Spitfire: The Combat History

Article number 10124452

Inhoudstafel: Introduction; Chapter 1: Ancestral Lines; Chapter 2: Fighter Development, 1925–35; Chapter 3: The Road to War; Chapter 4: First Contact: The North Sea Approaches, September 1939–April 1940; Chapter 5: Initiation: Dunkirk, May–June 1940; Chapter 6: Spitfires in the Battle of Britain; Chapter 7: Development Interlude: the Spitfires Mk III, IV and V; Chapter 8: Spitfire Squadron, 1940–41: a Pilot’s Story; Chapter 9: The Air Superiority Challenge, 1942; Chapter 10: Spitfires over the Desert; Chapter 11: Spitfire Operations in Sicily, Italy and the Balkans; Chapter 12: North-West Europe, 1943; Chapter 13: The Photographic Reconnaissance Spitfires; Chapter 14: North-West Europe: Invasion and Liberation; Chapter 15: Australia’s Spitfires in Action; Chapter 16: Spitfires in the Burma Campaign, 1943–45; Chapter 17: Seafires in the Far East; Chapter 18: Spitfires in the Malayan Emergency, 1948–51; Chapter 19: Spitfires in Hong Kong; Chapter 20: Israel’s Spitfires; Appendix: Spitfires in Foreign Service; Index. Achterflaptekst: No fighter aircraft in history has evoked such enthusiasm as the Supermarine Spitfire. Beloved by all who flew it, the Spitfire and its naval version, the Seafire, fought in every theatre of war. In fact, the Spitfire was the only Allied fighter aircraft to see continual front-line service from 1939 to 1945, and its combat career went beyond that. In the immediate post-war years, Spitfires saw action in Malaya, Indo-China and Israel, where they played a great part in assuring the infant Israeli Air Force’s air supremacy over its Arab foes, while Seafires fought in Korea. In this superbly illustrated and intensely readable book, leading aviation historian Robert Jackson charts the Spitfire’s combat career across the world, from its earliest skirmishes against the Luftwaffe over the North Sea to its final actions of WW2 against the Japanese in Burma, and also deals with operations by the Royal Navy’s Seafires in European and Far Eastern waters. Through the eyes of its pilots, Spitfire enthusiasts will discover what it was like to fly unarmed photo-reconnaissance Spitfires over Germany, dodging enemy fighters at the edge of the stratosphere, and to dive-bomb V-1 sites later in the war. Each chapter provides a comprehensive account of the Spitfire’s ongoing development and its combat career in the various roles it had to perform under the stresses and demands of war. In the chapter on the Battle of Britain – the action for which the Spitfire will always be best remembered – the author gives a day-by-day account of victories and losses, with the names of the pilots involved and their fate. All in all, the book is a remarkable account of a truly remarkable fighter aircraft and the men who flew it to victory. Over de auteur: Born in 1941 in the North Yorkshire village of Melsonby, Robert Jackson was educated at Richmond School, Yorkshire. He is a full-time writer and lecturer, mainly on aerospace and defence issues, and is defence correspondent for North of England Newspapers. He is the author of more than 60 books on aviation and military subjects, including Air Force: The RAF in the 1990s, operational histories of aircraft such as Hunter, Canberra and Mustang and the Guinness Book of Air Warfare. A former pilot and navigation instructor, he was a squadron leader in the RAF Volunteer Reserve. His principal recreation is rugby football, and he is an official of Durham County Rugby Union. Colofontekst: Copyright © 1995 by Robert Jackson. First published in the UK in 1995 by Airlife Publishing Ltd. British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data: a catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. Typeset by Hewer Text Composition Services, Edinburgh. Printed in Great Britain by Butler & Tanner Ltd, Frome and London. Airlife Publishing Ltd, 101 Longden Road, Shrewsbury SY3 9EB England.