Raf Fighter Command Pilot

Author : Mark Barber
Publisher : Bloomsbury Publishing
Page : 66 pages
File Size : 51,7 Mb
Release : 2012-09-20
Category : History
ISBN : 9781849087803

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RAF Fighter Command Pilot by Mark Barber Pdf

The recent 70th anniversary of the Battle of Britain, combined with the threat of significant cuts to the current RAF, have highlighted the importance of Fighter Command in the early days of World War II once more. The role of the “few”, as described by Churchill, during the Battle of Britain has been the subject of much mythologizing both at the time and in the years since. This title will put Fighter Command in context; describing the lack of funding and attention which it received during the interwar period, until it was almost too late. The myth of the fighter pilot will be humanized, with first-hand accounts quoted which put nervous but brave human beings from all walks of life in the cockpit. Although the Battle of Britain may not have in itself been the decisive encounter that it has historically been portrayed as, the moral victory won by the RAF, the victory that proved that Germany could be defeated, was just as important as a military-strategic victory.

Author : Mark Barber
Publisher : Bloomsbury Publishing
Page : 135 pages
File Size : 44,7 Mb
Release : 2012-09-20
Category : History
ISBN : 9781780968988

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RAF Fighter Command Pilot by Mark Barber Pdf

The recent 70th anniversary of the Battle of Britain, combined with the threat of significant cuts to the current RAF, have highlighted the importance of Fighter Command in the early days of World War II once more. The role of the “few”, as described by Churchill, during the Battle of Britain has been the subject of much mythologizing both at the time and in the years since. This title will put Fighter Command in context; describing the lack of funding and attention which it received during the interwar period, until it was almost too late. The myth of the fighter pilot will be humanized, with first-hand accounts quoted which put nervous but brave human beings from all walks of life in the cockpit. Although the Battle of Britain may not have in itself been the decisive encounter that it has historically been portrayed as, the moral victory won by the RAF, the victory that proved that Germany could be defeated, was just as important as a military-strategic victory.

Author : Norman L. R. Franks
Publisher : Motorbooks International
Page : 264 pages
File Size : 44,5 Mb
Release : 1992
Category : Technology & Engineering
ISBN : UOM:39015028444225

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RAF Fighter Command 1936-1968 by Norman L. R. Franks Pdf

Author : Jonathan Falconer
Publisher : The History Press
Page : 69 pages
File Size : 54,8 Mb
Release : 2011-09-16
Category : History
ISBN : 9780752470498

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Life as a Battle of Britain Pilot by Jonathan Falconer Pdf

Southern England. Late summer 1940. The nation is fighting for its very survival and the Luftwaffe's aerial offensive is unrelenting. All that lies between invasion and salvation for Britain is the 'thin blue line' of RAF Fighter Command and its pilots. This newly illustrated anniversary edition of Life as a Battle of Britain Pilot reveals what it was like to fly a fighter plane in the Battle of Britain. Who were the Spitfire and Hurricane pilots of 1940? How did they spend a typical day? And when pitched together in combat at 30,000 feet, which was the better machine - Spitfire or Me109? Read Life as a Battle of Britain Pilot and then ask yourself: would I have been up to the job?

Author : Chaz Bowyer
Publisher : Pen and Sword
Page : 317 pages
File Size : 55,7 Mb
Release : 2000-09-13
Category : History
ISBN : 9781473814103

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Fighter Pilots of the RAF, 1939–1945 by Chaz Bowyer Pdf

The author has selected some twenty RAF fighter pilots of the Second World War, not only to give overdue recognition to their prowess and courage, but also to exemplify the wide diversity of the individual characters of those men whose war was fought from the cockpit of an RAF fighter. A few were familiar names but most received little or no public acclaim, being part of the silent majority which provided the real spine of the RAF's fighter effort throughout the conflict.

Author : J R D 'Bob' Braham
Publisher : Greenhill Books
Page : 260 pages
File Size : 42,7 Mb
Release : 2021-12-03
Category : Biography & Autobiography
ISBN : 9781784386719

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Scramble! by J R D 'Bob' Braham Pdf

J. R. D. ‘Bob’ Braham was Britain’s most-decorated fighter pilot and one of the most successful fighter pilots of World War II. Joining the RAF in 1938 at the age of 18, he was posted to No. 29 Squadron at Debdon, where he learned to fly the Hawker Hurricane and Bristol Blenheim. By 1939, the squadron had become a specialised night fighting unit and Braham gained his first victory in August 1940. From that point on, he was constantly in action. Famed for his individual night-time intruder sorties, he also took part in the Peenemiinde raid, the Battle of Britain, and the fight against the V1s and V2s during the Blitz. In 1943, battle fatigued, he moved into an operational role but continued to fly operations until June 1944 when he was shot down and captured. Having completed 316 missions, he spent the next eleven months as a Prisoner of War, and was finally liberated in May 1945. With 29 confirmed combat victories, Braham achieved more success in night fighting than almost any other RAF pilot and was awarded the triple Distinguished Flying Cross (DFC), the triple Distinguished Service Order (DSO) and the Air Force Cross (AFC). Told in his own words, with all the spirit and dynamism for which he was known as a pilot, this is Braham’s extraordinary story.

Author : Martin W. Bowman
Publisher : Pen and Sword
Page : 332 pages
File Size : 47,7 Mb
Release : 2015-08-31
Category : History
ISBN : 9781473865716

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RAF Fighter Pilots in WWII by Martin W. Bowman Pdf

This is a pulsating account of the young RAF fighter boys who flew Spitfires, Hurricanes and Defiants in England against the Luftwaffe and from Malta 1940-45 against the Regia Aeronautica. Their story is told using combat reports and first person accounts from RAF, German and Commonwealth pilots who fought in the skies in France in 1940, in England during the Battle of Britain, and in the great air offensives over Occupied Europe from 1942 onwards. Chapters include the stories of Wing Commander D. R. S. Bader, Wing Commander Adolph Gysbert 'Sailor' Malan, Oberleutnant Ulrich Steinhilper, Flight Lieutenant H. M. Stephen, Squadron Leader Robert Stanford Tuck, 'Johnny' Johnson, Squadron Leader M. N. Crossley, Squadron Leader A. McKellar, 'Cowboy' Blatchford and Squadron Leader D. H. Smith, an Australian veteran of the Battle of Malta and many others whose names have now become legendary.

Author : John Foreman
Publisher : Red Kite / Air Research
Page : 322 pages
File Size : 44,5 Mb
Release : 2003
Category : World War, 1939-1945
ISBN : 0953806189

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Fighter Command Air Combat Claims 1939-45 by John Foreman Pdf

An essential reference series listing every combat claim submitted by RAF fighter pilots during World War Two. Part One covers the Fall of France and Battle of Britain, Part Two covers the period after the Battle of Britain when RAF Fighter Command went on the offensive over Occupied Europe.

Author : Tom Neil
Publisher : Weidenfeld & Nicolson
Page : 304 pages
File Size : 40,5 Mb
Release : 2013-02-28
Category : Biography & Autobiography
ISBN : 9780297868149

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The Silver Spitfire by Tom Neil Pdf

A brilliantly vivid Second World War memoir by one of 'the Few' Spitfire fighter pilots. Following the D-Day landings, Battle of Britain hero Tom Neil was assigned as an RAF liaison to an American fighter squadron. As the Allies pushed east, Neil commandeered an abandoned Spitfire as his own personal aeroplane. Erasing any evidence of its provenance and stripping it down to bare metal, it became the RAF's only silver Spitfire. Alongside his US comrades, he took the silver Spitfire into battle until, with the war's end, he was forced to make a difficult decision. Faced with too many questions about the mysterious rogue fighter, he contemplated increasingly desperate measures to offload it, including bailing out mid-Channel. He eventually left the Spitfire at Worthy Down, never to be seen again. THE SILVER SPITFIRE is the first-hand, gripping story of Neil's heroic experience as an RAF fighter pilot and his reminiscences with his very own personal Spitfire.

Author : Tony Holmes
Publisher : Pen and Sword
Page : 145 pages
File Size : 40,9 Mb
Release : 2015-07-31
Category : History
ISBN : 9781473835665

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American Eagles: US Fighter Pilots in the RAF 1939-1945 by Tony Holmes Pdf

American Eagles provides a photographic snapshot of the lives of the American fighter pilots who volunteered their services during World War II, as well as the Spitfires and Hurricanes they flew. Keen to help Britain stem the spread of Fascism, or perhaps seeking adventure in a foreign land, a number of American citizens defied the wishes of their government by crossing the border into Canada and subsequently sailing to Britain to join the Royal Air Force. Some were prewar civilian pilots, others were rich playboys and a few were already serving in the RAF when war was declared. Men such as Don Blakeslee, Billy Fiske, 'Gus' Daymond and Jim Dunn, as well as many other notable pilots are featured in this volume, in photographs that have been carefully sourced from official and private archives across the globe. Each image has a detailed caption, chronicling the wartime exploits of the elite 'band of brothers' known as the American Eagles.

Author : John Foreman
Publisher : Red Kite / Air Research
Page : 266 pages
File Size : 50,7 Mb
Release : 2005
Category : World War, 1939-1945
ISBN : 0954620151

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Raf Fighter Command Victory Claims by John Foreman Pdf

This reference work will provide a vital tool for those researching the combats that took place over Europe, whether from the RAF or Luftwaffe view point.

Author : Max Arthur
Publisher : Skyhorse
Page : 304 pages
File Size : 51,7 Mb
Release : 2011-08-01
Category : History
ISBN : 9781628730463

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Last of the Few by Max Arthur Pdf

After the fall of France in May 1940, the British Expeditionary Force was miraculously evacuated from Dunkirk. Britain now stood alone to face Hitler’s inevitable invasion attempt. For the German army to land across the channel, Hitler needed mastery of the skies—the Royal Air Force would have to be broken. So every day throughout the summer, German bombers pounded the RAF air bases in the southern counties. Greatly outnumbered by the Luftwaffe, the pilots of RAF Fighter Command scrambled as many as five times a day, and civilians watched skies crisscrossed with the contrails from the constant dogfights between Spitfires and Me-109s. Britain’s very freedom depended on the outcome of that summer’s battle: Its air defenses were badly battered and nearly broken, but against all odds, “The Few,” as they came to be known, bought Britain’s freedom—many with their lives. More than a fifth of the British and Allied pilots died during the Battle of Britain. These are the personal accounts of the pilots who fought and survived that battle. Their stories are as riveting, as vivid, and as poignant as they were seventy years ago. We will not see their like again.

Author : Paul Richey
Publisher : The History Press
Page : 252 pages
File Size : 47,8 Mb
Release : 2016-05-02
Category : Transportation
ISBN : 9780750965385

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Fighter Pilot by Paul Richey Pdf

One of ‘The 30 Best Travel and Adventure Books of All Time’, as selected by Gear Patrol, Winner 2015 US Travel and Adventure website.Fighter Pilot was written from the immediate and unfettered personal journal that 23-year-old Flying Officer Paul Richey began on the day he and No. 1 Squadron landed their Hawker Hurricanes on a grass airfield in France. Originally published in September 1941, it was the first such account of air combat against the Luftwaffe in France in the Second World War, and it struck an immediate chord with a British public enthralled by the exploits of its young airmen.It is the story of a highly skilled group of young volunteer fighter pilots who patrolled, fl ew and fought at up to 30,000 feet in unheated cockpits, without radar and often from makeshift airfields, and who were finally confronted by the overwhelming might of Hitler’s Blitzkreig. It tells how this remarkable squadron adapted its tactics, its aircraft and itself to achieve a brilliant record of combat victories – in spite of the most extreme and testing circumstances.All the thrills, adrenalin rushes and the sheer terror of dog-fighting are here: simply, accurately and movingly described by a young airman discovering for himself the deadly nature of the combat in which he is engaged.

Author : Philip Kaplan
Publisher : Pen and Sword
Page : 399 pages
File Size : 49,9 Mb
Release : 2008-03-25
Category : History
ISBN : 9781783409020

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Fighter Aces of the RAF in the Battle of Britain by Philip Kaplan Pdf

This book examines the reality behind the myths of the legendary RAF fighter aces during the Battle of Britain. The accounts of the experiences of fighter pilots are based on archival research, diaries, letters, published and unpublished memoirs and personal interviews with veterans.

Author : Mark Hillier
Publisher : Casemate Publishers
Page : 215 pages
File Size : 46,8 Mb
Release : 2018-03-30
Category : History
ISBN : 9781473850002

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The RAF Battle of Britain Fighter Pilot's Kitbag by Mark Hillier Pdf

The scenes are familiar ones; the young Brylcream Boys sat at dispersal waiting for the haunting call of Scramble, lounging in their shirt sleeves and fur-lined boots, their leather flying helmets lying limp by their side. But what did the RAF fighter pilots of the Battle of Britain really wear, and what vital items would their kitbags have held?The casual air of the dashing pilots of Fighter Command in the Spitfire Summer of 1940 conceals a necessarily professional approach to their task of holding Hitlers Luftwaffe at bay. Therefore, each item of clothing and equipment they wore and carried had a role and a function, be it for warmth and comfort, communication, or for fighting and survival.All the objects that an RAF fighter pilot was issued with during the Battle of Britain are explored in this book in high-definition color photographs, showing everything from the differing uniforms, to headgear, personal weapons, gloves, goggles, parachute packs and the essential Mae West life jacket. Each item is fully described and its purpose and use explained.Relive Britains finest hour as never before through the actually clothing and accouterments of The Few.