Series: Air Campaign

In 1960, SAC’s B-52s began a nonstop, eight-year, nuclear-armed patrol. Fully illustrated, this study explains how one of the Cold War’s most challenging operations was conceived and flown. Operation Chrome Dome was Strategic Air Command's unprecedented nuclear deterrence operation, a hugely elaborate and costly response to the perceived nuclear missile threat from the Soviet Union. In this book, Cold War...

The story of what really led to Germany losing the battle of Stalingrad - the inability of the Luftwaffe to keep Sixth Army supplied throughout the winter of 1942–43 - and why this crucial airlift failed. Luftwaffe chief Hermann Goering’s failure to deliver his promise to keep Sixth Army supplied at Stalingrad was one of the most hard-hitting strategic air...

The story of the hardest-fought air war of the jet era, where highly trained Israeli air forces almost met their match against Egypt and Syria's high-tech MiGs and missiles. The Yom Kippur War 1973, also known as the October War of 1973, was perhaps the most intensive and savage air war in history. It pitted more than 300 Israeli combat...

A detailed, illustrated account of the air campaign that accompanied the Red Army's final push towards Berlin, in which massed Soviet air power defeated the Luftwaffe's high-tech Me 262 jets and Mistel exploding drones. The last months of World War II on the Eastern Front saw a ferocious fight between two very different air forces. Soviet Air Force (VVS) Commander-in-Chief...

The Linebacker II campaign of 1972 saw America's fearsome but irreplaceable B-52s finally sent into action above the Vietnamese capital, Hanoi, in an attempt to bomb the Vietnamese to the negotiating table. After the failed April 1972 invasion of South Vietnam and the heavy US tactical bombing raids in the Hanoi area, the North Vietnamese agreed to return to the...

A renowned airpower expert assesses the air campaign fought in France in 1940, explaining why the Luftwaffe was so effective against the French and British. The battle for France and Belgium was one of the most significant moments in modern warfare: the first great clash of modern major powers, where both sides possessed large and capable air forces, and modern...

A detailed account of the war-winning role that a handful of Harrier squadrons played in the Falklands War. On 5 April 1982, the British aircraft carriers Hermes and Invincible sailed for the South Atlantic at the heart of the task force that would retake the Falkland Islands, known to Argentina as the Islas Malvinas. Air power was essential to the...

A comprehensively illustrated history and analysis of The Hump campaign in World War II, the huge and treacherous airlift over the Himalayas to keep China fighting. In World War II, the war in China tied down much of the Japanese Army, and it was crucial to keep China fighting and supplied. But when the Burma Road fell, the only way...

Lavishly illustrated, this book studies the role of airpower in the New Guinea battles of 1942–43, as the Allies checked and halted Japan's last significant offensives. New Guinea 1942–43 by Mark Stille and John Rogers offers a new history of a previously neglected part of the South Pacific air war—the battles over New Guinea and the waters around it. The...

The story of Germany's disastrous last cross-Channel Blitz in early 1944, which left the Luftwaffe devastated and barely able to oppose the D-Day landings. Operation Steinbock, or as it became known, the ‘Baby Blitz’, was the Luftwaffe’s last sustained night bomber offensive against the United Kingdom. In this book, renowned Luftwaffe historian Chris Goss explains how and why the Luftwaffe's...

This fully illustrated study explains the British Pacific Fleet’s campaign against the Japanese in the Sakishima Islands, its overlooked role in the battle for Okinawa. The invasion of Okinawa was, famously, the culmination of the United States’ island-hopping campaign. Less well known is the fact that it was also the greatest campaign of the British Pacific Fleet’s war against Japan,...

Fully illustrated, this study explores the technology, roles, and combat performance of Coalition airpower in the biggest air campaign of the early 21st century. In 2003, a US-led Coalition invaded Iraq with the aim of overthrowing Saddam Hussain’s regime. Just as it had in the 1991 Gulf War, airpower played a vital role. However, this war was very different to...

Normandy 1944 is packed with illustrations and is the first book to focus on the 'Transportation Plan', the air campaign designed to isolate the D-Day beaches from German reinforcements. As the invasion of Europe grew closer, strategic thought was given to the utilisation of the Allies' substantial forces of heavy bombers in preparation. After much controversy, the plan eventually adopted...

This illustrated study explores, in detail, the controversial Battle of Berlin, RAF Bomber Command's costly, brutal attempt to prove that strategic bombing alone could bring an end to World War II. Throughout late-1943 into early-1944, an epic struggle raged over the skies of Germany between RAF Bomber Command and the Luftwaffe. This campaign had been undertaken by the Commander-in-Chief Bomber...

The first history of how the aircraft of the British Pacific Fleet shattered Japanese oilfields in Sumatra, starving Japan of oil and proving how Anglo-American navies could fight together. With the war in Europe in its final stages, by 1944 the Royal Navy was able to put together a major force to join the campaign against Japan. The British Pacific...

A history of the US Navy's remarkable 1945 South China Sea raid against the Japanese, the first time in history that a carrier fleet dared to rampage through coastal waters. As 1945 opened, Japan was fighting defensively everywhere. As the Allies drew closer to the Home Islands, risks of Japanese air and sea attack on the US Navy carrier force...