| Fire
in the Sky : The Air War in the South Pacific. By Eric M. Bergerud. Westview
Press; ISBN: 0813338697. Our Price: £12.20 |
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This
volume is an exploration of the battles and tactics of the air war in the
Pacific, including discussion of combatants, their morale, their planes,
living conditions, and leadership. Utilizing primary sources and scores
of interviews with surviving veterans of all ranks and duties, the author
recreates the fabric of the air war as it was fought in the South Pacific.
He explores the technology and tactics, the three-dimensional battlefield,
and the leadership, living conditions, medical challenges, and morale of
the combatants.
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details
 
|
| Paperback
- 723 pages (April 2001) |
| See
Category A-Z index |
| Task
Force 57: The British Pacific Fleet. By Peter C. Smith. Crecy Publishing.
ISBN 0947554858 |
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The
largest British fleet to operate as a single unit in the 2nd World War,
and perhaps ever, the British Pacific Fleet was certainly the most modern.
It contained a higher proportion of aircraft carriers than the British
navy had ever mustered before. Formed in 1944 it was to fight alongside
the Americans and so was given an American code-name - Task Force 57.
By this time,
the war against Germany was well in hand and so the Allies could concentrate
more on the Japanese. The fleet’s first operation was a large-scale
attack on the Japanese-held oil refineries in Sumatra: a dress rehearsal
for the British, who were new to this type of warfare in which aircraft
were the main missiles and the battlefield ranged over huge areas of ocean.
The operation
was very successful and so Task Force 57 moved on from the Indian Ocean,
through the Carolines and Marianas, to sweep across the Pacific towards
the mainland of Japan. And then, as the Allies were poised to strike at
the very heart of Japan, the atomic bomb brought the war to an accelerated
finish. Over-shadowed in numbers by the vast American task forces, the
achievements of Task Force 57 have been largely overlooked. The Pacific
theatre was unlike anything the British had experienced before. Surface
action was rare and major engagements were fought at ranges of 200 miles.
The veterans of the Atlantic, Mediterranean and North Sea had to start
again and from the air faced a new deadly enemy - the Kamikaze.
Active in the
first months of its creation, Task Force 57 went on to make a decisive
contribution to victory in the Far East.
Peter Smith’s
remains the definitive account of this ‘forgotten fleet’.
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|
| Paperback
- 208 pages (2000) |
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Category A-Z index |
| Fly
Navy, edited by Charles Manning. Pen & Sword Books Ltd. ISBN: 0850527325.
Our Price: £15.96. RRP: |
 |
To
mark the Millennium, 95 members of the Fleet Air Arm Officer's Association
have recalled their experiences of over 55 years of post-war naval flying.
Fly Navy is a unique and entertaining anthology of flying stories, which
will delight all with even a passing interest in service life and aviation.
A 'warts and all'
persepective of the Royal Navy's Fleet Air Arm post-Second World War, covering
flying operations world-wide and active service in Korea, Malaya, Aden,
Borneo, Suez, the Falklands and the Gulf. 95 first-person accounts accompanied
by rich array of photographs, many never previously published. Foreword
by HRH Prince Andrew, himself a Sea King pilot in the Falklands.
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|
| Hardcover
- 239 pages (1 June, 2000) |
| See
Category A-Z index |
| Return
to Midway: The Quest to Find the Yorktown and the Other Lost Ships from
the Pivotal Battle of the Pacific War by Robert D. Ballard, et al. National
Geographic Society; ISBN: 0792275004; |
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On
the morning of June 7, 1942, six months to the day after the attack on
Pearl Harbor, the USS Yorktown "turned over on her port side and sank in
about 3,000 fathoms of water with all battle flags flying." The Battle
of Midway was finally over. On the morning of May 19, 1998, Robert D. Ballard
stared into a video monitor hoping for a glimpse of metal on the bottom
of the sea. "Thar she blows! Bingo!" After almost three weeks out, painstakingly
scanning the ocean floor with high-altitude sonar, and many months of research
and planning, Ballard and his crew had spotted the Yorktown some three
miles down. The wreck was in remarkably good condition: "It was as if we
had stumbled on the ship a few minutes after it made its death plunge."
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|
| Hardcover
- 191 pages (October 1999) |
|
| Carrier
Warfare in the Pacific : An Oral History Collection by E.T. Wooldridge
(Editor). Smithsonian Inst Pr; ISBN: 1560988223 Our Price: £10.34 |
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Capturing
the times when lives and victory were in peril, this book records the exploits
of the men who fought in WWII in the air and on the sea, including pilots
and air crewmen of carrier squadrons, officers and men of the ship's company,
and admirals and their staffs. Compelling personal accounts.
Carrier Warfare
In The Pacific: An Oral History Collection is the latest entry in the highly
acclaimed "Smithsonian History of Aviation Series" and presents compelling,
personal accounts of behind-the-scenes planning and operations for six
major carrier-versus-carrier battles during World War II. Included
are the actions at Coral Sea, Midway, Solomons, Santa Cruz Island, Philippine
Sea, and Leyte Gulf. These detailed eye-witness accounts of aerial exploits
and the heroic efforts on the carriers to continue flight operations despite
sustaining heavy damages from enemy attack are the stuff of military history
and legend. Carrier Warfare In The Pacific is a seminal and critically
important contribution to personal, academic and public library military
studies collections.
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details
|
| Paperback
(September 1999) |
| See
Category A-Z index |
| Kamikaze:
Japan's suicide Samurai. By Raymond Lamont-Brown Cassell Military; ISBN:
0304352004. Our Price: £4.79. RRP: |
 |
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to view details
|
| Paperback
- 192 pages New Ed (30 September, 1999) |
| See
Category A-Z index |
| God
Was at Midway: The Sinking of the Uss Yorktown (Cu-5) and the Battles of
the Coral Sea and Midway by Stanford E., Jr. Linzey, Dahk Knox (Editor).
Black Forrest Book Promotions; ISBN: 1881116808; |
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Chaplain
Stanford E. Linzey's book-God Was At Midway-has incorporated the author's
love of God, wife, and call to duty. This is the ultimate war story of
love and sacrifice, the Godly wife who prayed for her husband and stood
with him no matter what, while he faced possible death while many of his
shipmates suffer horribly.
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details
|
| Paper
back - 254 pages (January 1999) |
|
| Escort
Carrier WW II: War in the Pacific on the aircraft carrier USS Petrof Bay
by Rick Cline. R.A. Cline Publishing; ISBN: 0966323505 |
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This
is the account of an escort carrier, USS Petrof Bay. 22 photos, many never
before published. 1 map
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details
|
| (Paperback
- 225 pages July 1998) |
|
| Fighter
Squadron at Guadalcanal. By Max Brand. Naval Institute Press; ISBN: 1557500886.
Our Price: £20.30 |
 |
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to view details
|
| Hardcover
(August 1996) |
| See
Category A-Z index |
| The
Forgotten Air Force: History of the RAF in the War Against Japan. By Air
Commodore Henry Probert. London: Brassey's. ASIN: 1857530659 |
|
Probert's
book is broad in scope, beginning as it does with inter-war developments
leading to the RAF's sad state in the Far East at the end of 1941, then
following the course of the air war from December of that year through
the end of the war throughout the fronts in Asia. Mostly, though, this
is a work about the RAF in Burma and as such it very nicely complements
the other titles which despite fairly integrated approaches nevertheless
emphasize the ground war. There are other books about the air war which
deal in considerably more detail with specific operations in Burma, but
none of them provide this kind of wide-angle lens for studying the air
aspects of the campaign as a whole.
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details
|
| Hardcover
- (1995) |
| See
Category A-Z index |
| The
Little Giants, U.S. Escort Carriers Against Japan. By William T. Y'Blood.
Naval Institute Press; ISBN: 0870212753. Our Price: £27.95 |
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Describes
the use of escort carriers to hunt submarines and provide support
of ground forces, and recounts combat experiences, including kamikaze attacks.
The substantial
accomplishments of the U.S. Navy's mini-carriers in such battles as Leyte
Gulf, Guadalcanal, the Marianas, and Okinawa never gained the attention
given the fast carriers, but there is little question that their vital
operations played an important role in the Pacific campaign. These remarkably
versatile vessels--called CVEs, baby flattops, and even jeeps--hunted
submarines, escorted convoys, provided air support, and performed dozens
of other tasks that are vividly described in this book. Based on interviews
with the CVE crewmen and on war diaries, ship histories, and other documents,
it tells a moving story of escort carrier operations, from the work of
the first CVEs to their final assignment transporting GIs home after
the war. Seldom-seen photographs add to this fascinating portrait of the
little giants.
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|
| Hardcover
- 480 pages (31 December, 1987) |
| See
Category A-Z index |
| Carrier
Strike Force: Pacific Air Combat in World War II by Ernest A. McKay. Julian
Messner; ISBN: 0671431277 |
 |
Pacific
Carrier war.
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details
|
| Hardcover
- October 1981 |
|
| Red
Sun Setting: the Battle of the Philippine Sea. By William T. Y'Blood. Naval
Institute Press; ISBN: 0870215329. Our Price: £19.95 |
|
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to view details
|
| Hardcover
- 257 pages (31 December, 1981) |
| See
Category A-Z index |
| Japanese
carrier air groups, 1941-45. by Rene J. Francillon. ISBN: 0850452953 Our
Price: £00.00. RRP: |
|
Details
of the Pacific Air war and the Japanese carrier air groups 1941-1945.
Click here to view
details and [Order this book from US]
|
| Hardcover
- |
| See
Category A-Z index |
| U.S.
Naval Aviation in the Pacific. Naval Aviation Monographs. Published
by the Naval Aviation History Branch, Naval Historical Center. Washington
Navy Yard. |
 |
This
electronic version has been placed on the Naval Historical Center's homepage
because it is an excellent reference source for naval aviation information.
The Naval Aviation Monographs are scanned, saved and made available to
you in Adobe's "Portable Document Format" (.pdf) which preserves formatting
and greatly compresses their size for quicker downloading. You will need
the Acrobat Reader, downloadable free from Adobe, to view them.
Required Free Software:
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Reader
Available FREE
for download now.
Click
here to access the book's contents
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| Digital
- Free Downloadable E-book |
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See also Book category: Midway
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