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Reaching for the Sky

Over 700 Jet Provost and Strikemaster aircraft were produced in Britain between 1954 and 1983, the former responsible for training generations of RAF jet pilots, the latter an armed version of the Provost which saw action during the Dhofar War in Oman. This well-illustrated history of both aircraft charts their evolution, from initial production in 1954 to the final sales of three aircraft to Ecuador in 1988. A comprehensive appendix lists the complete production and technical histories of both jets.

This volume shows Britain getting ready for battle and illustrates some of women’s wartime roles, including aircraft assembly, WAAF radio technicians and pilots of the Air Transport Auxiliary.

The photographs in this collection belonged to Erich Heine, a Luftwaffe Stuka rear gunner and radio operator, and offer a glimpse of the German experience of the Second World War.

By 1918, the Red Baron was a national hero and his death in April of that year was a significant loss for the German Air Force and the nation; the event has been the subject of conflicting accounts and theories ever since. This biography is led by a collection of archive photographs of Richthofen during the war years, as well as significant people, places and aircraft.

The German aerial assault of the summer of 1940 resulted in a great many Luftwaffe losses over Britain. This collection of photographs shows some of the bombers brought down and crew members that survived during 1940.

The Battle of Britain (1940) was the first military campaign to be fought entirely in the air and was a turning point in the Second World War. This book lists all 544 British and Commonwealth pilots who gave their lives over the skies of southern England. The entries are listed in chronological order and each includes a short biography, the type of plane, name of squadron, previous missions and the manner of death.

In early 1945, the Nazis were engaged in secret programmes to develop faster aircraft, with greater range and anti-radar, or stealth characteristics; a turbojet ‘flying wing’ was already under construction. Illustrated with detailed technical drawings, this book provides an in-depth study of these radical fighter and bomber projects, and shows how close Hitler may have come to having long-distance bombing capability and winning the war in the air.

To defend the home counties from the terrifying V2 rocket attacks, formations of Mark XVI Spitfires carrying 250 lb and 500 lb bombs divebombed launch sites in Holland between 1944 and 1945. Drawing on records declassified in 2004, this updated account of Whitehall’s covert operation not only covers the daring raids of five different Spitfire squadrons, but also the intelligence-gathering activities in Europe of special commando units, including Ian Fleming’s 30 Assault Unit.

With nicknames like Flat Iron and Drag Queen, the Gloster Javelin was not the best-loved of RAF fighters, but it was a significant aircraft, developed to meet the demands of the Cold War. Watson gives a comprehensive, illustrated history of its chequered career.

Long before the USA entered the Second World War, William Ash (1918–2014) had left Texas, joined up in Britain and was flying Spitfires with 411 squadron. In 1942 he was shot down over France, captured and incarcerated in Stalag III; he spent the rest of the war trying to escape from various Nazi PoW camps, including Oflag XXIB in Poland. In this book, Bishop explores the PoW experience while telling the exciting and inspirational story of Ash’s determined efforts to break free.

Compared with the US and France, Russian colonization of the skies was almost a decade behind, but by 1910 a nascent aviation industry, with its flying schools, festivals and maiden flights, began capturing the nation’s imagination. This collection of over 400 photographs documents the flying machines of pre-revolutionary Russia, from turn of the century balloons and dirigibles to First World War bombers, and portrays the enthusiasts and aviators that made the Russian skies come alive.

Tim Vigors' memoir recounts his early life and his wartime experiences, from flying fighters during the Battle of Britain and in the Far East to being shot down and badly burned in northern Malaya.

The final effort of the Second World War against Japan is remembered as mainly an American affair, but the British fleet was there too and British airmen flying from carriers, mostly in leased American Corsair planes. This book recounts those last days of the Pacific War through the eyes of the Royal Navy pilots who flew hundreds of missions over Japan and in the face of desperate Japanese kamikaze attacks during the summer of 1945.

In 1926 the Italian airship designer Umberto Nobile flew an airship across the Arctic to accomplish the first ever transpolar flight. Aboard the Norge was the famous Norwegian explorer Roald Amundsen. Two years later Amundsen would die trying to rescue Nobile from the ice after his airship crashed. This book recalls some of the intrepid pilots of the airship era and their pioneering achievements.

One of the most successful RAF squadrons during the Battle of Britain in 1940 was 303 Polish Squadron, manned by exiled Poles but led by Johnny Kent, a Canadian pilot who had joined the RAF in the mid 1930s and had already won the Air Force Cross for his work as a test pilot before the war began. His memoir, first published in the 1970s, is presented here in an expanded edition with additional biographical information and photographs.

With its formation rooted in the development of German 'X-system' radio navigation, KG 100 was an elite Luftwaffe pathfinding and special operations bomber unit during the Second World War, flying Dornier 217s, Heinkel 111s and Heinkel 177s. From missions in Norway and Britain to the Eastern Front and North Africa, this book captures the operations of KG 100 throughout the war in a series of photographs and extended captions.

The Luftwaffe favoured light bombers in support of ground forces during the blitzkrieg advances of 1939 and 1940 but turned to heavy bombers for the mass attacks on England in 1940 and 1941. Including Heinkel 111s, Junkers 88s, Messerschmitt 410s and Dornier 217s, this book presents 100 photographs of German bombers and their crews from the preparations for Operation Sea Lion in 1940 to the V1 and V2 rocket attacks.

This is the biography of one of the leading Spitfire aces of the war. Australian by birth, Pat Hughes joined the RAF in 1937 and led 234 Squadron during the Battle of Britain until he was killed in action in September 1940.

Barnes Wallis's bouncing bomb and its use on the Ruhr dams is one of the best-known stories of the Second World War. This reappraisal of the events examines the mission itself but also assesses the real effectiveness of the attack on the German war effort, follows the careers of the protagonists of 617 Squadron beyond May 1943, and explores the legacy of the raid and how the legend of 'the Dam Busters' was born.

Formed in June 1940, No1 Group Bomber Command became one of the principal offensive weapons wielded by Britain over the next five years, the force including squadrons that flew the most sorties, dropped the most bombs and suffered the highest casualties of any during the war. This account describes 1 Group's wartime activities, explaining its structure, analysing its aircraft, reviewing principal operations and paying tribute to the 8,760 men who lost their lives.

The success of German paratroops in the invasion of Crete in 1941 convinced the Allies that airborne forces would be crucial as the war progressed, but the high casualty rate persuaded Hitler of the opposite. This book analyses the development and training of American, British and Canadian parachute and glider units and explains the critical role they played on D-Day, describing how close they came to failure in securing key locations ahead of the invasion.

The success of the Luftwaffe in the early years of the Second World War was partly to blame for its ultimate defeat, according to this report compiled by British intelligence officers. First published by the Air Ministry in 1948, it is a detailed contemporary analysis of the Luftwaffe's operational performance and the character and achievements of its senior officers, including Göring and Hitler, whose decisions and actions are identified as significant factors in Germany's loss of air superiority.

In 2012 the Imperial War Museums acquired a remarkable collection of 15,000 photographs showing American servicemen who were stationed at air bases in Britain during the Second World War. This selection presents more than 70 of the images illustrating the GIs’ work and recreations, both at military sites and among local communities. The accompanying text gives brief biographies of those pictured and celebrates the resilience and bravery with which pilots flew deep into enemy territory.

The Battle of Britain may have been won by 'the Few' but resistance to German aerial attack in the early part of the Second World War also relied on a well-organized network of support staff. Based on interviews with members of this formidable team, the book pays tribute to the men and women who enabled the Spitfires and Hurricanes to prevail, from radar engineers and coastal spotters to Wrens in the control rooms and pilots in the air.

The British Airborne forces were created during the Second World War and took part in crucial campaigns in Europe, the Mediterranean, North Africa and the Middle East between 1939 and 1948. This definitive record of the honours achieved by its personnel during that period is an updated edition of the reference work, now including the battalion of each recipient, brief narratives of the events rewarded and an index of recipients.

Before Pearl Harbor and the entry of the United States into the Second World War, American pilots seeking adventure, or with strong political motivations, volunteered for the RAF to fight the Germans. From cultural conflicts with their English hosts to action over France, particularly the Dieppe raid of August 1942, this book charts the experiences of the 270 airmen who flew in the three RAF 'Eagle' squadrons of American volunteers before being reassigned to the USAAF by late 1942.

Surrey was a key area in the effective defensive system operated by the RAF during the Second World War, with important fighter airfields such as Kenley and Croydon as well as radar stations on the coast. This history describes the air war in the county and profiles the principal aircraft involved as well as some of the aces, such as 'Johnnie' Johnson and Peter Townsend, who flew from Surrey aerodromes.

On the night of 19 February 1944, 79 heavy bombers failed to return from the third RAF raid on the industrial city of Leipzig. Some 420 aircrew were killed and 131 taken prisoner of war. The bombers' target was the Messerschmitt factory, but they seemed to fly into a trap of night fighters and flak. Cooper gives an in-depth account of the first two raids, analyses what went wrong on the third and describes the subsequent USAAF daylight raid on the city.

Major Mick Mannock, who was shot down behind enemy lines in July 1918, is the first aviation mystery scrutinized in Saunders's third book, which widens the field of enquiry beyond the Second World War to include other 20th century conflicts including Korea, Vietnam and the First Gulf War.

Although the value of radar to the defence of southern England during the Battle of Britain is well known, little has been written about the electronic arms race that developed thereafter. In addition to radar tracking and communication, radio technology became increasingly important in target and bomb-guidance systems. This book tells the story of the RAF support squadron that provided vital protection to Bomber Command operations by employing radio jamming and radar countermeasures against German defences.

Drawing on his own collection of YMCA personal wartime logs, Pateman presents an account of Allied airmen's imprisonment in POW camps in Germany, including the story of Unshackled Spirit, the Spitfire purchased by a group of POWs.

In this 1928 account of a pilot in the First World War, the letters and diaries of Flying Officer Michael John Enderby and the comments of Group Captain Merrivale are ostensibly fiction. They are in fact closely based on the experiences of the author and offer an insight into the workings of the Royal Flying Corps, with descriptions of real combat events and observations on the development of aviation technology and the tactics of aerial combat during the war.

Above the trenches of the First World War, the battle in the air between the first primitive aircraft and the intrepid aviators who flew them was played out like a medieval knightly tournament. This deadly contest is brought to life in the memoir of Ernst Udet (1896–1941), the German ace whose reputation was second only to that of the Red Baron. Richard Overy introduces this new edition of this aviation classic.

John Frayn Turner's analysis of the Battle of Britain, first published in the 1990s, includes many first-hand accounts by fighter aces and focuses in particular on 12 Group, Fighter Command.

Alfred Mahncke was witness to some of the earliest experiments in military aviation, served as a pilot throughout the First World War and was a senior Luftwaffe officer, working with Goring and other leading figures, during the Second. His recently translated memoir provides an eyewitness account of German military aviation through both conflicts, but also describes the political upheavals of the inter-war years, the rise of Nazism and the formation of the new German air force in the late 1930s.

Drawing on new material, this study of Douglas Bader, from headstrong youth to national hero, offers an objective view of the achievements of the fighter pilot who overcame disability to become an RAF leader during the Battle of Britain.

John Conen gives a full account of a series of raids often neglected in Second World War histories: the Luftwaffe's Operation Steinbock, which included the devastating bombing of the Guinness flats in Chelsea, in early 1944.

When the Spitfire was designed in the mid 1930s, the RAF, and most other major air forces, were still operating fabric-covered bi-plane fighters with open cockpits; by the time it was retired, the jet age was well underway. This book, a compilation of Alfred Price's three-volume series, first published in the 1970s, examines the development and operational duties of the leading fighter of the period through the stories of the pilots who flew it and accompanying archive photographs.