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May 8, 1945, Victory in Europe Day-shortened to "V.E. Day"-brought with it the demise of Nazi Germany. But for the Allies, the war was only half-won. Exhausted but exuberant American soldiers, ready to return home, were sent to join the fighting in the Pacific, which by the spring and summer of 1945 had turned into a grueling campaign of bloody attrition against an enemy determined to fight to the last man. Germany had surrendered unconditionally. The Japanese
would clearly make the conditions of victory extraordinarily high.
Following V-E Day, American citizens understandably clamored for their young men to be shipped back from Europe and longed for a return to a peacetime economy. Politics intruded upon military policy while a new and untested president struggled to control policy. The challenge of defeating the Japanese had come to seem nearly insurmountable. American casualty rates during the previous eighteen months led Army Chief of Staff General George C. Marshall to warn of the toll that "the agony of
enduring battle" would likely take. General Douglas MacArthur clashed with Marshall and Admiral Chester Nimitz over strategy. Meanwhile, under pressure, the Army began a program of partial demobilization of troops in Europe, which depleted units at a time when combat-tested soldiers were most needed. In
this context of military emergency, the fearsome projections of the human cost of invading the Japanese homeland, and weakening social and political will in the American homeland, seemed to make victory, unconditional or otherwise, an increasingly distant prospect.
In Implacable Foes, award-winning historians Waldo Heinrichs and Marc Gallicchio bring to life the final year and a half of World War II in the Pacific, combining grand strategy and ground-level account, taking readers from the island-hopping campaigns in the spring of 1944-New Guinea to the Philippines to Okinawa and Iwo Jima-right up to the dropping of the atomic bombs over Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August 1945. Heinrichs and Gallicchio reveal more fully than ever before not only
the Japanese policies of desperate defense, but also the sometimes rancorous debates on the home front, and in the process deliver a gripping battle narrative integrated with a provocative and revisionist discussion of American decision-making. The result is a masterful work of military history, one that
illuminates both the calculus of global war and the incalculable part played by individual sacrifice.
Designed by a team led by Roy Chadwick, the man responsible for the legendary Lancaster, the Vulcan was created to carry Britain's nuclear deterrent in the 1950s and 1960s. Avro's delta-winged colossus became the backbone of the V-Force until the very end of the 1960s when the deterrent role passed to the Navy's Polaris submarine fleet. The Vulcan remained in RAF service as a tactical low-level bomber armed with conventional and nuclear weapons, and was only retired following the introduction of the Panavia Tornado.
This is both a comprehensive work of reference and an authoritative history. It covers the origins of the Vulcan and delta-winged flight, details of every major production variant, reproduces extracts from the Vulcan's original Aircrew Manual and has appendices on both squadron disposal and the fate of every Vulcan built. Also included is a wealth of information and anecdotes from former Vulcan air and ground crews, describing from first-hand experience what it was like to live with the mighty Vulcan.
The narrative is complimented with many photographs, scale drawings and color profiles making this book the definitive history of this superb aircraft and an essential addition to the libraries of aviation historians and modellers. Additional photographs have been added to this new edition.
Book six in the Naval Fighter Series on the Douglas A-4 Skyhawk covers the single seat subsonic carrier-capable A-4C/L in Navy service. It covers the technical aspects of these aircraft and squadron histories including squadron patches. Previous books in the series are: NF-49, USN A-4A/Bs; NF50, USMC/USMCR/USNR A-4A/Bs; NF-51, USN A-4E/Fs; NF52, USMC A-4E/Fs, and NF82, USN/USMC Two-Seat Skyhawks.
The A-4C was the most numerous version of the Skyhawk built (636). It also saw more combat service during the Vietnam war than any other A-4 version, completing 44 of the 111 deployments to Vietnam made with the Skyhawk. In 1970, the A-4C was given a second lease on life when 100 were upgraded to A-4Ls. These were to equip the attack squadrons of the newly reorganized reserves and their two Air Wings. The A-4Cs were given the A-4Fs electronics and hump and thus emulated the A-4Fs. After usage in seven reserve squadrons, these A-4Ls were used by the VC/utility squadrons into the late 1970s.
Although bombed at Pearl Harbor, USS Tennessee was back to sea before the year was over. The crew of the resilient warship fought from Alaska's Aleutian Islands to Tokyo Bay, surviving enemy artillery, bombs, and kamikaze attacks, and even collisions with other American warships. In 1945, Tennessee took part in the famous Battle of Surigao Strait, the last battleship-versus-battleship combat in history. The hundreds of photographs in this volume, many previously unpublished, trace this history of this iconic warship from her launching in Brooklyn in 1919, to her scrapping in Baltimore forty years later. Part of the Legends of Warfare series.
Patrol Torpedoaor PT boatsacaptured the public's imagination during WWII due to the daring exploits of their crews. Built not of plywood, as many believe, but rather of mahogany planks, and powered by a trio of Packard marine engines, these vessels operated in every theater, often facing opponents many times their size. The use of PT boats to evacuate General Douglas MacArthur and his family from the Philippines, a story dramatized in the movie They Were Expendable, put the PT boats and their crews in the public forefront, as did John F. Kennedy's loss of PT-109 and the subsequent rescue of him and his crew. This book looks at all the PT boat configurations used by the US Navy during WWII through rare archival photos, augmented by images of the few remaining vessels of the type. Part of the Legends of Warfare series.
MiG Killers: A Chronology of U.S. Air Victories in Vietnam 1965-1973 tells the dramatic story of U.S. Air Force and Navy flight crews who battled the Soviet-built enemy MiGs in the war-torn skies over Southeast Asia. Learn new information on this subject from vivid and detailed narrative describing all 202 MiG kills made by six different aircraft types, and with every engagement arranged in chronological order. This book also features the most complete photo documentation on this subject ever assembled. By using outstanding original military photography, much of which has never before been published, this book shows 169 of the 174 U.S. aircraft credited with MiG kills during the Vietnam War. It describes each aircraft with serial number, tail code, operational unit, crewmember names, callsign, and specific weaponry and tactics used in accomplishing each and every MiG kill made from April 1965 through January 1973.
Synonimous with the starvation that killed almost two million people, Biafra was a parastate that voted to secede from Nigeria in May 1967. Formally recognized by Gabon, Ivory Coast, Tanzania, and Zambia, and supported by France, Israel, Portugal, Spain, South Africa, Rhodesia, and even the Vatican, Biafra's attempt to leave Nigeria resulted in the Nigerian Civil War, which was to last until January 1970.
Although lacking official support from abroad, the Biafran authorities quickly built up a military. Their efforts to set up an air force, supported by numerous Europeans - were widely publicised. Indeed, Biafra-related adventures of Polish World War II ace Jan Zumbach, or the Swedish pilot Carl Gustaf von Rosen reached the status of legends before long.
Far less is known about the Biafran Army and Navy, their capabilities and intentions, or the conduct of their combat operations. Indeed, the establishment of multiple commando units, and a special guerrilla outfit designed to emulate the Viet Cong, but especially the local manufacture of weapons - including armoured vehicles - remain largely unknown to the public.
Based on years of thorough research, The Biafran Army is the first work ever to offer a comprehensive, in-depth study of the build-up, training, composition, equipment, and combat operations of all the three branches - the army, the air force, and the navy - of the secessionist military during the Nigerian Civil War.
Illustrated by more than 120 rare photographs, maps, and colour profiles, this account provides a unique source of reference for enthusiasts and professionals alike.
Amid the twists and turns of her survival to this day, the story of the light cruiser HMS Caroline spans a century and more. This book focuses on her early career, the role she played as just one of many components making up the Grand Fleet in time of war. We look at her routine participation in contraband control and, most dramatically, her appearance at the Battle of Jutland, when providence smiled upon her and guaranteed a safe emergence from that intense cauldron of explosion and fire.
How does the life of a warship usually finish if it is not sunk in action? It can be the sad destiny of great warships to find themselves one day `surplus to requirements'. They might have performed gloriously in battle in defence of the realm. They might have made headlines by saving life where natural disaster strikes. Yet still the breaker's yard beckons. Most men-of-war become out of date, too costly to run, as their usefulness wanes. However, some ships find a last minute reprieve by being sold to foreign countries. And yet a very special few survive in home waters for future generations. Among these is HMS Caroline.
The Morane Saulnier MS.406 was a speedy French fighter aircraft developed and manufactured by Morane Saulnier starting in 1938. It was France's most numerous fighter plane at the outbreak of World War II. During the Battle of France, 1940, casualties were many, amounting to approximately 400 aircraft being lost in the air and on the ground.
This profusely illustrated photo album includes over 150 previously unseen pictures of the MS.406, many from private sources in Germany.
This is the first full-length detailed study of the uniforms, organization, personnel and campaigns of the numerous Swiss units that served in the armies of Revolutionary, Directorate, and Imperial France from the campaigns of 1798 in Switzerland until the Hundred Days of 1815.
The author covers not just the regulation uniforms but also the numerous variations recorded in contemporary documents and plates. The uniforms of the Tete de Colonne could change from issue to issue and year to year and the author has tried to cover all of these known changes.
Estimates of the number of Swiss who served in the French Army from 1798-1815 vary from fifty to ninety thousand - numbers that makes the Swiss the largest non-French nationality in the Imperial Armies. There have been many studies of these units published in France and Switzerland but this is the first full-length study to be published in England.