David McCampbell

David McCampbell
Author: David Lee Russell
Publisher: McFarland
Total Pages: 274
Release: 2019-06-27
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 1476677794

David McCampbell was the leader of the most successful naval air group in combat in World War II. An unequalled naval aviator, McCampbell shot down a total of 34 Japanese aircraft across numerous battles. Eventually awarded the Medal of Honor, he first served in the Atlantic as a carrier Landing Safety Officer, then as an air group leader in the Pacific theater. McCampbell's 31-year career reveals an astounding diversity of leadership roles and service assignments. McCampbell commanded ships, training centers and aircraft squadrons and held a variety of Navy and Defense Department senior staff positions.

U.S. Navy Fighter Squadrons in World War II

U.S. Navy Fighter Squadrons in World War II
Author: Barrett Tillman
Publisher: Specialty Press (MN)
Total Pages: 168
Release: 1997
Genre: History
ISBN:

US Navy Fighter Squadrons In World War IITillmanSubtitled: Chronologies, Deployments, Combat Records. This first-ever chronology of VF squadrons describes their history, deployments, battle highlights, commanders, aces, losses and aircraft. Appendices supply information on shoot down claims, biographies of 12 famous aces, a list of 371 naval fighter aces, aces in a day, top scoring squadrons, and more. Hdbd., 7 1/4x 1 1/2, 16 pgs., 65 bandw ill.

Wings of Gold

Wings of Gold
Author: Gerald Astor
Publisher: Presidio Press
Total Pages: 466
Release: 2007-12-18
Genre: History
ISBN: 0307417778

From critically acclaimed military historian Gerald Astor comes Wings of Gold, the first account of how the airplane transformed the U.S. Navy and paved the way to victory in the Pacific in World War II. Astor tracks that fateful journey from its humble beginnings in 1910 when Eugene Ely flew the very first plane off the deck of a U.S. Navy ship to the unprecedented air combat missions that helped defeat the Japanese. Few naval aviators in World War II realized that when they earned their wings of gold they were about to become test pilots for a whole new kind of combat. In their own words, these courageous fliers describe the life-and-death air battles that defined the revolution in naval strategy that rose from the ashes of Pearl Harbor, when fighter pilots watched in horror as Japanese carrier-launched aircraft bombed their planes and airfields into smoking rubble. While following the pilots’ firsthand reports of air strikes and blazing dogfights across the islands and atolls of the Pacific, Astor explores the ways the U.S. Navy began its momentous transformation before the war. Later, the critical role of aircraft carriers in the stunning U.S. victory at Midway sounded the death knell for conventional naval warfare, yet the public, the press, the Army, and even the president’s advisors refused to recognize the new reality. In fact, only a few in the Navy understood that a new era had begun that would change the face of war forever. The young Americans who fought the deadly duels against Imperial Japanese forces high over the Pacific gave everything they had to the war effort, and many made the supreme sacrifice. Wings of Gold pays tribute to their courage, daring, and selfless dedication. Vividly told, thoroughly researched, and filled with stirring accounts of the Pacific War’s greatest air battles, Wings of Gold is an important addition to the annals of World War II aerial combat.

Naval Aviation in the Second World War

Naval Aviation in the Second World War
Author: Philip Kaplan
Publisher: Pen and Sword
Total Pages: 234
Release: 2013-10-30
Genre: History
ISBN: 1473829976

The first aircraft carriers made their appearance in the early years of World War I. These first flattops were improvised affairs built on hulls that had been laid down with other purposes in mind, and it was not until the 1920s that the first purpose-built carriers were launched, but no-one was as yet clear about the role of the carriers and they were largely unloved by the 'battleship admirals' who still believed that their great dreadnoughts were the ultimate capital ships.World War II changed all that, At Taranto, Pearl Harbour, and in the North Atlantic, the carrier, the ugly duckling of the world's navies, proved itself to be the dreadnought nemesis. As the tide of war turned, the fast attack carriers of the U.S. Navy spearheaded the counter-attack in the Pacific while the makeshift escort carriers helped to seal the fate of the German U-boats in the Atlantic. The carrier, and naval aviation, thus emerged into the post-war world as the primary symbol and instrument of seapower; it would play a crucial role in the strategic encirclement of the Soviet Union and enabled western airpower to be rapidly and effectively deployed in areas of conflict as remote as Korea, Vietnam, the Falklands and the Gulf.Kaplan describes the adventure of the young American, British, and Japanese naval aviators in the Second World War. It is an account of their experiences based on archives, diaries, published and unpublished memoirs, and personal interviews with veteran naval airmen of WWII, providing a vivid and often hair-raising picture of the dangers they encountered in combat and of everyday life aboard an aircraft carrier. It considers some of the key aspects of the WWII naval aviator's combat career, such as why it was that only a tiny minority of these pilots those in whom the desire for aerial combat overrode everything accounted for such a large proportion of the victories.In the major carrier actions of that conflict, from the Royal Navy's attack on Taranto which crippled the Italian fleet in 1940, to the Japanese carrier-launched surprise attack on U.S. Navy battleships and facilities at Pearl Harbour in 1941, to the carrier battle of Midway in 1942, and the Great Marianas Turkey Shoot of 1944, through the Japanese Kamikaze campaign against the U.S. Carriers in the final stages of the Pacific war, this book takes the reader back to one of the most exciting and significant times in modern history.

Comprehensive History of U. S. Naval Aviation in World War II - Complete Chronology Including Pearl Harbor, Kamikazes, Aircraft, Wake Island, Halsey, Moffett, Suicide Torpedoes, and Fighter Tactics

Comprehensive History of U. S. Naval Aviation in World War II - Complete Chronology Including Pearl Harbor, Kamikazes, Aircraft, Wake Island, Halsey, Moffett, Suicide Torpedoes, and Fighter Tactics
Author: U. S. Military
Publisher:
Total Pages: 362
Release: 2017-10-02
Genre:
ISBN: 9781549879159

This is a comprehensive compilation of Navy history material providing extensive information about the role of Naval aviation in World War II. The first part of the compilation is a full chronology of events in Naval aviation during the war. Thirty-nine unique articles comprise part two, and the third section focuses on aspects of the Pacific theater. Part 1: Naval Aviation Chronology in World War II Part 2: World War II Naval Aviation Stories: Ready to Mobilize, Part 1 * Ready to Mobilize, Part 2, Victory Winning Team * Ready or Not...Naval Aviation's Aircraft and Ships on the Eve of Pearl Harbor * The Neutrality Patrol: To Keep Us Out of World War II, Part 1 * The Neutrality Patrol: To Keep Us Out of World War II, Part 2 * Aviation Training and Expansion, Part 1 * Aviation Training and Expansion, Part 2 * Wings of Victory, Prewar Technical Development, Part 1 * Wings of Victory, Technical Development During WW II, Part 2 * Wings of Victory, Part 3 * Organization of Naval Aviation in World War II * Aviation Ordnance 1939-1941 * The Pacific Neutrality Patrol * "This is No Drill." U.S. Naval Aviation and Pearl Harbor, December 7, 1941 * Wake Island--A Gallant Defense * The Early Carrier Raids: Proving Japanese Vulnerability * The Battle of Coral Sea * Do the Best We Can with What We have (Battle of Midway) * Patrol Aviation in the Pacific in WW II, Part 1 * Patrol Aviation in the Pacific in WW II, Part 2 * Naval Aviation in Operation Torch * Guadalcanal: Trial by Fire, Part 1 * Guadalcanal: Trial by Fire, Part 2 * Combat Art in WW II * Fighter Tactics in WW II * Fleet Carrier Combat Operations, 1943 to 1944 * Solomon Islands Campaign: The Isolation of Rabaul * Island Hopping in WW II: From the Gilberts to the Marshals * Island Hopping in WW II: The Marianas * Invasion! Fortress Europe--Naval Aviation in France, Summer 1944 * The Kamikazes: Japanese Suicide Units * Victory at Leyte Gulf * Patrol Aviation in the Atlantic in World War II * Back to the Philippines, Part 1 * Back to the Philippines, Part 2 * Technical Development in World War II * From Autos to Aircraft: General Motors' WW II conversion to Wildcats and Avengers * The Largest Invasion...That Never Was * In the Wake of Victory Part 3: This important U.S. Navy history about naval aviation in the Pacific during World War II was published in 1947. Contents * CHAPTER I * Mission and Organization of Naval Aviation * CHAPTER II * Components and Weapons of Naval Aviation * CHAPTER III * Special Aspects of the Air War * CHAPTER IV * The Japanese Offensive-Pearl Harbor to Midway * CHAPTER V * Offensive-Defensive-Guadalcanal to Bougainville * CHAPTER VI * The United States Offensive--Tarawa to Tokyo * CHAPTER VII * Tactical Effectiveness of Naval Aviation * CHAPTER VIII * Lessons Learned

Making WAVES

Making WAVES
Author: Evan Bachner
Publisher:
Total Pages: 168
Release: 2008-03
Genre: History
ISBN:

In the spirit of his successful books At Ease and Men of WWII, Evan Bachner now focuses on the women of WWII. While traditionally female secretarial and clerical jobs took an expectedly large portion of recruits, thousands of WAVES (Women Accepted for Voluntary Emergency Service) performed previously atypical duties in the aviation community - such as Judge Advocate General corps - medical professions, communications, intelligence, science, and technology. The photography team, headed by legendary photographer Edward Steichen, captured these heroic women at work, rest, and play. All the photos are from the National Archives and most have not been previously published.

US Naval Aviation, 1898–1945

US Naval Aviation, 1898–1945
Author: Leo Marriott
Publisher: Pen and Sword Aviation
Total Pages: 245
Release: 2021-06-09
Genre: History
ISBN: 1526785404

This pictorial history tells the story of US naval aviation from its early beginnings in the 1920s to its dominance in the Pacific theater of WWII. The Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor sank or crippled almost all of the battleships in the US Navy’s Pacific Fleet. But the fleet’s aircraft carriers survived—and soon demonstrated the power of US naval aviation. Thanks to pioneering technology and far-sighted pre-war policy, the US Navy had the necessary ships, aircraft, and crews to turn the tide of the Pacific war. With more than 200 rare photographs, Leo Marriott traces the growth of US naval aviation from the flimsy seaplanes of the first years of the twentieth century to the mighty armadas that challenged those of the Japanese and, after the carrier battles at Coral Sea and Midway, led the advance across the Pacific. Marriott puts special focus on the navy’s first aircraft carriers of the 1920s, the tremendous progress made in the decades between the wars in tactics and strategy, and the innovative design of ships and aircraft themselves.

US Naval Air Station, Melbourne Florida, World War II

US Naval Air Station, Melbourne Florida, World War II
Author: William R. Barnett
Publisher: Xlibris Corporation
Total Pages: 0
Release: 2000
Genre: Air bases
ISBN: 9780738856322

Operational flight training in fighter aircraft in WW II was a highlight for young Navy pilots. The Naval Air Station, Melbourne, Florida was a specialized fighter training base that saw many of the young men become top gun fighter pilots. This book traces the training Navy cadets went through, the operational training they accomplished, and the history of NAS Melbourne from its grass roots through the war years. Activities and actions that went on at this Navy base are told along with stories about some of the people that ran the base. There are 60 images in the book along with a map of the base and close- up photos of the buildings. It is a history written in a way that takes the reader back in time and lets him "live" through those activities brought on by a war that no one wanted but had to cope with.

German and Italian Aircraft Carriers of World War II

German and Italian Aircraft Carriers of World War II
Author: Ryan K. Noppen
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
Total Pages: 49
Release: 2022-05-26
Genre: History
ISBN: 1472846745

This fully illustrated study details Germany and Italy's failed development of World War II aircraft carriers, and the naval aviation ships that the two Axis powers sent into action in their place. The quest for a modern aircraft carrier was the ultimate symbol of the Axis powers' challenge to Allied naval might, but fully-fledged carriers proved either too difficult, expensive or politically unpopular for either to make operational. After the Anglo-German Naval Agreement of 1935, Hitler publicly stated his intention to build an aircraft carrier, the Graf Zeppelin, which was launched in 1938. A year later, the ambitious fleet-expansion Z-Plan, was unveiled with two additional aircraft carriers earmarked for production . However, by the beginning of World War II, Graf Zeppelin was not yet completed and work was halted. Further aircraft carrier designs and conversion projects such as the ocean liner Europa and heavy cruiser Seydlitz were considered but, in January 1943, all construction work on surface vessels ceased and naval resources were diverted to the U-boat Campaign. This book explains not only the history of Germany's famous Graf Zeppelin fleet carrier and German carrier conversion projects but also Italy's belated attempt to convert two of her ocean liners into carriers. It considers the role of naval aviation in the two countries' rearmament programmes and describes how ultimately it was only Italian seaplane carriers and German ocean-going, catapult-equipped flying boat carriers that both Axis powers did eventually send into combat.