Cet auteur élabore des récits captivants centrés sur l'aviation, explorant l'histoire des personnes, des unités et des événements cruciaux, tout en examinant les avancées technologiques et leur impact. Ses expériences personnelles en tant que pilote et aviateur, associées à un héritage familial dans l'aviation, confèrent à ses écrits une qualité authentique et immersive, plaçant les lecteurs directement dans le cockpit. Il considère l'éducation comme un voyage tout au long de la vie, alliant l'étude formelle à l'exploration autodidacte, où les avions servent de passerelle pour comprendre l'histoire et le monde en général.
Dubbed the 'Eagles of Duxford', the 78th Fighter Group (FG) was unique in being the only fighter unit in the 'Mighty Eighth' to fly the P-38 Lightning, P-47 Thunderbolt and P-51 Mustang operationally. This title charts the group's highs and lows during its two years in action from Duxford, focusing on the exploits of the 51 pilots.
The first VF-2 was a prewar unit that had been dubbed the 'hottest outfit afloat' due to the skill of their non-commissioned pilots. This title tells the story of the ace pilots who comprised the original VF-2 and the second.
This vivid narrative history tells the full story of the US Air Force's involvement in the wars in the air over Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia. The involvement of the US Air Force in the Southeast Asian Wars began in 1962 with crews sent to train Vietnamese pilots, and with conflict in Laos, and finally ended in 1972 with the B-52 bombing of Hanoi, though there were Air Force pilots unofficially flying combat in Laos up to the end in 1975. The missions flown by USAF aircrews during those years in Southeast Asia differed widely, from attacking the Ho Chi Minh Trail at night with modified T-28 trainers, to missions Downtown, the name aircrew gave Hanoi, the central target of the war. This aerial war was dominated by the major air operations against the north: Rolling Thunder from 1965 to 1968, and then Linebacker I and II in 1972, with the latter seeing the deployment of America's fearsome B-52 bombers against the North Vietnamese capital Hanoi. These operations were carried out in the face of a formidable Soviet-inspired air defence system bristling with anti-aircraft guns and SAM missile sites. Beyond this, the US Air Force was intimately involved in secret air wars against Laos and Cambodia - one cannot speak of a war only in Vietnam regarding US Air Force operations
This is a vivid narrative history of the early stages of the Pacific War, as US and Allied forces desperately tried to slow the Japanese onslaught that began with the sudden attack on Pearl Harbor in December 1941.
Titled after the wartime nickname for the part of North Korea that was the epicenter of a bitter struggle for air superiority over the Korean Peninsula, MiG Alley offers an in-depth analysis of the US Air Force's war in Korea, packed with interesting and exciting personal stories based on first-person testimony from both American and Soviet sources.
A vivid narrative history of the final stages of the Pacific War, as the US Navy began to slowly approach the Japanese home islands against fearsome opposition, notably from the suicidal Japanese airmen: the kamikaze.
Thomas McKelvey Cleaver conducts a thorough and compelling investigation of the 14 months of the Central Pacific Campaign that saw the US Navy progress from the edge of disaster to the brink of victory.
The 'Tonkin Gulf Yacht Club' was the tongue-in-cheek nickname of the US Seventh Fleet that was stationed off the coast of Vietnam and this book tells the full story of the US Naval air campaign in the Vietnam War from 1965 to 1975. On August 2, 1964, the USS Maddox became embroiled in the infamous Gulf of Tonkin incident that led directly to America's increased involvement in the Vietnam War. Supporting the Maddox that day were four F-8E Crusaders from the USS Ticonderoga, and this was the very start of the US Navy's commitment to the air war over Vietnam. The Tonkin Gulf Yacht Club is titled after the nickname for the US Navy's Seventh Fleet which was stationed off the coast of Vietnam, and it tells the full story of the US Navy's war in the air. It details all the operations from the USS Maddox onwards through to the eventual withdrawal of the fleet following the collapse of South Vietnam in 1975. The Seventh Fleet's Task Force 77, which at points during the war had as many as six carriers on station at any one time with 70-100 aircraft on each, provided vital air support for combat troops on the ground, while at the same time taking part in the major operations against North Vietnam itself such as Rolling Thunder, Linebacker I and II. All of these operations took place in a hostile environment of flak, missiles and MiGs. The story is told through the dramatic first-hand accounts of those that took part in the fighting, with many of the interviews carried out by the author himself. The Vietnamese perspective is also given, with the author having had access to the official Vietnamese account of the war in the air. The author also has a personal interest in the story, as at the age of 20 he served with the US Seventh Fleet off the coast of Vietnam and was personally involved in the dramatic history of The Tonkin Gulf Yacht Club
Offers an account of the breakout from the Chosin Reservoir in North Korea by the First Marine Division following the intervention of Red China in the Korean War. This book tells the story of heroism and bravery in the face of overwhelming odds as a handful of Marines fought desperately against wave after wave of Chinese forces.