Decision Over Schweinfurt
| Author | : Thomas M. Coffey |
| Publisher | : |
| Total Pages | : 373 |
| Release | : 1977 |
| Genre | : Schweinfurt (Germany) |
| ISBN | : 9780441142118 |
Decision Over Schweinfurt
Download Decision Over Schweinfurt full books in PDF, epub, and Kindle. Read online free Decision Over Schweinfurt ebook anywhere anytime directly on your device. Fast Download speed and no annoying ads. We cannot guarantee that every ebooks is available!
The Schweinfurt-Regensburg Mission
| Author | : Martin Middlebrook |
| Publisher | : Casemate Publishers |
| Total Pages | : 656 |
| Release | : 2012-07-19 |
| Genre | : History |
| ISBN | : 1781598002 |
A detailed history of the American World War II bombing mission over Nazi Germany, by the author of The First Day on the Somme. On August 17, 1943, the entire strength of the American heavy bomber forces in England set out to raid two major industrial complexes deep in southern Germany: the Messerschmitt aircraft factory and the KGF ball bearing plant. For American commanders, it was the culmination of years of planning, the day when their self-defending formations of the famous Flying Fortress could at last perform their true role, reaching out by daylight to strike at targets in the deepest corners of industrial Germany. The day ended in disaster for the Americans. Thanks to the courage of the aircrews, the bombers won through to the targets and caused heavy damage, but sixty were shot down and the hopes of the American commanders were shattered. Historically, it was one of the most important days for the American air forces during the Second World War. While researching this catastrophic raid, author Martin Middlebrook interviewed hundreds of the airmen involved, German defenders, “slave workers,” and eyewitnesses. The result is a mass of fresh, previously unused material with which the author finally provides the full story of this famous day’s operations. Not only is the American side elaborated upon, but the previously vague German side of the story—both the Luftwaffe action and the civilian experiences in Schweinfurt and Regensburg—is also now presented clearly and in detail for the first time. Middlebrook also covers the important question of why the RAF did not support the American effort and follow up the raid on Schweinfurt as planned.
Uniting against the Reich
| Author | : Luke W. Truxal |
| Publisher | : University Press of Kentucky |
| Total Pages | : 327 |
| Release | : 2023-10-31 |
| Genre | : History |
| ISBN | : 0813198305 |
On August 17, 1942, twelve Boeing B-17 Flying Fortresses of the United States Eighth Air Force carried out the first American raid over occupied Europe, striking the rail yards at Rouen, France. Soon after, hundreds of American B-17s and Consolidated B-24 Liberators filled the skies above Europe. Despite frequent attacks against Germany and its allies by four different air forces, American commanders failed to stage a successful air offensive against Germany in the summer and fall of 1943. When victory in the air war against the Axis powers appeared bleak at the threshold of 1944, a change in command accompanied by top-down organizational restructuring allowed the American leaders to snatch victory from the jaws of defeat for the first time. Uniting against the Reich: The American Air War in Europe addresses how the United States swiftly reversed its air war against the Axis powers by reevaluating both individual agency and the structural elements that impeded the US from taking the lead in the European Theater. Luke W. Truxal argues that the appointment of General Dwight D. Eisenhower as the Supreme Allied Commander incorporated various air commands under a single authority, which allowed them to unify their efforts against a specific strategic objective. In this narrative, victory in Europe hinged on restructuring the air force under one command system in order to wage a series of sustained and targeted bombings against German infrastructure and industry. Truxal's provocative reinterpretation of personality, material, and command organization helps to explain the success of the American war effort in Europe leading up to and after February 1944, when Germany lost 355 fighters during an operation that lasted only five days. This comprehensive and well-written account offers a compelling new assessment of the development of the American war in Europe and emphasizes the importance of developing an "air-mindedness" when evaluating and strategizing large-scale operations.
The Bomber Mafia
| Author | : Malcolm Gladwell |
| Publisher | : Penguin UK |
| Total Pages | : 256 |
| Release | : 2021-04-27 |
| Genre | : Psychology |
| ISBN | : 0141998385 |
THE NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER 'A parable written for the age of technological disruption . . . brilliantly told' Sunday Times The international bestselling author returns with an exploration of one of the grandest obsessions of the twentieth century 'The Bomber Mafia is a case study in how dreams go awry. When some shiny new idea drops from the heavens, it does not land softly in our laps. It lands hard, on the ground, and shatters.' In the years before the Second World War, in a sleepy air force base in central Alabama, a small group of renegade pilots put forth a radical idea. What if we made bombing so accurate that wars could be fought entirely from the air? What if we could make the brutal clashes between armies on the ground a thing of the past? This book tells the story of what happened when that dream was put to the test. The Bomber Mafia follows the stories of a reclusive Dutch genius and his homemade computer, Winston Churchill's forbidding best friend, a team of pyromaniacal chemists at Harvard, a brilliant pilot who sang vaudeville tunes to his crew, and the bomber commander, Curtis Emerson LeMay, who would order the bloodiest attack of the Second World War. In this tale of innovation and obsession, Gladwell asks: what happens when technology and best intentions collide in the heat of war? And what is the price of progress?
To Kingdom Come
| Author | : Robert J. Mrazek |
| Publisher | : Penguin |
| Total Pages | : 376 |
| Release | : 2011-03-01 |
| Genre | : History |
| ISBN | : 1101475927 |
The breathtaking, never-before-told, true story of a historic air force bombing mission in 1943 Germany. On September 6, 1943, three hundred and thirty-eight B-17 "Flying Fortresses" of the American Eighth Air Force took off from England, bound for Stuttgart, Germany, to bomb Nazi weapons factories. Dense clouds obscured the targets, and one commander's critical decision to circle three times over the city—and its deadly flak—would prove disastrous. Forty-five planes went down that day, and hundreds of men were lost or missing. Focusing on first-person accounts of six of the B-17 airmen, award-winning author Robert Mrazek vividly re-creates the fierce air battle—and reveals the astonishing valor of the airmen who survived being shot down, and the tragic fate of those who did not.
The Strategic Bombing of Germany, 1940-1945
| Author | : Alan Levine |
| Publisher | : Bloomsbury Publishing USA |
| Total Pages | : 248 |
| Release | : 1992-07-22 |
| Genre | : History |
| ISBN | : 0313065608 |
This book is the only full-scale account of the strategic air offensive against Germany published in the last twenty years, and is the only one that treats the British and the Americans with parity. Much of what Levine writes about British operations will be unfamiliar to American readers. He has stressed the importance of winning air superiority and the role of escort fighters in strategic bombing, and has given more attention to the German side than most writers on air warfare have. Levine gets past a simple account of what we did to them and describes the target systems and German countermeasures in detail, providing exact yet dramatic accounts of the great bomber operations--the Ruhr dams, Ploesti, and Regensburg and Schweinfurt. The book is broad-guaged, touching many matters, from the development of bombing doctrine before the war to the technical development of the Luftwaffe and the RAF, jets and V-weapons, to the role of the heavy bombers in supporting land and sea operations. Levine stresses the impact of bombing on the war, and generally endorses the strategic air campaign as worthwhile and effective. But he concludes that many mistakes were made by the Allies--both the British and the Americans--in tactics, the development of equipment, and in the selection of targets. Levine sees strategic bombing as a powerful tool that was often misused, particularly when the doctrine of area bombing flourished. Scholars, students, and buffs interested in World War II and/or the history of aviation will find this study of great interest.
The German War Machine in World War II
| Author | : David T. Zabecki |
| Publisher | : Bloomsbury Publishing USA |
| Total Pages | : 457 |
| Release | : 2019-12-02 |
| Genre | : History |
| ISBN | : |
This invaluable resource offers students a comprehensive overview of the German war machine that overran much of Europe during World War II, with close to 300 entries on a variety of topics and a number of key primary source documents. This book provides everything the reader needs to know about the German war machine that developed into the potent armed force under Adolf Hitler. This expansive encyclopedia covers the period of the German Third Reich, from January 1933 to the end of World War II in Europe, in May 1945. Dozens of entries on key battles and military campaigns, military and political leaders, military and intelligence organizations, and social and political topics that shaped German military conduct during World War II are followed by an illuminating epilogue that outlines why Germany lost World War II. A documents section includes more than a dozen fascinating primary sources on such significant events as the Tripartite Pact among Germany, Italy, and Japan; the Battle of Stalingrad; the Normandy Invasion; the Ardennes Offensive; and Germany's surrender. In addition, six appendices provide detailed information on a variety of topics such as German aces, military commanders, and military medals and decorations. The book ends with a chronology and a bibliography of print resources.
Finding a Fallen Hero
| Author | : Bob Korkuc |
| Publisher | : University of Oklahoma Press |
| Total Pages | : 273 |
| Release | : 2014-10-22 |
| Genre | : Biography & Autobiography |
| ISBN | : 0806185848 |
To all appearances, Anthony “Tony” Korkuc was just another casualty of World War II. A gunner on a B-17 Flying Fortress, Korkuc was lost on a bombing mission over Germany, and his family believed that his body had never been recovered. But when they learned in 1995 that Tony was actually buried at Arlington National Cemetery, his nephew Bob Korkuc set out on a seven-year quest to learn the true fate of an uncle he never knew. Finding a Fallen Hero is a compelling story that blends a wartime drama with a primer on specialized research. Author Bob Korkuc initially set out to learn how his Uncle Tony came to rest at Arlington. In the process, he also unraveled the mystery of what occurred over the skies of Germany half a century ago. Korkuc dug up military documents and private letters and interviewed people in both the United States and Germany. He tracked down surviving crewmembers and even found the brother of the Luftwaffe pilot who downed the B-17. Dozens of photographs help readers envision both Tony Korkuc’s fateful flight and his nephew’s dogged search for the truth. A gripping chronicle of exhaustive research, Finding a Fallen Hero will strike a chord with any reader who has lost a family member to war. And it will inspire others to satisfy their own unanswered questions.
The Hutchinson Atlas of World War II Battle Plans
| Author | : Stephen Badsey |
| Publisher | : Routledge |
| Total Pages | : 286 |
| Release | : 2016-05-13 |
| Genre | : History |
| ISBN | : 1135962782 |
This text contrasts 21 World War II battle plans with their actual outcome. Each in-depth battle essay is complemented by original maps, producing fresh insight into the technical aspects of warfare that drove the last worldwide conflict of the 20th century. An overall introduction gives a strategic overview of the whole of the war, and places the individual battles into context. The battles are presented in seven groups of three, and each group is introduced by a short essay on the common theme for the group.
The Bomber Mafia
| Author | : Malcolm Gladwell |
| Publisher | : Hachette UK |
| Total Pages | : 288 |
| Release | : 2021-04-27 |
| Genre | : History |
| ISBN | : 0316296937 |
A “truly compelling” (Good Morning America) New York Times bestseller that explores how technology and best intentions collide in the heat of war—from the creator and host of the podcast Revisionist History. In The Bomber Mafia, Malcolm Gladwell weaves together the stories of a Dutch genius and his homemade computer, a band of brothers in central Alabama, a British psychopath, and pyromaniacal chemists at Harvard to examine one of the greatest moral challenges in modern American history. Most military thinkers in the years leading up to World War II saw the airplane as an afterthought. But a small band of idealistic strategists, the “Bomber Mafia,” asked: What if precision bombing could cripple the enemy and make war far less lethal? In contrast, the bombing of Tokyo on the deadliest night of the war was the brainchild of General Curtis LeMay, whose brutal pragmatism and scorched-earth tactics in Japan cost thousands of civilian lives, but may have spared even more by averting a planned US invasion. In The Bomber Mafia, Gladwell asks, “Was it worth it?” Things might have gone differently had LeMay’s predecessor, General Haywood Hansell, remained in charge. Hansell believed in precision bombing, but when he and Curtis LeMay squared off for a leadership handover in the jungles of Guam, LeMay emerged victorious, leading to the darkest night of World War II. The Bomber Mafia is a riveting tale of persistence, innovation, and the incalculable wages of war.
