heterogeneous and creative fighting force than earlier works have led us to believe. He then analyzes little-known aspects of the war, including early air operations in the eastern Mediterranean and in the TORCH landings. He explores some of the key issues confronting Eisenhower, such as how to establish USAAF priorities and how to deploy long-range bombers, fighters, and attack forces. In describing the struggle for balance in the employment of air assets between strategic bombing and interdiction in a time fraught with inter-service rivalry, he shows how, despite occasional mistakes such as the heavy losses involved in the Ploesti raids, USAAF struck a suitable balance and even invested more assets in interdiction than traditional accounts of strategic bombardment would suggest. A virtual operational-level history of the USAAF during the formative period of American airpower, Rein's account pulls together material from diverse sources to demonstrate that today's Air Force emphasis on mobility, intelligence, reconnaissance, and close support for ground forces have deep roots. By showing that the Army Air Force in World War II did not neglect support for ground and naval forces in order to concentrate exclusively on strategic bombing, it suggests lessons for military and civilian leaders in the employment of air forces in current and future conflicts.

The Ruhr 1943

Author : Richard Worrall
Publisher : Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN 13 : 1472846540
Total Pages : 97 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (728 download)

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Book Synopsis The Ruhr 1943 by : Richard Worrall

Download or read book The Ruhr 1943 written by Richard Worrall and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2021-10-28 with total page 97 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This illustrated study explores, in detail, the RAF's first concentrated air campaign of World War II against one of the hardest and most important targets in Germany – the industrial heartland of the Ruhr that kept Hitler's war machine running. Between March and July 1943, RAF Bomber Command undertook its first concentrated bombing campaign, the Battle of the Ruhr, whose aim was nothing less than the complete destruction of the industry that powered the German war machine. Often overshadowed by the famous 'Dambusters' single-raid attack on the Ruhr dams, the Battle of the Ruhr proved much larger and much more complex. The mighty, industrial Ruhr region contained not only some of the most famous and important arms makers, such as the gunmakers Krupp of Essen, but also many other industries that the German war economy relied on, from steelmakers to synthetic oil plants. Being such a valuable target, the Ruhr was one of the most heavily defended regions in Europe. This book examines how the brutal Ruhr campaign was conceived and fought, and how Bomber Command's relentless pursuit of its objective drew it into raids on targets well beyond the Ruhr, from the nearby city of Cologne to the Skoda works in Czechoslovakia. Drawing on a wide-range of primary and secondary sources, this is the story of the first titanic struggle in the skies over Germany between RAF Bomber Command and the Luftwaffe.