Many otherwise average fighter pilots came of age in the skies of Malta-an area dubbed 'a fighter pilot's paradise'. There was seldom a shortage of targets as the Luftwaffe endeavoured to flatten the defences and destroy the small air force, in which task it failed, but only narrowly. 249 Squadron was at the forefront of the fighting for two ......
Robert Bowater was born in England some twenty years after the events portrayed in this book. His passion for Second World War aviation began at an early age and the culmination of many years of research can be found within the pages of this, his first book. He has lived and worked in Scotland for the past fourteen years with his wife Elspeth, two ......
610 (County of Chester) Squadron formed in February 1936 as a bomber squadron, but transferred to Fighter Command as World War II loomed. The book's main focus is on 610 Squadron's courageous story during the Dunkirk evacuation and the Battle of Britain, when it paid a heavy sacrifice to become one of Britain's most successful Spitfire squadrons.
The FAA's top-scoring fighter squadron of the Second World War
Brian Cull is a highly respected Grub Street author with past publications such as Hurricanes over Tobruk, Hurricanes over Malta, Spitfires over Sicily and Buffaloes over Singapore to his credit. Frederick Galea is a prolific writer on Maltas WWII aviation heritage.
A remarkable true story of an RAF fighter pilot and his incredible adventures. Nothing perhaps was more astonishing than his survival after hitting a duck at 500 mph and his subsequent fight back to become not only pilot in command once again, but to fly Heads of State and The Queen. A miracle that he is still alive, but amazingly he still flies.
The story of one of Britains most distinguished RAF stations. Not as well-known as Biggin Hill, Manston was the nearest airfield to the Luftwaffe and suffered accordingly. The stations motto was Arise to Protect and in two wars Manston carried out that role. It was the only station that housed aircraft of every command as well as the USAAF.
Luftwaffe Aerial Reconnaissance Photographs of England, Scotland and Wal
Luftwaffe aerial reconnaissance photographed all of Great Britain. In June 1945 a British intelligence unit stumbled upon 16 tonnes of pictures, dumped in a barn in the Bavarian forest. The original Luftwaffe archive was destroyed at the end of the war, and this discovery was an incomplete German Intelligence copy. This book reproduces 220 images.
The final year of World War II witnessed the decline of the piston-engine fighter and the beginning of the jet age. Taking to the skies were tried-and-true fighters, improved versions of old aircraft, and newly developed jets, including prototypes that flew for the first time just before the war ended.
"Filling a substantial void in our understanding of the history of airpower in Vietnam, this book provides the first comprehensive treatment of the air wars in Vietnam. Most important for understanding the US defeat, Laslie illustrates the perils of a nation building a one-dimensional fighting force capable of supporting only one type of war"--