RAAF Black Cats

RAAF Black Cats PDF Author: Robert Cleworth
Publisher: Allen & Unwin
ISBN: 1760872164
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 342

Book Description
The secret and dangerous operations of Australia's Pacific War Catalina crews told for the first time. In March 1945 Reg Cleworth, a navigator on PBY Catalina seaplanes flying out of Darwin, went missing in action. No details were ever given about the incident that took his life, nor the reason his plane went down. For Reg's younger brother, Robert, the news came as a fulfilling prophecy. The last time they saw each other, Reg confided in Robert, 'I don't think I'm coming back'. Forty years later Robert decided to investigate what happened to his brother. What he uncovered was an extraordinary story of a covert Australian airborne mine-laying operation in cooperation with the US Seventh Fleet to disrupt the Japanese supply routes. One of the riskier and more dangerous RAAF undertakings of the Pacific War, secrecy restrictions were imposed on everyone involved. They were never formally lifted. Had it not been for a chance meeting that allowed Robert access to previously unopened files in the US national archives, this remarkable story may never have been untold. What he unearthed revealed the sacrifice and achievements of the RAAF Catalina crews and the vital role they played in MacArthur's strategic plan for the south-west Pacific. Absorbing, compelling and powerfully told, RAAF Black Cats is an important addition to our understanding of Australia's role in the Pacific War.

A Mystery Unsolved... the Loss of Catalina A24-49

A Mystery Unsolved... the Loss of Catalina A24-49 PDF Author: Robert Neville Alford
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780987151988
Category : Aircraft accidents
Languages : en
Pages :

Book Description
Towards the end of WWII, in 1944, a heavily loaded RAAF Catalina flying boat, A24-49, launched from northern Australia for a seemingly routine mission over enemy territory in the Dutch East Indies. The aircraft, with ten crew onboard, vanished without a trace. For family members of those crewmen, this remains an enduring mystery. This book has been largely written and researched by historian Bob Alford, at the instigation of the nephew of the missing Catalina pilot, Tony Morgan. The book includes a thorough background on RAAF Catalina operations during WWII.

Sketches of a Black Cat

Sketches of a Black Cat PDF Author: Ron Miner
Publisher: Createspace Independent Publishing Platform
ISBN: 9781480238893
Category : World War, 1939-1945
Languages : en
Pages : 0

Book Description
"Howard Miner was a student in a small midwestern college when the War broke out. His journey through training and tours of duty as a PBY pilot in the South Pacific are skillfully captured in his art and narratives, framing a wartime drama with a personal coming of age story. The Black Cats flew at night in seaplanes painted entirely black. Their assignments were varied, from patrols and bombing raids to rescues and missions that took them over thousands of miles of water and countless islands. This is a tale of ordinary people navigating through exceptional circumstances -- the friendships made, the cultures discovered, and the constant threat of enemy engagements. Sketches of a Black Cat is a memoir reconstructed by his son, Ron, from a small library of artwork, journal entries, and writing. Through his father's eyes and first hand accounts, we explore the behind the scenes life and idiosyncracies of the military, the antithetical humor, and very real dangers, and the poetic imagery of these tropical places from the air. The descriptive verse and the artist's viewpoint provides us a creatively told and intriguing portrayal of World War II's Pacific Theater"--Page 4 of cover.

The Dakota Hunter

The Dakota Hunter PDF Author: Hans Wiesman
Publisher: Casemate
ISBN: 1612002595
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 321

Book Description
A tale of a lifelong passion for a WWII aircraft that changed the author’s life: “It is almost like an adventure novel except it is true” (Air Classics). This book tells the story of a Dutch boy who grew up during the 1950s in postwar Borneo, where he had frequent encounters with an airplane, the Douglas DC-3, a.k.a. the C-47 Skytrain or Dakota, of World War II fame. For a young boy living in a remote jungle community, the aircraft reached the proportions of a romantic icon as the essential lifeline to a bigger world for him, the beginning of a special bond. In 1957, his family left the island and all its residual wreckage of World War II, and he attended college in The Hague. After graduation, he started a career as a corporate executive—and met the aircraft again during business trips to the Americas. His childhood passion for the Dakota flared up anew, and the fascination pulled like a magnet. As if predestined, or maybe just looking for an excuse to come closer, he began a business to salvage and convert Dakota parts, which meant first of all finding them. As the demand for these war relic parts and cockpits soared, he began to travel the world to track down surplus, crashed, or derelict Dakotas. He ventured deeper and deeper into remote mountains, jungles, savannas, and the seas where the planes are found, usually as ghostly wrecks but sometimes still in full commercial operation. In hunting the mythical Dakota, he often encountered intimidating or dicey situations in countries plagued by wars or revolts, others by arms and narcotics trafficking, warlords, and conmen. The stories of these expeditions take the reader to some of the remotest spots in the world, but once there, one is often greeted by the comfort of what was once the West’s apex in transportation—however now haunted by the courageous airmen of the past.

Aircraft of The Royal Australian Air Force

Aircraft of The Royal Australian Air Force PDF Author: Air Force History Branch
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 1922488046
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 644

Book Description
Aircraft of The Royal Australian Air Force tells the story of the RAAF’s first one hundred years by describing the acquisition, operation, and service record of the multitude of aircraft types flown by the RAAF. The 176 aircraft types include the flimsy wood and canvas aircraft typical of World War I, through the technological advances during and after World War II, to modern fifth-generation, complex aircraft like the F-35 Lightning II. Even before its formation Sir Richard Williams, the Father of the RAAF, had decided to employ an alpha-numeric numbering system to identify and account for each aircraft in service. This system started with A1, A2, A3 etc as each type of aircraft came into service. Each individual aircraft within each series was identified as A1-1, A1-2 and so on and the aircraft serial became known colloquially as the ‘A-number’. With some exceptions over the century since the A-number system started, aircraft entered RAAF service in broadly the sequence of the A-numbers, and so this book is intended to assist in charting the 100-year history of the RAAF by listing aircraft operated in A-number sequence, rather than by listing them by role (such as Fighter, Bomber, Maritime, Trainer, Transport etc) or alphabetically by name or by manufacturer. The inclusion of a comprehensive Index and the Quick Reference Guide to aircraft by role is intended to facilitate the location of the entry for any specific type of aircraft for those who may not already know its A-number. Aircraft of The Royal Australian Air Force is a must have for all those who have served in the RAAF, those with a passion for military aviation and aircraft in general, and the broader members of the public wishing to gain an appreciation of the Royal Australian Air Force in its centenary year.

Operation KE

Operation KE PDF Author: Dennis R Letourneau
Publisher: Naval Institute Press
ISBN: 1612511791
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 418

Book Description
Operation KE explores the air combat that attended the Japanese evacuation of Guadalcanal in early 1943 —a topic which has hitherto received very little attention. Operation KE was successful largely because Japanese strategic planning and tactical execution was basically sound. The traditional view holds that the Japanese got away with the initiative largely because the Americans let them; the US Pacific high command felt it was not worth the effort to try and stop them. Letourneau contends that this was not entirely the case. He argues that the Cactus Air Force and Guadalcanal-based naval units did their best to disrupt the evacuation, still believing that the Tokyo Express was bringing reinforcements and supplies to the 17th Army. Other US forces in the South Pacific did make a half-hearted and questionably-executed attempt to stop the Japanese, but were bluffed into adopting a ""wait-and-see"" posture. Operation KE focuses on the air war fought between the Cactus and US 13th Air Forces on the one hand and the Japanese Navy and Army Air Forces on the other, from mid-December, 1942 to mid-February, 1943. The book scrutinizes the US air strikes against the six KE-related Tokyo Express destroyer runs, plus related air strikes against the Japanese merchant marine, as well as air and naval base-suppression missions undertaken by both sides, to determine what actually happened in order to analyze why the Japanese evacuation succeeded and why Cactus failed to stop it. Background chapters attempt to assess the respective states of readiness of the Japanese and US air arms in the South Pacific to support on the one hand and counter on the other the execution of Operation KE. The central portion of the book narrates in some detail what actually occurred in the air and at sea -—including air strikes, fighter sweeps, base suppression missions, and naval sorties -—during the crucial prelude to and the actual playing out of the interrelated events that comprised the evacuation operation. Concluding chapters analyze, on both strategic and tactical levels, the Japanese planning and execution of Operation KE, and Cactus' initiatives to interdict KE's successful prosecution. The authors conclude that both the Japanese and the American states of readiness on the eve of Operation KE suffered in such matters as optimizing both resources and operating procedures, and combating a hostile environment. Consequently, both combatants were somewhat handicapped in their abilities respectively to carry out and contest Operation KE. The author contends that the Japanese developed a reasonably sound strategy that exploited those methods and tools of war then in use in the South Pacific; to achieve success, they maximized their own strengths while taking advantage of their adversary's limitations. Contrary to the traditional view, the authors are of the opinion that Japanese utilization of their newly-built airstrip at Munda in the Central Solomons played an important role in the success of Operation KE, which was in keeping with the long-range intention of developing Munda and Vila airstrips as major forward airbases to defend against any Allied push toward Rabaul through the Solomons. The U.S., on the other hand, by consistently misreading Japanese intent regarding Operation KE and pursuing a cautious offensive strategy, blunted the tactical impact of their initiatives to counter the evacuation. Several imprudent tactical decisions and a misallocation of resources further diluted the strength of US efforts."

Airborne Espionage

Airborne Espionage PDF Author: David Oliver
Publisher: The History Press
ISBN: 0752495526
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 334

Book Description
At the outbreak of the World War I there was no formal organization for the transport of spies across enemy lines by aircraft and no communications network between the air forces and their agents. The exploits of British and Commonwealth, American, Free European, Soviet, German, Italian and Japanese airmen and units are recorded in this account.

Aircraft

Aircraft PDF Author:
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Aeronautics
Languages : en
Pages : 792

Book Description

Invasion Rabaul

Invasion Rabaul PDF Author: Bruce Gamble
Publisher: Zenith Press
ISBN: 162788131X
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 306

Book Description
The riveting first book in Bruce Gamble's critically acclaimed Rabaul trilogy, originally published in hardcover as Darkest Hour, which chronicles the longest battle of World War II. January 23, 1942, New Britain. It was 2:30 a.m., the darkest hour of the day and, for the tiny Australian garrison sent to defend this Southwest Pacific island, soon to be the darkest hour of the war. Lark Force, comprising 1,500 soldiers and six nurses, faced a vastly superior Japanese amphibious unit poised to overrun Rabaul, capital of Australia’s mandated territories. Invasion Rabaul, the first book in military historian Bruce Gamble’s critically acclaimed Rabaul trilogy, is a gut-wrenching account of courage and sacrifice, folly and disaster, as seen through the eyes of the defenders who survived the Japanese assault. Gamble’s gripping narrative follows key individuals—soldiers and junior officers, an American citizen and an Army nurse among them—who were driven into the jungle, prey to the unforgiving environment and a cruel enemy that massacred its prisoners. The dramatic stories of the Lark Force survivors, told here in full for the first time, are among the most inspiring of the Pacific War—and they lay a triumphant foundation for one of today’s most highly praised military nonfiction trilogies.

The Aviation History

The Aviation History PDF Author: Relly Victoria Petrescu
Publisher: BoD – Books on Demand
ISBN: 3848266393
Category : Technology & Engineering
Languages : en
Pages : 218

Book Description
According to Aulus Gellius, Archytas, the Ancient Greek philosopher, mathematician, astronomer, statesman, and strategist, was reputed to have designed and built, around 400 BC, the first artificial, self-propelled flying device, a bird-shaped model propelled by a jet of what was probably steam, said to have actually flown some 200 metres. This machine, which its inventor called The Pigeon, may have been suspended on a wire or pivot for its flight. The 9th century Muslim Berber inventor, Abbas Ibn Firnas's glider is considered by John Harding to be the first attempt at heavier-than-air flight in aviation history. In 1010 AD an English monk, Eilmer of Malmesbury purportedly piloted a primitive gliding craft from the tower of Malmesbury Abbey. Eilmer was said to have flown over 200 yards (180 m) before landing, breaking both his legs. He later remarked that the only reason he did not fly further was because he forgot to give it a tail, and he was about to add one when his concerned Abbot forbade him any further experiments. Bartolomeu de Gusmão, Brazil and Portugal, an experimenter with early airship designs. In 1709 demonstrated a small airship model before the Portuguese court, but never succeeded with a full-scale model. Pilâtre de Rozier, Paris, France, first trip by a human in a free-flying balloon (the Montgolfière), built by Joseph-Michel and Jacques-Étienne Montgolfier, . 9 km covered in 25 minutes on October 15, 1783. (see Le Globe below for first unmanned flight, 2 months earlier) Professor Jacques Charles and Les Frères Robert, two French brothers, Anne-Jean and Nicolas-Louis, variously shared three milestones of pioneering flight: Le Globe, the first unmanned hydrogen gas balloon flew on 26 August 1783. On 1 December 1783 La Charlière piloted by Jacques Charles and Nicolas-Louis Robert made the first manned hydrogen balloon flight. In 1951, the Lockheed XFV-1 and the Convair XFY tailsitters were both designed around the Allison YT40 turboprop engine drivin
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