The Pointblank Directive

Download or read book The Pointblank Directive written by L. Douglas Keeney and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2012-12-18 with total page 414 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Where was the Luftwaffe on D-Day? Following decades of debate, 2010 saw a formerly classified history restored and in it was a new set of answers. Pointblank is the result of extensive new research that creates a richly textured portrait of perhaps the last untold story of D-Day: three uniquely talented men and why the German Air Force was unable to mount an effective combat against the invasion forces. Following a year of unremarkable bombing against German aircraft industries, General Henry H. “Hap” Arnold, commander of the U.S. Army Air Forces, placed his lifelong friend General Carl A. “Tooey” Spaatz in command of the strategic bombing forces in Europe, and his protégé, General James “Jimmy” Doolittle, command of the Eighth Air Force in England. For these fellow aviation strategists, he had one set of orders – sweep the skies clean of the Luftwaffe by June 1944. Spaatz and Doolittle couldn't do that but they could clear the skies sufficiently to gain air superiority over the D-Day beaches. The plan was called Pointblank.

Download or read book Case Studies in Strategic Bombardment written by R. Cargill Hall and published by U.S. Government Printing Office. This book was released on 1998 with total page 688 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book The Culture of Military Organizations written by Peter R. Mansoor and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2019-10-17 with total page 485 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Examines how military culture forms and changes, as well as its impact on the effectiveness of military organizations.

Download or read book Winged Shield, Winged Sword written by Bernard C. Nalty and published by . This book was released on 1997 with total page 532 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "This is the milestone official comprehensive history of the United States Air Force with compelling stories about America's airmen and their aircraft. This document, Volume I, contains the first 12 chapters and begins with balloons and the earliest heavier-than-air machines. It carries the story through World War II to the establishment of the United States Air Force as a service separate from, but equal to, the Army and the Navy."--barnesandnoble.com

Download or read book Winged Shield, Winged Sword 1907-1950 written by Bernard C. Nalty and published by The Minerva Group, Inc.. This book was released on 2003-11 with total page 528 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Describes and analyzes, in the context of national policy and international rivalries, the evolution of land-based air power since the United States Army in 1907 established an Aeronautical Division. Provides a clearer understanding of the central role of the Air Force in current American defense policy.

Download or read book The US Eighth Air Force in World War II written by William J. Daugherty and published by University of North Texas Press. This book was released on 2024-04-15 with total page 401 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: When America entered World War II in 1941, it was first left to the Army Air Forces to take the fight to Germany. In January 1942 the US Eighth Air Force was created and ordered to England, even though it was without men, equipment, or airplanes. This is the story of Brigadier General Ira C. Eaker’s two years with VIII Bomber Command and later as commander of the Eighth, as he worked to grow it into a force capable of striking German targets from above twenty thousand feet. Initially promised one hundred airplanes and the men to fly them, he soon discovered “his” bombers were often diverted to the North Africa and Pacific theaters. Along the way Eaker faced other critical issues, including atrocious weather, heavy casualties, and the absence of escort fighters. Meanwhile, the head of the Army Air Forces, General “Hap” Arnold, clashed with and criticized Eaker for not flying more missions with more airplanes. Ultimately, as the air war unfolded, the war of words behind the scenes continued until the generals reached a point of irreconcilable differences and Arnold relieved Eaker of command. In spite of this, the “Mighty Eighth Air Force” continued to pummel the Germans. Not once, not even in the two absolute worst air battles of the war—the Schweinfurt missions of 1943, each of which cost one of every four bombers and six hundred–plus men for each mission—did the Eighth ever turn back before reaching their target. Not until after the first two years was there a fighter that could escort the heavy bombers, the B-17s and B-24s, even partway into Germany, much less to targets near the Vienna border, and return. The story of the first two years of the “Mighty Eighth Air Force” in many senses presents an even stronger case for heroism, dedication, and simple self-sacrifice than that depicting events in the final seventeen months.

Download or read book Hit the Target written by Bill Yenne and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2016-07-05 with total page 385 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From Bill Yenne, author of the military histories Big Week and Aces High, comes the stirring true story of the Eighth Air Force in World War II. Barely a month after the attack on Pearl Harbor, the U.S. Army formed its Eighth Air Force, the first bomber command on either side to commit to strategic daylight bombing, with the goal of defeating the Third Reich from the air. The men of the Eighth paid the price in both lives and blood. Hit the Target introduces readers to those who made the Eighth Air Force the formidable juggernaut it soon became. Men of all ranks, from General Tooey Spaatz, the hard-driving founding commander, to Colonel Jimmy Doolittle, the hero who led the first air raid on Japan, to Maynard “Snuffy” Smith, the irascible first airman in Europe to be awarded the Medal of Honor. The story of the Mighty Eighth is told through these men, whose careers paralleled the early history of aviation and who helped to revolutionize airborne warfare and win World War II. INCLUDES PHOTOS “Bill Yenne scores another bull’s-eye with Hit the Target...This is a story everyone should know.”—Robert Bruce Arnold is the co-author of Wilderness of Tigers, A Novel of Saigon and grandson of the Air Force’s only Five Star General, Hap Arnold “The story of the mighty United States Eighth Air Force is one for the ages.”—Brian Sobel, author of The Fighting Pattons