War In The Air 1914-45 (Cassell'S History Of Warfare)

by WiilliamsonMurray (Author)

• Used

  Paperback
  2002

  $3.25

  The first practical airplane flew in 1903 and within ten years had been developed into a military weapon. During the First World War it evolved from a reconnaissance platform of dubious reliability to an integral part of the military machine on land or at sea. In addition to their intervention on and above the battlefield, aircraft developed a strategic capability that was predicted to become so powerful that land armies would be obsolete. Such extreme pre-war theories were put to the test in the Second World War and proved wanting. However, in 1945 aircraft did indeed achieve total dominance, with the atomic bomb raids on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. A new era of warfare had begun.

• Used

  Hardcover
  1999

  $4.19

  The aeroplane, of which a practical version first flew in December 1903, was visualized by its inventors, the Wright brothers, as a means of enlarging peaceful communication between peoples. Its military uses were quickly grasped by others and it served as a scout, fighter, and eventually bomber during World War I. By the outbreak of World War II, all advanced states had organized, large military air forces, chiefly dedicated to bombardment, which exponents of air power believed would win wars independently of action by sea or land. The operations of the air forces in World War I, between the wars and during World War II are the subject of this narrative history.