British Aircraft Carriers 1939–45

Author: Angus Konstam
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN: 1849080801
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 50

Book Description
With war against Germany looming, Britain pushed forward its carrier program in the late 1930s. In 1938, the Royal Navy launched the HMS Ark Royal, its first-ever purpose-built aircraft carrier. This was quickly followed by others, including the highly-successful Illustrious class. Smaller and tougher than their American cousins, the British carriers were designed to fight in the tight confines of the North Sea and the Mediterranean. Over the next six years, these carriers battled the Axis powers in every theatre, attacking Italian naval bases, hunting the Bismark, and even joining the fight in the Pacific. This book tells the story of the small, but resilient, carriers and the crucial role they played in the British war effort.

British Aircraft Carriers 1939–45

Author: Angus Konstam
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN: 1782008411
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 78

British Aircraft Carriers 1945–2010

Author: Angus Konstam
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN: 1472856899
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 84

Book Description
The history of the Royal Navy flagships that led the fleet through the Cold War, ensured victory in the Falklands War, and saw action in Iraq and the Balkans. In 1945, at the end of World War II, the Royal Navy's carrier fleet proved essential to the post-war world. Royal Navy carriers fought in the Korean War with the UN fleet, in the debacle at Suez, and in British operations in the last days of Empire, in Malaya, Borneo and Aden. But most famously, they were the key to the Royal Navy's victory in the Falklands campaign, and they went on to fight in the two Iraq wars. Illustrated throughout with new profiles of the key carriers and their development, as well as a cutaway of HMS Victorious and superb new illustrations of the carriers in action, this book explains how the Royal Navy's air power changed throughout the Cold War and beyond. Renowned naval historian Angus Konstam explains how the World War II carriers were rebuilt in a pioneering modernization that allowed them to operate a new generation of naval jets. As carriers became more expensive to operate, the Royal Navy had to scrap its conventional fast jets and introduce a new generation of light carriers designed for the innovative Harrier 'jump jet'. When the Falklands War broke out, it was one of these new carriers and one veteran carrier from World War II that gave the Task Force the fighters it needed to defend itself in hostile waters and retake the islands. Covering a period of dramatic change for the Royal Navy, this book is a history of the Royal Navy's most important ships throughout the Cold War, the retreat from Empire, and the Falklands and Iraq wars, up to the moment Royal Navy fixed-wing air power was temporarily axed in 2010.

Imperial Japanese Navy Aircraft Carriers 1921–45

Author: Mark Stille
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN: 1780967772
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 102

Book Description
The Imperial Japanese Navy was a pioneer in naval aviation, having commissioned the world's first built-from-the-keel-up carrier, the Hosho. Throughout the 1920s and 1930s, it experimented with its carriers, perfecting their design and construction. As a result, by the time Japan entered World War II and attacked the United States at Pearl Harbor in 1941, it possessed a fantastically effective naval aviation force. This book covers the design, development and operation of IJN aircraft carriers built prior to and during World War II. Pearl Harbor, Midway and the first carrier vs carrier battle, the battle of the Coral Sea, are all discussed.

The Fleet Air Arm Handbook, 1939-1945

Author: David W. Wragg
Publisher: Sutton Publishing
ISBN:
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 280

Book Description
The Fleet Air Arm Handbook 1939-45 is the most comprehensive review available of the Royal Navy's air power during the war years. Starting with a brief history, the book progresses with a full war diary of all of the major operations in a gripping narrative account. In-depth analysis reveals what it was like to work as part of the Fleet Air Arm during the war - the food, accommodation, training, activities and uniform; and gives a glimpse into the men's characters. At the outbreak of the Second World War, British naval aviation was in the midst of chaos and confusion. But as this book shows, the rapid expansion of the Fleet Air Arm was one of the major achievements of the war. The author provides a detailed look at the aircraft, squadrons, naval air stations and aircraft carriers, battleships and cruisers involved. The book ends with a review of what is available at the Fleet Air Arm Museum, Yeovilton.

The British Carrier Strike Fleet After 1945

Author: David Hobbs
Publisher: Naval Institute Press
ISBN: 1612519997
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 641

Book Description
As a follow-up to the highly regarded British Pacific Fleet, David Hobbs looks at the post-World War II fortunes of the most powerful fleet in the Royal Navy—its decline in the face of diminishing resources, its final fall at the hands of ignorant politicians, and its recent resurrection in the form of the Queen Elizabeth class carriers, the largest ships ever built for the Royal Navy. Despite prophecies that nuclear weapons would make conventional forces obsolete, British carrier-borne aircraft were almost continuously employed. The Royal Navy faced new challenges in places like Korea, Egypt, and the Persian Gulf. During these trials the Royal Navy invented techniques and devices crucial to modern carrier operations, pioneering novel forms of warfare tactics for countering insurgency and terrorism. This book combines narratives of poorly understood operations with clear analysis of their strategic and political background. With beautiful illustrations and original research, British Carrier Strike Fleet tells an important but largely untold story of renewed significance as Britain once again embraces carrier operation.

Carriers at War, 1939–1945

Author: Adrian Stewart
Publisher: Casemate Publishers
ISBN: 1783469323
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 358

Book Description
The author begins this fascinating book by tracing aircraft carrier development between the Wars. Eschewed by the Germans and Italians and with Britain squandering her early lead, the Americans and Japanese became front-runners.The Royal Navy learnt the hard way in the early stages of WW2 with the loss of HMS Courageous and Glorious but, following successes at Taranto and Matapan, the value of carriers was no longer in doubt. The sinking of Bismarck and the cataclysmic Pearl Harbor attack signaled the end of the Battleship era. Stung by such spectacular losses the US Navy threw its weight behind the carrier concept and the naval war in the Pacific (Guadalcanal, East Solomon Islands, Santa Cruz, Midmay and Leyte Gulf) revolved round carrier-borne aircraft.Meanwhile the carrier became pivotal in protecting vital convoys in the Atlantic, Arctic and Mediterranean. The author backs his arguments with copious examples of naval and air action.

Fleet Air Arm

Author: Ron Mackay
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780897474320
Category : Aircraft carriers
Languages : en
Pages : 64

Book Description
Beskriver det engelske flåde-flyvevåben.

British Escort Carriers 1941–45

Author: Angus Konstam
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN: 1472836251
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 49

Book Description
This is the fully-illustrated story of the Royal Navy's escort carriers which battled against deadly U-Boats during the Battle of the Atlantic, giving vital air cover to the convoys that kept Britain alive in World War II. In 1941, as the Battle of the Atlantic raged and ship losses mounted, the British Admiralty desperately tried to find ways to defeat the U-Boat threat to Britain's maritime lifeline. Facing a shortage of traditional aircraft carriers and shore-based aircraft, the Royal Navy, as a stopgap measure, converted merchant ships into small “escort carriers.” These were later joined by a growing number of American-built escort carriers, sent as part of the Lend-Lease agreement. The typical Escort Carrier was small, slow and vulnerable, but it could carry about 18 aircraft, which gave the convoys a real chance to detect and sink dangerous U-Boats. Collectively, their contribution to an Allied victory was immense, particularly in the long and grueling campaigns fought in the Atlantic and Arctic. Illustrated throughout with detailed full-color artwork and contemporary photographs, this fascinating study explores in detail how these adaptable ships had such an enormous impact on the outcome of World War II's European Theater.

Find, Fix and Strike!

Author: John Winton
Publisher: Sapere Books
ISBN: 9781800555211
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 0

Book Description
A full examination of the Royal Navy's Fleet Air Arm from the beginning of World War Two until final operations off Japan in August, 1945. Perfect for lovers of naval and aviation history. At the beginning of the Second World War the Royal Navy had only seven aircraft carriers and a couple of hundred obsolete aircraft. Six years later it had more than fifty aircraft carriers of various types and thousands of frontline aircraft. John Winton provides a thorough record of Fleet Air Arm's activities during the war, from the initial setbacks of the Norwegian campaign in the spring of 1940 to the long campaign against Tirpitz in 1944 and finishing with the triumphant operations of the British Pacific Fleet as part of the US 3rd Fleet off the mainland of Japan in the summer of 1945. Find, Fix and Strike! The Fleet Air Arm at War, 1939-45 charts how naval air power came to hold an increasingly important position in the Royal Navy through the course of the war. Uncovering the operations of British aircraft carriers and shore bases, catapult fighters from merchant ships, support given to the British army in North Africa, escort carrier and catapult-launched floatplane activities, as well as numerous instances of individual heroism has allowed Winton to demonstrate the true importance of Royal Navy's Fleet Air Arm. 'interesting, clear and accurate account ... deserves attention by all naval history enthusiasts.' Warship International