Operation Crossbow

Author: Allan Williams
Publisher: Random House
ISBN: 1409051730
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 466

Book Description
The story of the photographic intelligence work undertaken from a country house at Medmenham, Buckinghamshire, is one of the great lost stories of the Second World War . At its peak in 1944, almost 2,000 British and American men and women worked at the top-secret Danesfield House, interpreting photographs - the majority stereoscopic so they could be viewed in 3D - to unlock secrets of German military activity and weapons development. Millions of aerial photographs were taken by Allied pilots, flying unarmed modified Spitfires and Mosquitos on missions over Nazi Europe. it was said that an aircraft could land, the photographs be developed and initial interpretation completed within two hours - marking the culmination of years of experiments in aerial intelligence techniques. Their finest hour began in 1943, during the planning stages of the Allied invasion of Europe, when Douglas Kendall, who masterminded the interpretation work at Medmenham, led the hunt for Hitler's secret weapons. Operation Crossbow would grow from a handful of photographic interpreters to the creation of a hand-picked team, and came to involve interpreters from across the Medmenham spectrum, including the team of aircraft specialists led by the redoubtable Constance Babington Smith. In November that year, whilst analysing photographs of Peenemunde in northern Germany, they spotted a small stunted aircraft on a ramp. This intelligence breakthrough linked the Nazi research station with a growing network of sites in northern France, where ramps were being constructed aligned not only with London, but targets throughout southern Britain. Through the combined skill and dedication of the Crossbow team and the heroism of the Allied pilots, throughout late 1943 and 1944 V-weapon launch sites were located and through countermeasures destroyed, saving hundreds of thousands of lives, and changing the course of the war. Operation Crossbow is a wonderful story of human endeavour and derring-do, told for the first time.

Operation Crossbow 1944

Author: Steven J. Zaloga
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN: 1472826159
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 98

Book Description
In mid-1943, Allied intelligence began to pick up the signs of unusual German construction in remote locations near the Channel Coast. Several massive fortifications were beginning to take shape, and they appeared to be oriented towards London. Allied intelligence codenamed these sites as "Crossbow" and began plans to attack them before they could bombard Britain's capital city. These "Heavy Crossbow" sites for the V-1 and V-2 missiles were supposed to be bomb-proof, but they soon attracted the attention of RAF heavy bombers with the new Tallboy concrete-penetrating bombs. Fully illustrated with commissioned artwork and contemporary photographs, Operation Crossbow 1944 examines the dynamics of the world's first missile war. It also describes the parallel American efforts to develop missiles and assault drones to attack the "Heavy Crossbow" sites, including the Air Force's Aphrodite and Navy Anvil projects.

Lists and Indexes

Author: Great Britain. Public Record Office
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Archives
Languages : en
Pages : 328

Book Description

Selling Schweinfurt

Author: Brian Vlaun
Publisher: Naval Institute Press
ISBN: 1682474674
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 277

Book Description
A common theme of airpower histories is that the Combined Bomber Offensive was the proving ground for a post-war independent air force. Whether or not the United States Army Air Forces (USAAF) could perform to the hype of its interwar doctrine, Allied commanders based their rival approaches to victory in Europe on their differing views of independent airpower. However, there is an essential, yet overlooked facet to this story: commanders' convictions alone could not hold sway within the War Department, much less at the politically and bureaucratically charged meetings of the Combined Chiefs of Staff. The air commanders pressed their staffs for decision-quality assessments and photographic evidence to sell their arguments and project their progress. They needed informed targeting plans and objective post-raid reports as well as an air-intelligence enterprise to mature all-too-quickly out of interwar neglect. What they received--and Brian Vlaun explains--was a collision of organizational interests and leadership personalities that shaped Ira Eaker's command of the Eighth Air Force in 1943, the tumultuous air campaign over Germany, and the path of the post-war U.S. Air Force. As a result of the author's research through thousands of declassified files, Selling Schweinfurt examines the relationships between air-intelligence organizations and key decision-makers. His analysis spans from pre-war planning and doctrine development, through the Eighth Air Force's independent air campaign, and culminates with the formation of the United States Strategic Air Forces and its 1944 pre-invasion preparations. This book concludes that military organizations, if left unchecked, may adopt symbols and exaggerate claims to justify their own preferences and market their ideas in ways that mask their optimistic assumptions. In the case of the air campaign against Germany, both the four-engine bomber and specialized targets--like Schweinfurt's ball bearings--served as symbols and powerful marketing tools for the AAF and air intelligence, respectively.

U.S. Air Force Tactical Missiles

Author: George Mindling
Publisher: Lulu.com
ISBN: 0557000297
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 353

Book Description
The U.S. Air Force Tactical Missiles, 1949-1969, The Pioneers offers the rich, fascinating history of the first surface-to-surface tactical missiles of the U.S. Air Force, the winged, nuclear-capable Matador and Mace missiles, and their units and personnel in West Germany, Taiwan, Korea, Okinawa and the United States. The U.S. Air Force Tactical Missiles, 1949-1969, The Pioneers ties that unique era and those of other tactical missiles together in a remarkably broad, deep and valuable perspective that also includes the World War II German V-1 and reaches back all the way to the first flight in the United States in 1916 of an aircraft not controlled by a pilot.

Crossbow

Author: Don Bendell
Publisher: Speaking Volumes
ISBN: 1628151048
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 201

Book Description

Beyond the Beach

Author: Stephen Bourque
Publisher: Naval Institute Press
ISBN: 1612518745
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 343

Book Description
An important rethinking of the Normandy war narrative Beyond the Beach examines the Allied air war against France in 1944. During this period, General Dwight David Eisenhower, as Supreme Allied Commander, took control of all American, British, and Canadian air units and employed them for tactical and operational purposes over France rather than as a strategic force to attack targets deep in Germany. Using bombers as his long-range artillery, he directed the destruction of bridges, rail centers, ports, military installations, and even French towns with the intent of preventing German reinforcements from interfering with Operation Neptune, the Allied landings on the Normandy beaches. Ultimately, this air offensive resulted in the death of over 60,000 French civilians and an immense amount of damage to towns, churches, buildings, and works of art. This intense bombing operation, conducted against a friendly occupied state, resulted in a swath of physical and human destruction across northwest France that is rarely discussed as part of the D-Day landings. This book explores the relationship between ground and air operations and its effects on the French population. It examines the three broad groups that the air operations involved, the doctrine and equipment used by Allied air force leaders to implement Eisenhower’s plans, and each of the eight major operations, called lines of effort, that coordinated the employment of the thousands of fighters, medium bombers, and heavy bombers that prowled the French skies that spring and summer of 1944. Each of these sections discusses the operation's purpose, conduct, and effects upon both the military and the civilian targets. Finally, the book explores the short and long-term effects of these operations and argues that this ignored narrative should be part of any history of the D-Day landings.

World War II Goes to the Movies & Television Guide Volume II L-Z

Author: Terry Rowan
Publisher: Lulu.com
ISBN: 1105465438
Category : Performing Arts
Languages : en
Pages : 301

Book Description
A Complete Film Guide to motion pictures and television shows that pertain to WWII. Facts and stories about Hollywood personal that served in the Armed Forces, War Bond drives, USO shows,Hollywood Canteen and those who were ruled 4 F during the war. Complete history of world cinema during the years of the war. As well as other interesting facts are also included. Featuring shorts, cartoons, documentaries, and feature films in the second volume L-Z. Don't forget the first volume A-K edition.

Bombing to Provoke

Author: Jaganath Sankaran
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0197792642
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 225

Book Description
The rapid proliferation and growing sophistication of aerospace weapons--rockets, missiles, and drones--have altered the landscape of warfare. The influence of these weapons on the battlefield is felt profoundly, yet the mechanism of coercion by which these weapons alter the will of the adversary is poorly understood. In Bombing to Provoke, Jaganath Sankaran argues that it is not what these aerospace weapons physically do but what they prompt the target state to do in response that matters for understanding their coercive effect. By threatening a chemical, biological, or nuclear strike or demonstrating the ability to bombard the target's economic and political core repeatedly, aerospace weapons coerce by weaponizing fear and triggering a sense of defenselessness. Sankaran provides a series of historical and current case studies to show how these fears amplify the political vulnerabilities of the target state, coercing it to divert substantial military resources away from other vital missions to redress the threat. This scenario is playing out in real time right now in both the Russo-Ukraine and Israel-Gaza theaters, both of which are seeing barrages of cross-border missile and rocket fire aimed at weakening the target's resolve. For anyone seeking to understand why states at war in the age of aerospace weapon warfare operate and react in the ways that they do, this book's methodical dissection of the strategic rationale behind these weapons makes it necessary reading.

All the Gallant Men

Author: Donald Stratton
Publisher: HarperCollins
ISBN: 0062645374
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 320

Book Description
The New York Times bestselling memoir of survival and heroism at Pearl Harbor “An unforgettable story of unfathomable courage.” —Reader’s Digest In this, the first memoir by a USS Arizona sailor, Donald Stratton delivers an inspiring and unforgettable eyewitness account of the Pearl Harbor attack and his remarkable return to the fight. At 8:10 a.m. on December 7, 1941, Seaman First Class Donald Stratton was consumed by an inferno. A million pounds of explosives had detonated beneath his battle station aboard the USS Arizona, barely fifteen minutes into Japan’s surprise attack on American forces at Pearl Harbor. Near death and burned across two thirds of his body, Don, a nineteen-year-old Nebraskan who had been steeled by the Great Depression and Dust Bowl, summoned the will to haul himself hand over hand across a rope tethered to a neighboring vessel. Forty-five feet below, the harbor’s flaming, oil-slick water boiled with enemy bullets; all around him the world tore itself apart. In this extraordinary, never-before-told eyewitness account of the Pearl Harbor attack—the only memoir ever written by a survivor of the USS Arizona—ninety-four-year-old veteran Donald Stratton finally shares his unforgettable personal tale of bravery and survival on December 7, 1941, his harrowing recovery, and his inspiring determination to return to the fight. Don and four other sailors made it safely across the same line that morning, a small miracle on a day that claimed the lives of 1,177 of their Arizona shipmates—approximately half the American fatalaties at Pearl Harbor. Sent to military hospitals for a year, Don refused doctors’ advice to amputate his limbs and battled to relearn how to walk. The U.S. Navy gave him a medical discharge, believing he would never again be fit for service, but Don had unfinished business. In June 1944, he sailed back into the teeth of the Pacific War on a destroyer, destined for combat in the crucial battles of Leyte Gulf, Luzon, and Okinawa, thus earning the distinction of having been present for the opening shots and the final major battle of America’s Second World War. As the seventy-fifth anniversary of the Pearl Harbor attack approaches, Don, a great-grandfather of five and one of six living survivors of the Arizona, offers an unprecedentedly intimate reflection on the tragedy that drew America into the greatest armed conflict in history. All the Gallant Men is a book for the ages, one of the most remarkable—and remarkably inspiring—memoirs of any kind to appear in recent years. *Library Journal