Bücher der Reihe Air Campaign

A rigorous new analysis of America''s legendary ΓÇ£Big Week" air campaign which enabled the Allies to gain air superiority before D-Day.In the years before the outbreak of World War II, there was a general consensus among military strategists that strategic bombing had the ability to win wars. However, no-one could foresee the devastation that German radar-directed interceptors would inflict on large bomber formations.With the increasingly urgent need to eliminate these German fighter-aircraft prior to D-Day, a concerted two-phase effort, code-named ΓÇ£Operation Argument,ΓÇ¥ was launched by USSAF. Targeting aircraft factories with hundreds of heavy bombers escorted by the new long-range P-51 Mustang, the operation, now known as the ΓÇ£Big WeekΓÇ¥ campaign, was designed to destroy aircraft production on the ground and force the Luftwaffe into combat to defend these vital facilities, allowing the new escort fighters to take their toll on the German interceptors. Packed with specially commissioned artwork and maps, this title is a detailed and fascinating analysis of ΓÇ£Big WeekΓÇ¥--history''s first ever successful offensive counterair (OCA) campaign.

The first book to cover the full history of the RAF's air war against Hamburg, one of the most important target cities in Germany. The city of Hamburg became synonymous with the destructive power of RAF Bomber Command when, during summer 1943, the city suffered horrific destruction in a series of four heavy firebombing attacks, Operation Gomorrah. However, few know how varied or long the Hamburg campaign was. In this book, RAF air power expert Dr Richard Worrall presents the complete history of the RAF's air campaign against the city, a campaign that stretched well beyond the devastating fire raids of 1943. Dr Worrall explains how Germany's second city was an industrial centre of immense proportions and proved a consistent target for Bomber Command throughout World War II. It was home to oil refineries, U-boat pens, and ship-building and submarine-building yards, all sustained by a large industrial workforce. Bomber Command evolved tactically and technically throughout the war, and the Luftwaffe's defensive capabilities would do likewise in response. Drawing on a wide range of primary and secondary sources available on this topic, and packed with photos, artwork, maps and diagrams, this is an important new history of the air campaign against the industrial and naval heart of Nazi Germany.

A focused, illustrated history and analysis of perhaps the most complete air power victory in modern times, NATO's war against Serbian forces over Kosovo.On the night of March 24, 1999, NATO forces began military action to stop Serbia's campaign of repression during the Kosovo War. Initially planned to be a 72-hour operation, it took 78 days of sustained air warfare for Operation Allied Force to cause Slobodan Milosevic to withdraw his forces. Despite such setbacks as the loss of an F-117 stealth fighter and the bombing of the Chinese embassy in Belgrade, Allied Force ended with perhaps the most complete airpower victory of modern times. However, there is a dearth of written histories on NATO's air war over Kosovo. In this book Dr Brian D. Laslie, one of the leading scholars of modern air power operations, offers a complete history of the campaign, based on a wide range of primary and secondary sources. Although predominantly a USAF effort, the campaign also featured multinational contributions as well as significant naval aviation. Using spectacular original battlescenes, maps and 3D diagrams, Dr Laslie examines the aircraft, weapons and doctrine used, the Serbian air defenses, how the Allied forces planned and launched their air campaign, and how NATO had to rapidly adapt its initial plans to achieve success.