Air War

Read by award-winning narrator, L.J. Ganser. Bestselling author of The Arsenal of Democracy and The Accidental President, A. J. Baime returns with the incredible story of the airplane that ended World War II, the B-29 Superfortress, the rise of American airpower, and the man who made it all...

Phu Bai, 1967. Captain Holloway flies the Bird Dog low and slow over a jungle that wants to kill him — marking targets for the fast-movers, reading vehicle tracks in morning shadow, keeping a mission log that is supposed to be the truth. It almost always is. Almost. When a recon team goes silent in a valley that isn't supposed to hold what Holloway's rockets found, he has to choose between the report the system will accept and the one that will actually get his men out. What follows is not a battle so much as a paper trail — through an interpreter who reads intercepts more carefully ...

Few perspectives epitomize the sheer drama and sacrifice of combat more perfectly than those of the fighter pilots of World War II. As romanticized as any soldier in history, the World War II fighter pilot was viewed as larger than life: a dashing soul waging war amongst the clouds. In the 65-plus years since the Allied victory, stories of these pilots' heroics have never been in short supply. But what about their adversaries - the highly skilled German aviators who pushed the Allies to the very brink of defeat?

An empress demands her birthright . . . The Air War is the eighth book in the critically acclaimed epic fantasy series Shadows of the Apt by Adrian Tchaikovsky. All is in turmoil as the world moves towards war. In Solarno, spies eye one another and ready their knives – while the people of Myna...

Aviation experiences direct from the memories of the men who fought in the skies during World War Two.

This is the thrilling saga of war in the air in the Pacific Theater of Operations during World War II told from the Japanese point of view. It is the story of the men who created, led, and fought in the deadly Zero fighter plane. In their own words, Jiro Horikoshi (who designed the Zero), Masatake Okumiya (leader of many Zero squadrons), and Saburo Sakai (Japan's leading surviving fighter ace) as well as many other men, tell the inside story of developing the Zero and Japan's air force. They tell what it felt like to bomb American ships and to shoot down American airplanes -- and then of ...

In War for the Hell of It, Cobleigh shares his perspectives in a deeply personal account of a fighter pilot's life, one filled with moral ambiguity and military absurdities offset by the undeniable thrill of flying a fighter plane. With well-crafted prose that puts you into his Phantom's cockpit, Cobleigh vividly recounts the unexplainable loss of his wingman, the useless missions he flew, the need to trust his reflexes, eyesight, aggressiveness, and his survival instincts in the heat of combat.

He was the most feared fighter pilot of the First World War. He became a legend in a red aircraft. He died chasing one last victim too low over enemy lines. Manfred von Richthofen — the Red Baron — remains the most famous airman in history. To his enemies he was the red machine in the sky. To Germany he became proof that victory could still be counted, named, and celebrated. To the men who flew with him, he was not simply a symbol, but a disciplined hunter who turned air combat into method. RED BARON tells the story behind the legend: the aristocratic cavalry officer whose first arm was...

Frank Ledwidge offers a sweeping look at the history of air warfare, introducing the major battles, crises, and controversies where air power has taken center stage and exploring the changes in technology and air power capabilities over time. Considering whether bombing has ever been truly effective, he discusses whether wars can be won from the air and concludes by analyzing whether there is a future for manned air power, or if it is inevitable that drones will dominate 21st-century war in the air.

What was it like to fly a MiG or Mirage in combat over Angola? Most books on the Angolan Bush War, especially those in English, present the South African perspective of events. Now a former MiG-23 Squadron Commander of the Cuban Air Force has collaborated with an ex-SAAF pilot to paint a remarkable new picture of the aerial conflict over Angola in the 1980s. In The MiG Diaries the recollections of Lt-Col Eduardo González Sarría are blended by Lionel Reid with those of air combatants from the Angolan, Cuban and South African air forces. Many are being published for the first time. Using ...

‘SAS Shadow Warriors’ is an explosive account of some of the Special Air Service’s most dangerous and little known operations. It takes the reader on a rollercoaster of a ride from the jungles of Malaya, through the plains and mountains of the middle-east, to missions against international terrorism. Also featured are four stories of incredible derring-do from the Rhodesian SAS archives. It is a must read for those interested in military history, or fans of the SAS and Special Forces in general. ‘SAS Shadow Warriors’ is the latest book by the author of ‘Bravo Ten’, Andy Ryan.

Jay A. Stout breaks new ground in World War II history with this gripping account of one of the war’s most highly decorated American fighter groups. Stout combines the storytelling gifts and careful research for a seasoned historian with the combat experience of a former fighter pilot to tell the remarkable story of the 352nd Fighter Group. This isn’t just the story of a single fighter group; it’s the story of how the United States won the air war over Europe.

Boarding an airplane strikes at least a small sense of fear into most people. Even though we all have heard that the odds of being struck by lightning are greater than the odds of perishing in a plane crash, it still doesn't feel that way. Airplane crashes might be rare, but they do happen, and they’re usually fatal. David Soucie insists that most of these deaths could be prevented. He’s worked as a pilot, a mechanic, an FAA inspector, and an aviation executive. He’s seen death up close and personal - deaths of colleagues and friends that might have been prevented if he had approved certain safety measures in the aircrafts they were handling.

Starting with leaflet drops in 1940, the aerial offensive against the Nazis’ homeland grew into a huge armada that pulverised much of Germany, seriously damaging her ability to make war and killing hundreds of thousands. By day, the Flying Fortresses of the Mighty Eighth US Airforce confronted...

This book brings you the previously untold firsthand accounts of combat and brotherhood, of captivity and redemption, and the aftermath of a war that left no American community unscathed.

In the Spring of 1915, a Parisian playboy took to the lethal skies of World War I, becoming the world’s first fighter pilot. Never before had a lone pilot hunted down other aviators. Roland Garros’ aerial exploits unleashed unlimited air combat and changed warfare forever. Before leaving French café society for the Western Front, the young pilot set aviation records, won air races, and introduced manned flight to thrilled crowds in the USA, Europe, and Latin America. Garros scouted for the US Army, strolled as a Boulevardier, sold sports cars, played classical piano, was a lawyer, a ...

Dave Baranek (callsign "Bio") was one of 451 young men to receive his Wings of Gold in 1980 as a naval flight officer. Four years later, seasoned by intense training and deployments in the tense confrontations of the Cold War, he became the only one of that initial group to rise to become an instructor at the navy's elite Fighter Weapons School. As a Topgun instructor, Bio was responsible for teaching the navy's and Marine Corps' best fighter pilots how to be even better. He schooled them in the classroom and then went head-to-head with them in the skies.

“Some men fly for glory—Trip Gibson flies because he must.” From the pen of award-winning author Frank A. Mason comes Where Eagles Dare Not Fly, a soaring new chapter in the Sunlit Silence Series. It’s January 1943, and Lieutenant Colonel Trip Gibson’s 14th Fighter Group—decimated in North Africa—has been withdrawn from combat. Summoned by General Henry “Hap” Arnold, Trip joins fellow aviators Philip Cochran and Johnny Alison to create a revolutionary air force: the First Air Commandos. Their mission will become one of the most audacious operations of World War II—...

Into The Mouth of The Cat: The Story of Lance Sijan, Hero of Vietnam tells the gripping true story of Lance Sijan. He was a United States Air Force captain in the Vietnam War. On November 9, 1967, Sijan was ejected from his F-4 Phantom II at high speed and a low altitude, causing him to suffer massive injuries to his entire body. During his violent ejection and very rough parachute landing on the karst ridge, Captain Lance Sijan suffered a fractured skull, a mangled right hand, with three of his fingers dislocated, and deep cuts and gashes in his forearms, a compound fracture of the left ...

In the war-torn skies over Europe, fate thrusts an unlikely squadron into the fight. When Captain Jack Carson and his pilots arrive in England, they have no aircraft, no missions, and no way to join the battle. That is, until the British make an unprecedented offer—Spitfires, the finest fighter planes in the world. With this golden opportunity comes immense pressure: the Americans must prove themselves against the best pilots Germany has to offer. Through the eyes of the cautious yet steadfast Jack Carson, the daring young ace Tommy Baker, the brilliant mechanic Stella Ward, and the ...