Archive for Items Categorized 'Military', only excerpts shown, click title for full entry.

I Worked on Spitfires

The Memoirs of a Member of RAF Groundcrew and his Part in the Victory in Europe

by Ronald L. Chapman

Even after all these decades since WWII ended there are still new voices to shed light on increasingly forgotten things, in this case the foreign pilots who fled countries that had fallen to the Germans offering their services to the RAF.

Malta Spitfire Vs – 1942: Their Colours and Markings

by Brian Cauchi

The island of Malta is a small place that played a big role in a world war. The use of Spitfires there tipped the scales. You may not care how they were painted; but find out why you might.

Messerschmitt Me 262: Development and Politics

by Dan Sharp

Why did Germany’s first mass-produced jet go into production so late in the war when the project had actually started months before? There have been many answers, and many myths and rumors. If only there were original documents. Wait, there are, and many are shown and discussed here.

The Avro Shackleton: The Long-Serving ‘Growler’

by Jason Nicholas Moore

The Shack is indeed named after the polar explorer because they both went on far-away and long-lasting missions to inhospitable places. It entered service in 1951 and stuck around for 40 years and of all the books about it, this is the most comprehensive.

American Eagles, A History of the United States Air Force (2nd Ed.)

by Daniel Patterson & Clinton Terry

It’s the 75th anniversary of the USAF and the 100th of the NMUSAF so of course there needs to be a book! This is an update of the 50th anniversary book that had been written by a high-ranking British RAF officer.

The Last Enemy

by Richard Hillary

After being shot down in the Battle of Britain this Spitfire pilot endured pioneering plastic surgery to rebuild his face and hands. While recovering, he wrote this memoir, then returned to flying again. Two months later was shot down again, at 23. This time he died.

Sea Flight: The Wartime Memoirs of a Fleet Air Arm Pilot

by Hugh Popham

The first published memoir by a British WW II fighter pilot. Not a story of fly-boy derring-do but quiet reflection.

Half Century, Baby! Fifty Years of the Grumman F-14 Tomcat

by David Parsons and Mads Bangsø

This is one of the top books on the subject, thanks to the authenticity and competence of the many people who were interviewed for it.

GHOSTS 2024 Calendars, The Great War & A Time Remembered

by Philip Makanna

If you didn’t know these are photographs you’d swear they must be paintings. Some of these air-to-air shots look completely impossible to capture while everything is moving any which way.

The Nature of World War I Aircraft, Collected Essays 

by Javier Arango

Reading about vintage aircraft is one thing, and for many the closest they will get, but Arango had the means and the mindset to actually experience them, first by restoring or recreating them and then flying them—and then writing about it.

Airway to the East 1918–1920 and the Collapse of No.1 Aerial Route RAF

by Clive Semple

The Arab-Israeli conflict is in the news every day. This book revisits a story related to it but buried since 1919 and deals with early long-distance flying in general.

The White Rose of Stalingrad

by Bill Yenne

In WWII, only the Soviets had female active duty combat pilots. In fact, they had three all-female squads. Two of their pilots became aces. The long-suppressed and forgotten story of one of them is told here.

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