Author: Christopher Shores
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781910690000
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 736

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Book Description
The third volume in this series returns to November 1942 to explain the background to the first major Anglo-American venture - Operation Torch, the invasion of French North Africa. It deals with the fratricidal combats which followed the initial landings in Morocco and Algeria for several days. It then considers the efforts made - unsuccessfully in the event - to reach northern Tunisia before the Germans and Italians could get there to forestall the possibility of an attack from the west on the rear of the Afrika Korps forces, then beginning their retreat from El Alamein. The six months of hard fighting which followed as the Allies built up the strength of their joint air forces and gradually wrested control of the skies from the Axis, are covered in detail. Then from 1 April 1943 the continuing story of the Western Desert Air Force is told from the point at which Volume 2 ended, as it advanced from the east to join hands with the units in the west. Now also described are the arrivals over the front of American pilots and crew, the P-38 Lightning, the Spitfire IX and the B-17 Flying Fortress - and of the much-feared Focke-Wulf FW 190. The aerial activities over Tunisia became one of the focal turning points of World War II, yet this is frequently overlooked by historians. As before, the air-sea activities, the reconnaissance flights and the growing day and night bomber offensives form a major part of this volume. The mastery of the whole African coastline of the southern Mediterranean by the Allies prepared the way for the invasions of the European territories on the other side of this critical sea during 1943, which will be dealt with in Volume 4.

Author: Christopher Shores
Publisher: Grub Street Publishers
ISBN: 190980875X
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 560

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Book Description
This first volume in the seminal series on World War II aerial combat, pilots, and tactics that “reads like an encyclopedia on the subject” (Portland Book Review). In the early days of World War II, both Allied and Axis powers extended the theater of war to North Africa, where hard-fought battles were conducted in the harsh desert. But before anyone could claim victory on the ground, they had to hold dominion in the air. Here, historian Christopher Shores has combined his books Fighters over the Desert and Fighters over Tunisia into one volume, as well as adding updated information about the deadly fighter aircraft, reconnaissance aircraft, and maritime units active in the Mediterranean. Full of in-depth research and featuring essential maps, this is “an intimate introspection by these men of their experiences and the respect that they shared not only for each other but also their adversaries” (The Military Reviewer).

Author: Giovanni Massimello
Publisher: Grub Street Publishers
ISBN: 1910690678
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 736

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Book Description
The third volume in the epic military aviation series focuses on the Allied invasion of North Africa during World War II. This work of WWII history takes us to November 1942 to explain the background of the first major Anglo-American venture: Operation Torch, the invasion of French North Africa. Describing the fratricidal combat that followed the initial landings in Morocco and Algeria, it then considers the unsuccessful efforts to reach northern Tunisia before the Germans and Italians could get there to forestall the possibility of an attack from the west on the rear of the Afrika Korps forces, then beginning their retreat from El Alamein. The six months of hard fighting that followed, as the Allies built up the strength of their joint air forces and gradually wrested control of the skies from the Axis, are recounted in detail. The continuing story of the Western Desert Air Force is told, as it advanced from the east to join hands with the units in the west. Also covered are the arrivals over the front of American pilots and crew, the P-38 Lightning, the Spitfire IX, and the B-17 Flying Fortress—and of the much-feared Focke-Wulf Fw 190. The aerial activities over Tunisia became one of the focal turning points of World War II, yet are frequently overlooked by historians. Here, the air-sea activities, the reconnaissance flights, and the growing day and night bomber offensives are examined in detail.

Author: Christopher Shores
Publisher: A History of the Mediterranean
ISBN: 9781911621973
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 608

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Book Description
The book commences with coverage of the final fierce air-sea battles over the Aegean which preceded the advance northwards to Rome and the ill-conceived British attempt to secure the Dodecanese islands following the armistice with Italy

Author: Christopher Shores
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781909166127
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 736

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Book Description
The first volume of this series dealt with the initial 19 months of the air war over the Western Desert of North Africa. This volume picks up the story as the 8th Army, following its hard-fought success in Operation Crusader, was forced back to the Gazala area, roughly mid-way between the Cyrenaican/Tripolitanian border of Libya and the frontier with Egypt. It covers the lull prior to the disastrous defeat of the 8th Army in June 1942 and the loss of the important port and fortress of Tobruk. The costly efforts of the Allied air forces to protect the retreating British and Commonwealth troops and prevent this turning into a rout is examined in depth. So too is the heavy fighting which followed in the El Alamein region as the line was stabilised. This period was ameliorated somewhat for the Western Desert Air Force by the arrival - at last - of the first Spitfires. The build-up of both the army and air force which followed, coupled with new commanders on the ground, meant that Rommel's Deutsche Afrika Korps was defeated at Alam el Halfa at the start of September, and then again, comprehensively, at the climactic battle of El Alamein in October. Joined now by the first units of the United States Army Air Force, the Allied air forces began to achieve a growing ascendency over those of the Axis. The long, rather slow, pursuit of the Italo-German forces right across Libya is recounted, including the capture of Tripoli, followed by the breakthrough into Southern Tunisia at the end of March 1943. This allowed a link-up with the Allied forces in Tunisia (whose story will be related in Volume 3) to be achieved. In this volume follow to the fortunes of some of the great fighter aces of the Desert campaign such as Jochen Marseille and Otto Schulz of the Luftwaffe, Franco Bordoni-Bisleri of the Regia Aeronautica and Neville Duke, Billy Drake and 'Eddie' Edwards of the Commonwealth air forces. While the fighting above the constantly-moving front lines form the main narrative of this book, the Allied and Axis night bombing offensives and the activities of the squadrons co-operating with the naval forces in the Mediterranean are certainly not neglected.

Author: Christopher Shores
Publisher: Grub Street Publishing
ISBN: 191166767X
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 527

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Book Description
During the final year of World War II, the defending Axis forces were steadily driven from southern skies by burgeoning Anglo-American power. This was despite the steady withdrawal of units to more demanding areas. In this fifth volume of the series the activities of the Allied tactical air forces in support of the armies on the ground as their opponents were steadily extracted from northern Italy and the Balkans for the final defense of the central European homeland – are described in detail. The book commences with coverage of the final fierce air-sea battles over the Aegean which preceded the advance northwards to Rome and the ill-conceived British attempt to secure the Dodecanese islands following the armistice with Italy. The authors also deal fully and comprehensively with the advance northwards following the occupation of Rome, and the departure of forces to support the invasion of France from the Riviera coast, coupled with the formation of a new Balkan Air Force in eastern Italy to pursue the German armies withdrawing from Yugoslavia and take possession of newly freed Greece. The effect of the creation within the same area of the US and RAF strategic forces to join the Allied Combined Bombing Offensive is discussed. The final volume in the series will be concerned most especially with this latter campaign.

Author: Christopher Shores
Publisher: Grub Street
ISBN: 9781911621102
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages :

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Book Description
The fourth volume in this momentous series commences with the attacks on the Italian island fortress of Pantellaria which led to its surrender and occupation achieved almost by air attack alone. The account continues with the ultimately successful, but at times very hard fought, invasions of Sicily and southern Italy as burgeoning Allied air power, now with full US involvement, increasingly dominated the skies overhead. The successive occupations of Sardinia and Corsica are also covered in detail. This volume, then, is essentially the story of the tactical air forces up to the point when Rome was occupied, just at the same time as the Normandy landings were occurring in north-west France. In its pages are found what can justifiably be considered the story of 'the soldiers' air force'. Frequently overlooked by more immediate newsworthy events elsewhere, their struggle was often of an equally Homeric nature. With regards to the long-range tactical role of the Allied heavy bombers, only the period from May to October is examined herein, while they remained based in North Africa. Thus the period from November 1943 when the US 15th Air Force was formed to pursue the strategic air offensive against the Reich, together with the RAF's 205 Group of night bombers, will be covered in a future (sixth) volume. Volume Five will deal with the rest of the tactical war in Italy and Greece, over the Adriatic and Aegean, and with the entry into the South of France to join forces advancing southwards from Normandy.

Author: Christopher Shores
Publisher: Grub Street Publishing
ISBN: 191069097X
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 738

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Book Description
The first volume of this series dealt with the initial 19 months of the air war over the Western Desert of North Africa. This volume picks up the story as the 8th Army, following its hard-fought success in Operation Crusader, was forced back to the Gazala area, roughly midway between the Cyrenaican/Tripolitanian border of Libya and the frontier with Egypt. It covers the lull prior to the disastrous defeat of the 8th Army in June 1942 and the loss of the important port and fortress of Tobruk. The costly efforts of the Allied air forces to protect the retreating British and Commonwealth troops and prevent this turning into a rout is examined in depth. So too is the heavy fighting which followed in the El Alamein region as the line was stabilized. This period was ameliorated somewhat for the Western Desert Air Force by the arrival – at last – of the first Spitfires. The buildup of both the army and air force which followed, coupled with new commanders on the ground, meant that Rommel’s Deutsche Afrika Korps was defeated at Alam el Halfa at the start of September, and then again, comprehensively, at the climactic battle of El Alamein in October. Joined now by the first units of the United States Army Air Force, the Allied air forces began to achieve a growing ascendancy over those of the Axis. The long, rather slow, pursuit of the Italo-German forces right across Libya is recounted, including the capture of Tripoli, followed by the breakthrough into Southern Tunisia at the end of March 1943. This allowed a linkup with the Allied forces in Tunisia (whose story will be related in Volume 3) to be achieved. In this volume follow to the fortunes of some of the great fighter aces of the Desert campaign such as Jochen Marseille and Otto Schulz of the Luftwaffe, Franco Bordoni-Bisleri of the Regia Aeronautica and Neville Duke, Billy Drake and ‘Eddie’ Edwards of the Commonwealth air forces. While the fighting above the constantly moving front lines form the main narrative of this book, the Allied and Axis night bombing offensives and the activities of the squadrons cooperating with the naval forces in the Mediterranean are certainly not neglected.

Author: Davide F. Jabes
Publisher: Fonthill Media
ISBN:
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 256

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Book Description
The Macchi C.202 was probably the most successful Italian fighter during the Second World War. It is generally agreed that the performance of the Macchi was superior to both the Hawker Hurricane and the Curtiss P-40 Kittyhawk and on a par with the Supermarine Spitfire Mk. V. It is not by chance that virtually all the Italian top scoring aces flew this plane either with the Regia Aeronautica or the Aeronautica Nazionale Repubblicana. At the same time, the Mc.202 is the symbol of the dysfunctions in the Italian military-industrial complex: the lack of sound industrial planning resulting in orders from the Regia Aeronautica for an exaggerated number of different aircraft; the lack of the development of adequate engines limiting aircraft performance and reducing capacity to house weapons with a proper punch; the corruption of politics and the culpable connivance of the high military spheres. The Mc.202 was therefore produced in limited numbers, while there is consensus that air war, especially in the African theatre, would have been different had the aircraft been adopted before.

Author: Robert S. Ehlers, Jr.
Publisher: University Press of Kansas
ISBN: 0700620753
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 536

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Book Description
Without what the Allies learned in the Mediterranean air war in 1942–1944, the Normandy landings—and so, perhaps, the Second World War II—would have ended differently. This is one of many lessons of The Mediterranean Air War, the first one-volume history of the vital role of airpower during the three-year struggle for control of the Mediterranean Basin in World War II—and of its significance for the Allied successes in the war's last two years. Airpower historian Robert S. Ehlers opens his account with an assessment of the pre-war Mediterranean theater, highlighting the ways in which the players' strategic choices, strengths, and shortcomings set the stage for and ultimately shaped the air campaigns over the Middle Sea. Beginning with the Italian invasion of Abyssinia, Ehlers reprises the developing international crisis—initially between Britain and Italy, and finally encompassing France, Germany, the US, other members of the British Commonwealth, and the Balkan countries. He then explores the Mediterranean air war in detail, with close attention to turning points, joint and combined operations, and the campaign's contribution to the larger Allied effort. In particular, his analysis shows how and why the success of Allied airpower in the Mediterranean laid the groundwork for combined-arms victories in the Middle East, the Indian Ocean area, North Africa, and the Atlantic, northwest Europe. Of grand-strategic importance from the days of Ancient Rome to the Great-Power rivalries of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, the Middle Sea was no less crucial to the Allied forces and their foes. Here, in the successful offensives in North Africa in 1942 and 1943, the US and the British learned to conduct a coalition air and combined-arms war. Here, in Sicily and Italy in 1943 and 1944, the Allies mastered the logistics of providing air support for huge naval landings and opened a vital second aerial front against the Third Reich, bombing critical oil and transportation targets with great effectiveness. The first full examination of the Mediterranean theater in these critical roles—as a strategic and tactical testing ground for the Allies and as a vital theater of operations in its own right—The Mediterranean Air War fills in a long-missing but vital dimension of the history of World War II.