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Author: David Owen
Publisher: Pen and Sword
ISBN: 1473830680
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 421
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Book Description
Innumerable books have been published on the two most famous fighter aircraft of all time, the Supermarine Spitfire and the Messerschmitt Bf109. But books setting out to tell the story of both aircraft are very much rarer - probably fewer than the fingers of one hand. Yet their joint story is one which bears retelling since both were essential to the air campaigns of World War Two.Incredibly, the men who designed them lacked any experience of designing a modern fighter. R J Mitchell had begun his career working on industrial steam locomotives, Willy Messerschmitt had cut his aeronautical teeth on light and fragile gliders and sporting planes. Yet both men not only managed to devise aircraft which could hold their own in a world where other designs went from state-of-the-art to obsolete in a staggeringly short time, but their fighters remained competitive over six years of front-line combat. Despite the different ways their creators approached their daunting tasks and the obstacles each faced in acceptance by the services for which they were designed, they proved to be so closely matched that neither side gained a decisive advantage in a titanic struggle. Had either of them not matched up to its opponent so well, then the air war would have been a one-sided catastrophe ending in a quick defeat for the Allies or the Axis powers, and the course of twentieth century history would have been changed beyond recognition.
Author: David Owen
Publisher: Pen and Sword
ISBN: 1473830680
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 421
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Book Description
Innumerable books have been published on the two most famous fighter aircraft of all time, the Supermarine Spitfire and the Messerschmitt Bf109. But books setting out to tell the story of both aircraft are very much rarer - probably fewer than the fingers of one hand. Yet their joint story is one which bears retelling since both were essential to the air campaigns of World War Two.Incredibly, the men who designed them lacked any experience of designing a modern fighter. R J Mitchell had begun his career working on industrial steam locomotives, Willy Messerschmitt had cut his aeronautical teeth on light and fragile gliders and sporting planes. Yet both men not only managed to devise aircraft which could hold their own in a world where other designs went from state-of-the-art to obsolete in a staggeringly short time, but their fighters remained competitive over six years of front-line combat. Despite the different ways their creators approached their daunting tasks and the obstacles each faced in acceptance by the services for which they were designed, they proved to be so closely matched that neither side gained a decisive advantage in a titanic struggle. Had either of them not matched up to its opponent so well, then the air war would have been a one-sided catastrophe ending in a quick defeat for the Allies or the Axis powers, and the course of twentieth century history would have been changed beyond recognition.
Author: Tony Holmes
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN: 1472847857
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 147
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Book Description
Churchill's words, 'never was so much owed by so many to so few', came to encapsulate how, in a few critical months, the entire fate of the British Empire, if not the war, hung in the balance, to be determined by a handful of pilots fighting tirelessly in the skies over Britain. Tony Holmes describes the Battle of Britain, the clash between the Spitfire I/II and the Bf 109E - detailing not only the key elements of both aircraft types - the airframe, engine, armament and flying characteristics, but also the pilots' training and tactics accompanied by diagrams of actual flight formations. The growing influence of radar and the efforts of British air defences are also examined, as are real-life engagements - from both German and British perspectives. With a wealth of first-hand accounts from the veterans who strapped themselves into these legendary machines as well as illustrations and cockpit-view artwork, this book puts the reader in the midst of a dogfight, providing a unique insight into one of the greatest duels of history in the world's first major aerial battle.
Author: David Isby
Publisher: Abacus
ISBN: 074812361X
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 365
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Book Description
London, 15 September 1940. The air battle over Britain on that day saw two of the most advanced fighter planes, the British Supermarine Spitfire and the German Messerschmitt Bf 109, battle for supremacy of the skies. The Decisive Duel tells the stories of these iconic, classic aircraft and the people that created them: Willy Messerschmitt, the German designer with a love for gliders and admiration for Hitler; R.J. Mitchell, his brilliant British counterpart, who struggled against illness to complete the design of the Spitfire. In fascinating detail, David Isby describes the crucial role the two opposed planes played, from the drawing boards to Dunkirk, the Battle of Britain to the final battles over Germany.
Author: Tony Holmes
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN: 1472821319
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 83
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Book Description
With stunning artwork and detailed analysis, this volume provides a pilot's view of the dramatic clashes between these two legendary fighters, as some of the most gifted and 'big name' aces of World War II went head to head in the skies of North-West Europe. As the Battle of Britain approached its conclusion, two new versions of the famous Spitfire and Messerschmitt Bf 109 arrived on the scene. The RAF could see that the Luftwaffe were stepping down their incursions into British airspace, and went on to the offensive. The Spitfire Mark II, and increasingly the Mark V, would fly over the picturesque English channel in fighter sweeps, or to escort vulnerable Blenheim bombers – waiting for them was the Bf 109F 'Friedrich'. Yet despite the reversal of offensive and defensive dispositions, and despite the Luftwaffe deploying the bulk of their fighter strength to the Eastern Front in 1941, the Jagdflieger were able to inflict severe losses on their RAF counterparts.
Author: Stephen Bungay
Publisher: Aurum
ISBN: 1845136500
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 573
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Book Description
Stephen Bungay’s magisterial history is acclaimed as the account of the Battle of Britain. Unrivalled for its synthesis of all previous historical accounts, for the quality of its strategic analysis and its truly compulsive narrative, this is a book ultimately distinguished by its conclusions – that it was the British in the Battle who displayed all the virtues of efficiency, organisation and even ruthlessness we habitually attribute to the Germans, and they who fell short in their amateurism, ill-preparedness, poor engineering and even in their old-fashioned notions of gallantry. An engrossing read for the military scholar and the general reader alike, this is a classic of military history that looks beyond the mythology, to explore all the tragedy and comedy; the brutality and compassion of war.
Author: Duncan Smith
Publisher: John Murray Pubs Limited
ISBN: 9780719554841
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 235
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Book Description
Group Captain Duncan Smith flew and fought in front-line operations continuously from the Battle of Britain through the struggle for Malta, the invasion of Italy and the liberation of France. This account presents his dramatic story of the air war from the cockpit of the now legendary spitfire. As a pre-war RAFVR pilot Duncan Smith completed his training during the first year of war. From contact with pilots seasoned over France and in the Battle of Britain, 'Smithy', as he was popularly known, became convinced that effective air fighting required a combination of strong leadership and teamwork. This is the thrilling account if his experiences, flying in formation and solo, written with an immediacy that places the reader in the cockpit along with him.
Author: Heinz Knocke
Publisher: Casemate Publishers
ISBN: 1783030763
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 256
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Book Description
“Reading like a novel, this primary source is a valuable look at the ‘other side’ of World War II aviation.”—Gazette665 Heinz Knoke was one of the outstanding German fighter pilots of World War II and this vivid first-hand record of his experiences has become a classic among aviation memoirs, a bestselling counterbalance to the numerous accounts written by Allied pilots. Knoke joined the Luftwaffe on the outbreak of war, and eventually became commanding officer of a fighter wing. An outstandingly brave and skillful fighter, he logged over two thousand flights, and shot down fifty-two enemy aircraft. He had flown over four hundred operational missions before being crippled by wounds in an astonishing ‘last stand’ towards the end of the war. He was awarded the Knight’s Cross for his achievements. In a text that reveals his intense patriotism and discipline, he describes being brought up in the strict Prussian tradition, the impact of the coming of the Nazi regime, and his own wartime career set against a fascinating study of everyday life in the Luftwaffe, and of the high morale of the force until its disintegration. In a postscript provided for this edition, Heinz Knoke writes of the struggle to survive after the war in Germany, and his building of a new life. Now that the Berlin Wall has been torn down, his memoirs are set in a new perspective, both a valuable contribution to aviation literature and a moving human story.
Author: Pierre Clostermann
Publisher: Phoenix
ISBN: 9780304366248
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 345
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Book Description
When The Big Show was first published, paper rationing meant that the text had to be heavily cut. Now, for the first time, this international bestseller has been returned to its complete, and breathtaking, original state. Pierre Clostermann was a Free French fighter ace who flew with the RAF during the Second World War. Over the course of five years he engaged in hundreds of dog-fights, shot down scores of Luftwaffe planes, escorted American bombers on some of the most dangerous raids of the war, and watched many of his friends falling to their deaths in the skies over the Channel. The Big Show, his incredible account of the air war over Britain and France, has become one of the most famous memoirs of the Second World War. Now in its original state, it contains everything one could wish for in a war memoir: wonderfully observed descriptions of wartime Britain, frighteningly evocative stories of in-the-cockpit action, an amazing cast of characters, and all the drama and bravery of a man fighting a desperate war thousands of feet above the ground. An undeniable classic.
Author: Fritz X. Kobel
Publisher: Schiffer Military History
ISBN: 9780887409196
Category : Messerschmitt Bf 109 (Fighter plane)
Languages : en
Pages : 0
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Book Description
The legendary German fighter is shown here in all new photographs, and on a variety of war fronts. All early to late models are covered.
Author: Andrew Thomas
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN: 1472812603
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 228
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Book Description
80 years after the Spitfire was first developed it remains an icon of military aviation. Though many associate its victory during the Battle of Britain as the high point in the history of the Spitfire, the years following were of equal importance. Having weathered the initial storm, at the start of 1941 Fighter Command took the fight to the Germans with offensive missions over the Channel. This book reveals how first using the Spitfire I and II, and then following the introduction of the Bf 109 the cannon-armed Spitfire V, RAF squadrons embarked on a range of missions which included one of the most important air battles of the war, over Dieppe on 19 August 1942. Alongside British pilots were squadrons manned by exiled Europeans and pilots from the RAAF, RCAF and RNZAF. In just three years over 100 of these pilots were to rack up ace status in the Spitfire.
