In 1940, the British Army was unceremoniously bundled out of Norway, Belgium and France. A year later, it was the same story in Greece. The complaint from embittered generals and soldiers was always the same: no air support and it seemed the RAF had a lot to learn about how to fight a modern war. Yet little more than twenty years before, the RAF had been providing British forces advancing towards Germany with very substantial, sophisticated and effective air support.This is the sto...

ln May 1940, the German Army and the Allied forces they faced were fairly evenly matched. Two months later, Britain was on her own, hopelessly outnumbered and facing imminent defeat. Should the RAF have done more to support the Allied armies in France? Could the RAF have protected the British Army better at Dunkirk? How narrow was the margin of victory in the Battle of Britain? Was the RAF ready to deal with an invasion? Why were hundreds of American combat planes and experienced Polish an...

Long before the start of the Second World War it had been believed that strategic bombing would be the deciding factor in any future conflict. Then Hitler launched the Blitzkrieg upon France and the Low Countries in 1940, and the much-vaunted French Army and the British Expeditionary Force were swept away in just six weeks.This new form of warfare shook the Air Ministry, but the expected invasion never came and the Battle of Britain was fought in the air. It seemed that air forces operatin...

The Fairey Battle is best known for being one of the worst aircraft to serve in the Royal Air Force. On operations, it suffered the highest loss rate of any plane in the RAF’s history. The missions flown by its brave crews became a byword for hopelessness and futility. Born out of muddled thinking, condemned before it even reached the squadrons and abandoned after the briefest of operational careers, the plane seems to thoroughly deserve its reputation. But was the Battle so useless? Why d...

The events of 1942 marked a pivotal year in the history of British air power. For more than two decades the theory that long-range bombing could win wars had dominated British defense policy. The vast majority of warplanes ordered for the RAF were designed either to bomb enemy cities or stop the enemy from bombing British cites. Conventional armies and the air forces that supported them were seen as an outmoded way of waging war. During 1941 evidence began to mount that British policy was ...

By the summer of 1943, the Third Reich's fate seemed sealed. The combined might of Britain and the Commonwealth nations, the United States and the Soviet Union had made a Germany victory impossible. All that remained to decide was how the Allies should complete their victory. Would strategic bombing decide the outcome or would ground and air forces working together play the more significant role? Greg Baughen follows the air and land battles in Italy, France and Germany between 1943 and ea...

On 10 May 1940, the French possessed one of the largest air forces in the world. On paper, it was nearly as strong as the RAF. Six weeks later, France had been defeated. For a struggling French Army desperately looking for air support, the skies seemed empty of friendly planes. In the decades that followed, the debate raged. Were there unused stockpiles of planes? Were French aircraft really so inferior? Baughen examines the myths that surround the French defeat. He explains how at the end...

Ever wondered what it would be like to fly a biplane or triplane in the First World War? Raymond Collishaw and the Black Flight takes you to the Western Front during the Great War. Experience the risks of combat and the many close calls Collishaw had as a pilot, flight commander, and squadron leader. Understand the courage Collishaw and his fellow flyers faced every day they took to the air in their small, light, and very manoeuvrable craft to face the enemy.As the third-h...

When the German Battleship Bismarck was commissioned in 1940 she was one of the fastest and most powerful ships afloat. To the Royal Navy and the security of Allied shipping in the Atlantic she posed an enormous threat she must be destroyed. When she broke out into the Atlantic in 1941, some of Britains most powerful ships were sent to pursue and sink her. The first encounter proved disastrous for the British Battleship HMS Hood, which was sunk at 0800 on 24 May. Bismarck had sustained sev...

“[With Wings Like Eagles is] bold and refreshing… Korda writes with great elegance and flair.”—Wall Street JournalFrom the New York Times bestselling author of Ike and Horse People, Michael Korda, comes With Wings Like Eagles, the harrowing story of The Battle of Britain, one of the most important battles of World War II. In the words of the Washington Post Book World, “With Wings Like Eagles is a skillful, absorbing, often moving contribution to the popular understanding of one of...

A detailed history of the World War II battle, featuring experiences from over 500 participants, by the author of The First Day on the Somme.The Battle of Arnhem was a turning point in the war, a gamble by Montgomery, using three airborne divisions to capture a series of bridges spanning the wide rivers of Holland and unleash the Allied armies into the plains of northern Germany. If the bridges had been captured and held, and the ground forces had been able...

Britain's budding airborne forces saw their first prolonged combat in the battles for North Africa and Sicily in 1942–43, while their German counterparts - reinforced and expanded since their costly victory in Crete - proved their value as veteran 'fire fighters', able to counter emergencies.The airborne forces of Britain and Germany were among their best troops of World War II and when they met in battle the result was a brutal trial of strength. British paratroop...