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US Airpower

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May 3rd, 2016
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  1. Introduction
  2.  
  3. The history of aviation can be divided into two basic categories, civilian and military. Sadly, the majority of the histories written since 1903 have dealt with the military applications of flying. This bibliography reflects this imbalance, but it is important to note that neither military nor civilian aviation can be understood in isolation from the other. Another aspect of the field worth noting is the range of perspectives. For obvious reasons, many works focus on the complex technological issues inherent to the subject. Others are descriptive narratives of the type referred to by one prominent military historian as the “Look mom, I am flying” school of writing. Nevertheless, there are many serious and scholarly treatments of this interesting and vital topic. What follows is a modest attempt to annotate a few of the more important works. And, while this is a bibliography focused on American air power, it includes a number of works dealing with aviation in other countries. This is a simple reflection of the reality that air power evolved as an international phenomenon, in both its military and civil applications.
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  5. General Overviews and Reference Works
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  7. The works in this section were chosen based on their scholarship, their scope, and their expected value to researchers. The categories reflect the fact that the study of air power is usually organized by type of aviation and by types of military missions. Works dealing with topics that are, strictly speaking, outside the parameters of American air power have been included because of the importance of their subject matter to the development of American air power.
  8.  
  9. Aviation
  10.  
  11. This section has the broadest scope, listing three works whose authors and editors attempt to address the subject of human flight. These include overviews by two noted authorities in the field, Tom Crouch (Crouch 2008) and Robin Higham (Higham 2003), as well as the nicely organized anthology Launius and Bednarek 2003. It also includes two general reference works: Gunston 2009 and Taylor 1989.
  12.  
  13. Crouch, Tom D. Wings: A History of Aviation from Kites to the Space Age. Washington, DC: Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum, 2008.
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  15. Crouch is the senior curator in the Division of Aeronautics at the National Air and Space Museum of the Smithsonian Institution. As one might expect, this overview reflects the erudition and perspective he has gained in a lifetime spent studying aviation. It is well informed, logically organized, and clearly written.
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  17. Gunston, Bill. The Cambridge Aerospace Dictionary. 2d ed. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2009.
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  19. This is the most comprehensive dictionary available on the subject. It deals with the technologies, the personalities, the events, and the organizations relating to the aerospace field. Gunston, a noted author in this field, has compiled an important and vital tool for anyone interested in this subject.
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  21. Higham, Robin D. S. 100 Years of Air Power and Aviation. College Station: Texas A&M University Press, 2003.
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  23. This is a broad survey that covers both military and civil aviation—it is especially good at explaining the role of the emerging technologies, without being too detailed.
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  25. Launius, Roger D., and Janet R. Daly Bednarek, eds. Reconsidering a Century of Flight. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2003.
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  27. Launius and Bednarek provide an anthology of essays by top scholars in the field. The topics span a range of civil and military topics, and there is an extensive annotated bibliography.
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  29. Taylor, Michael J. H., ed. Jane’s Encyclopedia of Aviation. New York: Portland House, 1989.
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  31. As one would expect with any publication associated with the Jane’s organization, this is an authoritative and comprehensive research tool. Its primary drawback is the fact that it is significantly dated.
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  33. Air Power
  34.  
  35. The concept of “air power” can have different meanings. In this bibliography it is used to refer to the use of coercive air power, the use of military aviation to project political power. This mission was defined and examined just after World War II by a noted British air commander, Air Marshal Lord Tedder (in Tedder 1947). More recent works include Stokesbury 1986, Mason 1994, Buckley 1999, Boyne 2003, and van Creveld 2011, a somewhat provocative book. A work that specifically addresses the utility of air power, especially the role of bombing, is Pape 1996. The following sections air power: Anthologies, American Air Power, and Naval Air Power.
  36.  
  37. Boyne, Walter J. The Influence of Air Power upon History. Gretna, LA: Pelican, 2003.
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  39. This is an interesting attempt to place air power in a broader historical perspective. Boyne, the chairman of the National Aeronautic Association, is a former US Air Force combat pilot. He was also the director of the National Air and Space Museum of the Smithsonian Institution, 1982–1986. Boyne believes that air power played a vital role in the political and economic events of the 20th century.
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  41. Buckley, John. Air Power in the Age of Total War. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1999.
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  43. This is probably the best single volume treatment of the history of military air power through the end of the Cold War. It is concise, well informed, and clearly organized. It may have a slightly British-centric perspective, but if so, it is a minor issue.
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  45. Mason, Tony. Air Power: A Centennial Appraisal. London: Brassey’s, 1994.
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  47. Mason, a British Royal Air Force Air Vice Marshal, scholar, and instructor, provides a comprehensive overview of the development of military aviation from World War I through the end of the Cold War.
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  49. Pape, Robert A. Bombing to Win: Air Power and Coercion in War. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1996.
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  51. Pape evaluates the extent to which aerial bombardment has been an effective tool of political coercion. The book was written after the First Gulf War and before the campaign in Kosovo. In many ways it has proven prophetic regarding the limits and benefits of air power since 2001.
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  53. Stokesbury, James. A Short History of Air Power. New York: W. Morrow, 1986.
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  55. Like Stokesbury’s other works involving “short histories,” this book is not short. It is, however, an interesting narrative and a fine introduction for someone beginning a study of military air power.
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  57. Tedder, Arthur William. Air Power in War. London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1947.
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  59. Written by one of the leading British airmen in World War II, this work evaluates how air power affected warfare on the strategic and tactical levels. Tedder played a key role in formulating the Allies’ air strategies and doctrines. These experiences served as the basis for this concise and insightful analysis.
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  61. van Creveld, Martin. The Age of Airpower. New York: Public Affairs, 2011.
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  63. This recent attempt to provide an overview of military air power is insightful and provocative. The author describes the importance of air power in the wars of the 20th century, but also notes the fact that air power theorists often oversold the product. He addresses the issues that affect the utility of air power in the early 21st century and predicts that manned aircraft may have a limited future.
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  65. Anthologies
  66.  
  67. The best anthologies begin with Emme 1959, which combined the perspectives of academics and professional military officers who had developed air power concepts during, between, and after the two world wars. The papers of the 1978 US Air Force Academy symposium, in Hurley and Ehrhart 1979, provide a similar mix in the aftermath of the Vietnam War. Three excellent anthologies from the more recent past are Gooch 1995, Meilinger 1997, and Olsen 2010. Finally, one should be familiar with the critical insights provided in Higham and Harris 2006, a collection that is thought provoking.
  68.  
  69. Emme, Eugene, ed. The Impact of Air Power: National Security and World Politics. Princeton, NJ: Van Nostrand, 1959.
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  71. Emme’s anthology provides a fascinating overview of the history of air power up to the early Cold War by presenting the perspectives of a variety of scholars and practitioners as of 1959. As such, it is both a primary and a secondary source of some importance.
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  73. Gooch, John, ed. Airpower: Theory and Practice. London: Frank Cass, 1995.
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  75. This is an impressive anthology of essays written by leading air power historians of the 1990s.
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  77. Higham, Robin, and Stephen J. Harris, eds. Why Air Forces Fail: The Anatomy of Defeat. Lexington: The University Press of Kentucky, 2006.
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  79. This collection of essays examines eleven air campaigns between World War I and the Falklands War of 1982 that, in the opinions of the authors, failed. The editors synthesize the contributors’ analyses by noting the false assumptions and over simplifications that many observers fall victim to when studying air power.
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  81. Hurley, Colonel Alfred F., and Major Robert C. Ehrhart, eds. Air Power and Warfare: The Proceedings of the 8th Military History Symposium, United States Air Force Academy, 18–20 October 1978. Washington, DC: Office of Air Force History, 1979.
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  83. This symposium, held in conjunction with the Harmon Memorial Lecture of 1978, brought together an impressive collection of military, diplomatic, and aviation historians to address military aviation from before World War I through the 1970s. The essays are scholarly and comprehensive in their scope. Published in conjunction with the USAF Academy.
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  85. Meilinger, Phillip S., ed. The Paths of Heaven: The Evolution of Airpower Theory. Maxwell AFB, AL: Air University Press, 1997.
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  87. This anthology, compiled at the School of Advanced Airpower Studies at the Air University of the USAF, was edited by a scholar-officer who is one of the leading authorities on US Air Force doctrinal development. This collection of essays was well chosen and represents some of the most insightful thinking on the history of the subject at the end of the 20th century.
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  89. Olsen, John Andreas, ed. A History of Air Warfare. Washington, DC: Potomac, 2010.
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  91. This anthology is composed of sixteen essays that trace the development of air power from 1914 through 2006. The focus is on the utility and effectiveness of air power in both strategic and tactical applications.
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  93. American Air Power
  94.  
  95. The best survey of American military air power is Gross 2002. If one wishes to trace the evolution of US Air Force doctrine, Field Manual 100-20 (US War Department 1944) is an excellent place to start. Futrell 1989 is the most comprehensive work on the subject written to date. To supplement this, see Watts 1984. Builder 1994 and Jones 1997 provide incisive analysis of the factors that were at the heart of the US Air Force doctrinal development.
  96.  
  97. Builder, Carl H. The Icarus Syndrome: The Role of Air Power Theory in the Evolution and Fate of the U.S. Air Force. New Brunswick, NJ: Transaction, 1994.
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  99. Builder, an influential Rand Corporation analyst of postwar American military doctrine and culture, examines the sources, assumptions, and logic behind the development of US Air Force doctrine. He is especially important regarding the role of service culture in affecting the doctrinal process.
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  101. Futrell, Robert Frank. Ideas, Concepts, Doctrine. Vol. 1, Basic Thinking in the United States Air Force, 1907–1960. Maxwell AFB, AL: Air University Press, 1989.
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  103. This is the seminal work for anyone studying United States Air Force (USAF) doctrine. Futrell focuses on the doctrine of the USAF, but in discussing the development he includes international developments, new technologies, and operational experience. His research is extremely impressive and his citations are both numerous and detailed. Volume 2 covers 1961–1984.
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  105. Gross, Charles J. American Military Aviation: The Indispensible Arm. College Station: Texas A&M University Press, 2002.
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  107. Designed as a text for use by the US Air Force and written by an Air Force Reserve officer and historian, this work is comprehensive and quite objective. It is well researched and clearly organized.
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  109. Jones, Johnny R., ed. Development of Air Force Basic Doctrine 1947–1992. Maxwell AFB, AL: Airpower Research Institute, 1997.
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  111. Colonel Jones combined a serving Air Force officer’s MA thesis and research by students at the Airpower Research Institute that examined the evolution of United States Air Force doctrinal manuals through the Cold War. There is special attention paid to the role of strategic bombing.
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  113. US War Department. Command and Employment of Air Power. Field Manual 100-20. Washington, DC: Government Printing Office, 1944.
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  115. Written in 1943, as a result of operational experiences in North Africa and consultation with British air commanders, this manual established the concept of air forces being equal to ground forces under joint theater commanders. It also established the priorities of tactical air missions: command of the air, interdiction, and close air support. As such, it had long-lasting influence.
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  117. Watts, Barry D. The Foundations of US Air Doctrine: The Problem of Friction in War. Maxwell AFB, AL: Air University Press, 1984.
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  119. Watts is a former Air Force pilot and noted analyst of doctrine and policy development. This work provides an excellent example of how historical case studies can be used to illustrate problems in doctrinal development and testing.
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  121. Naval Air Power
  122.  
  123. The development of naval air power is so extensive it rivals land-based air power in terms of its complexity and history. It is also quite specialized, and any study of naval air power needs to recognize this. The three websites cited in this section are maintained as official naval sources. One is provided by the British Royal Navy (Fleet Air Arm Museum) and two by the United States Navy (Chronology of Significant Events in Naval Aviation, and The Aircraft Carrier). Wragg 1979 and Polmar 2006 provide detailed overviews of both carriers and naval aviation. Mersky 1997 deals specifically with US Marine Corps aviation, while Darling 2009 is a survey of British naval air power. Price 1980 focuses on the role of naval air power in the antisubmarine role, and Brown 1999 deals with the complexities involved in operating off of aircraft carriers at night and in other periods of low visibility.
  124.  
  125. The Aircraft Carrier.
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  127. A US Navy website that covers the evolution of aircraft carriers in the US Navy. It includes “Fact Files,” chronologies, and an illustrated history.
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  129. Brown, Charles H. Dark Sky, Black Sea: Aircraft Carrier Night and All-Weather Operations. Annapolis, MD: United States Naval Institute Press, 1999.
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  131. Brown traces the development of systems and techniques designed to allow carrier operations in periods of low visibility. He begins with the pioneers of the interwar years and provides a narrative through World War II to the Persian Gulf War of 1991.
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  133. Chronology of Significant Events in Naval Aviation.
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  135. The US Navy Historical Division provides this detailed chronology of events in naval aviation. It is worldwide in scope.
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  137. Darling, Kev. Fleet Air Arm Carrier War. Barnsley, UK: Pen and Sword, 2009.
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  139. This work covers the evolution of British naval aviation from World War I to the early 21st century. Darling describes the development of the aircraft, the carriers, and the doctrines. He takes care to note the British development of key technologies like the angled flight deck and vertical/short take-off aircraft. All of these had a significant influence on American naval air power.
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  141. Fleet Air Arm Museum.
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  143. The official website of the British Royal Navy Fleet Air Arm Museum. This site is especially useful for historical information relating to the aircraft and organization of naval aviation in the Royal Navy.
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  145. Mersky, Peter B. U.S. Marine Corps Aviation, 1912 to the Present. Baltimore: Nautical & Aviation, 1997.
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  147. Mersky provides a comprehensive survey of US Marine Corps air capabilities. It is the most up-to-date general history of this subject and includes suggestions for other reading.
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  149. Polmar, Norman. Aircraft Carriers: A History of Carrier Aviation and Its Influence on World Events. Vol. 1, 1909–1945. Washington, DC: Potomac, 2006.
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  151. This is a classic work by a leading naval historian. It is a combination reference work and narrative of the evolution of carrier-borne naval aviation. Volume 2 covers 1946–2006.
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  153. Price, Alfred. Aircraft versus Submarine: The Evolution of the Anti-Submarine Aircraft, 1912 to 1980. London: Jane’s, 1980.
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  155. This volume covers the use of aircraft as anti-submarine weapons from the time of World War I through the middle of the Cold War. The author describes the aircraft, the specialized detection devices, the weapons, the tactics, and the consequences of the evolution of these systems.
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  157. Wragg, David. Wings over the Sea: A History of Naval Aviation. New York: Arco, 1979.
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  159. A clear survey of the evolution of aircraft carriers, naval aircraft, and land-based aircraft that have been used for maritime purposes.
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  161. Aviation Technology
  162.  
  163. Anderson 1997, Bilstein 1983, and Launius 1999 cover the principles of aeronautical engineering and aerodynamics that are fundamental to aviation. Schatzberg 1999 explores the role of bias in the selection of building materials and reveals the role of culture in the process. Heron 1961, Schlaifer and Heron 1970, and Setright 1971 survey the development of piston engines and the corresponding fuels. Gunston 2006 and Hunecke 2010 do the same for jet technology.
  164.  
  165. Anderson, John D., Jr. A History of Aerodynamics and Its Impact on Flying Machines. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1997.
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  167. This highly acclaimed work begins with the concepts that formed the foundation of aerodynamics and provides examples of their importance in the development of specific aircraft. Beginning with the ancient Greeks and continuing through the invention of powered aircraft, Anderson uses clear examples to illuminate the ideas that are at the heart of the principles of flight.
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  169. Bilstein, Roger E. Flight Patterns: Trends of Aeronautical Development in the United States, 1918–1929. Athens, GA: University of Georgia Press, 1983.
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  171. Bilstein addresses military and civil aviation developments in the United States in the decade following World War I. He begins with the technologies, but places them in the political, economic, social, and cultural context of the time.
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  173. Gunston, Bill. The Development of Jet and Turbine Aero Engines. Sparkford, UK: Haynes, 2006.
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  175. Gunston, a former RAF pilot and instructor, is a highly regarded authority on aviation technology. This work provides a comprehensive but clear overview of the principles behind jet engines and turbines and the various subdivisions of these types.
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  177. Heron, S. D. History of the Aircraft Piston Engine: A Brief Outline. Detroit: Ethyl Corp., 1961.
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  179. This work was written by a leading authority in the field and is one of only two surveys of aircraft piston engines. It assumes a certain level of knowledge of machinery and engineering.
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  181. Hunecke, Klaus. Jet Engines: Fundamentals of Theory, Design and Operation. Marlborough, UK: Crowood, 2010.
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  183. This is a fundamental description of the principles of jet propulsion and their application in jet designs since the 1930s. It is widely praised for its clarity. First published in 1997.
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  185. Launius, Roger D., ed. Innovation and the Development of Flight. College Station: Texas A&M University Press, 1999.
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  187. The author has served as a US Air Force historian, a NASA historian, and a senior curator in the Division of Space History at the Smithsonian Institution’s National Air and Space Museum in Washington, DC. This volume addresses the roles of invention and adaptation in the evolution of aviation technology.
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  189. Schatzberg, Eric. Wings of Wood, Wings of Metal: Culture and Technical Choice in American Airplane Materials, 1914–1945. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1999.
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  191. Schatzberg examines the assumptions made in the development of metal airframes in the United States and Great Britain. His analysis reveals that many American military and industrial leaders assumed the superiority of metals, even when the empirical evidence did not support this conclusion. This work makes a major contribution in revealing the dysfunctional nature of cultural bias.
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  193. Schlaifer, Robert, and S. D. Heron. The Development of Aircraft Engines and Fuels. Elmsdorf, NY: Elmsdorf Reprints, 1970.
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  195. This is an amalgamation of two works by two noted authorities in the field, originally published in 1950 by Harvard University Press. Both are somewhat esoteric, but they cover vital topics.
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  197. Setright, Leonard John Kensel. The Power to Fly: The Development of the Piston Engine in Aviation. London: Allen & Unwin, 1971.
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  199. This is only the second survey of piston engines in aircraft. Like Heron 1961, Setright assumes a certain knowledge of machinery, but his narrative is well supported by helpful diagrams and pictures.
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  201. Aerospace Industry
  202.  
  203. The history of the aerospace industries is a story of technological change. This change was shaped by science, industrial evolution, and business needs. Any treatment of this subject needs to cover a variety of these factors. To date there is no comprehensive work that covers all of these on a global scale. The collection of essays in Simonson 1968 is insightful but dated. Bilstein 2001 provides an excellent descriptive narrative of the growth and evolution of the American aerospace industries, with a focus on the new technologies and capabilities. Pattillo 1998 has a somewhat broader scope, but is still almost totally focused on American industry.
  204.  
  205. Bilstein, Roger E. Enterprise of Flight: The American Aviation and Aerospace Industry. Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution Scholarly Press, 2001.
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  207. Bilstein, a NASA historian, covers the history of American aircraft manufacturers, both military and civil. This work expands on his 1996 book, The American Aerospace Industry: From Workshop to Global Enterprise.
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  209. Pattillo, Donald M. Pushing the Envelope: The American Aircraft Industry. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1998.
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  211. Broader than the Bilstein narrative, Pattillo covers how science and technology, business management, international finance, and national security policy affect the aircraft industry.
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  213. Simonson, Gene Roger, ed. The History of the American Aircraft Industry: An Anthology. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1968.
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  215. This collection of essays describes the evolution of the aircraft industry through the late 1960s.
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  217. Aircraft
  218.  
  219. There are countless works on aircraft of all types. The sources cited here are extremely useful as reference works. The Aircraft in Profile series is interesting, if disorganized, but Angelucci and Matricardi 1981, an encyclopedia, is both comprehensive and clearly organized. David Donald’s two encyclopedias (Donald 1997, Donald 1999) are equally well constructed and useful. Swanborough 1963 is dated, but it is a fine representative of the excellent series of works from the Putnam publishing house.
  220.  
  221. Aircraft in Profile. 14 vols. Windsor, UK: Profile Publications, 1965–1974.
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  223. This is a series of individual monographs for historians and modelers published in the United Kingdom, and later published in bound volumes (Volumes 1–14). These works are noted for their technical detail and concise coverage of the histories of the various aircraft. One drawback is the lack of any chronological or topical order in the sequence of aircraft covered.
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  225. Angelucci, Enzo, and Paolo Matricardi, eds. The Rand McNally Encyclopedia of Military Aircraft, 1914–1980. Translated by S. M. Harris. Chicago: Rand McNally, 1981.
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  227. This is an impressive overview of warplanes from before World War I to the Cold War. It includes vital data and profiles of a wide array of aircraft. It is very generalized, but very useful as a general reference.
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  229. Donald, David. The Encyclopedia of Civil Aircraft. San Diego, CA: Thunder Bay, 1999.
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  231. This work, as the title indicates, focuses on civil aircraft, including recreational as well as commercial airplanes.
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  233. Donald, David, ed. The Complete Encyclopedia of World Aircraft. New York: Barnes & Noble, 1997.
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  235. Like Angelucci and Matricardi 1981, Donald’s work is broad in scope, but it covers fewer aircraft in more detail.
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  237. Swanborough, F. G. United States Military Aircraft Since 1909. London: Putnam, 1963.
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  239. This was the finest volume on the subject when it was published and is still an excellent reference for the period up to 1963. In part it is included here to note the importance of the volumes in the Putnam series on aircraft, too numerous to cite here. This volume is probably the broadest in scope of any in the series—most are highly specialized and all are detailed.
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  241. Commercial Aviation
  242.  
  243. The rise of commercial aviation, beginning in the aftermath of World War I, is a vital and complex story. Today it comprises airlines, airfreight services, aircraft industries, electronics, travel services, and government organizations. There are many works dealing with specific airlines, aircraft, personalities, and policies. Angelucci 2001, an encyclopedia, could also be listed in the Aircraft section, but its coverage of the evolution of commercial aviation institutions places it here. The overviews in Biddle 1991, Heppenheimer 1995, Morrison and Winston 1995, Solberg 1979, and Spenser 2008 are all narratives, and all provide interesting perspectives on the commercial uses of aviation.
  244.  
  245. Angelucci, Enzo, ed. World Encyclopedia of Civil Aircraft: From Leonardo Da Vinci to the Present. New York: Chartwell, 2001.
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  247. Despite the title, this work is more than an inventory of aircraft. It covers the development of the aircraft and the airlines in the 20th century and is extremely useful as a narrative of commercial aviation development. First published in 1982.
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  249. Biddle, Wayne. Barons of the Sky: From Earth Flight to Strategic Warfare; The Story of the American Aerospace Industry. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1991.
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  251. Although this work covers military as well as civil aviation, Biddle focuses primarily on the aircraft manufacturers who developed the commercial airliners that made commercial aviation possible.
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  253. Heppenheimer, T. A. Turbulent Skies: The History of Commercial Aviation. New York: Wiley, 1995.
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  255. Part of the Sloan Technology series, this volume covers the development of aircraft, engines, organizations, and government policies relating to airlines—with a clear focus on developments in the United States.
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  257. Morrison, Steven A., and Clifford Winston. The Evolution of the Airline Industry. Washington, DC: Brookings Institution, 1995.
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  259. The authors provide interesting insights into the mix of technological and political developments that influenced the airline industry in the 20th century.
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  261. Solberg, Carl. Conquest of the Skies: A History of Commercial Aviation in America. Boston: Little, Brown, 1979.
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  263. Solberg provides an interesting overview of the history of the airlines, the aircraft, and the people involved in civil aviation in the United States. This work spans the period from the 1910s to the 1970s.
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  265. Spenser, Jay. The Airplane: How Ideas Gave Us Wings. Washington, DC: Smithsonian Books, 2008.
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  267. Spenser’s work begins with the early attempts at heavier-than-air flight, and follows the technological evolution through the 20th century. The emphasis is on commercial aviation, but what makes his work so valuable is that he addresses the various technologies that led to improvements in aircraft. Aviation is not merely about wings and engines, and Spenser provides a flowing narrative that makes this clear in an entertaining manner.
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  269. Strategic Bombing
  270.  
  271. The concept of strategic air power, air power intended to determine the outcome of a conflict independent of the operations of surface forces, is controversial. Even before the first Zeppelin raids of World War I, there were questions about morality and legality. As strategic bombing became more prominent in subsequent conflicts, there were arguments about its efficacy. None of these debates have been definitively resolved. Two solid starting points are the general histories Kennett 1982 and Werrell 2009. The interviews in Kohn and Harahan 1988 provide an interesting window into the thinking of some key American bomber commanders, and Possony 1949 is a fairly representative sample of what strategic bombing looked like in the aftermath of World War II. Downes 2008 and Gentile 2001 deal with the morality and the effectiveness of bombing civilians and should be read in conjunction with Pape 1996, cited under Air Power.
  272.  
  273. Downes, Alexander B. Targeting Civilians in War. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2008.
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  275. Downes’s work covers more than strategic bombing, addressing the impact of naval blockades and land campaigns as well as aerial bombardments. In many ways this adds to its utility to a student of air power by providing a broader historic perspective regarding a range of military operations that affect civilian lives.
  276. Find this resource:
  277. Gentile, Gian P. How Effective Is Strategic Bombing? Lessons Learned from World War II to Kosovo. New York: New York University Press, 2001.
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  279. Gentile deals with the question of whether or not strategic bombing proved to be an effective use of air power in the last half of the 20th century.
  280. Find this resource:
  281. Kennett, Lee. A History of Strategic Bombing: From the First Hot-Air Balloons to Hiroshima and Nagasaki. New York: Scribner’s, 1982.
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  283. Kennett provides an erudite survey of the evolution of the concept of strategic bombing and assesses the effectiveness of strategic bombings campaigns.
  284. Find this resource:
  285. Kohn, Richard, and Joseph P. Harahan, eds. Strategic Air Warfare: An Interview with Generals Curtis E. LeMay, Leon W. Johnson, and Jack J. Catton. Washington, DC: Office of Air Force History, US Air Force, 1988.
  286. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  287. This volume is one of a series developed by Kohn during his tenure as the Chief of Air Force History. The basic idea was to interview groups of former officers who had played key roles in historic air operations. Well-informed interviewers asked these individuals questions, and this stimulated group discussion. This work addressed problems associated with strategic bombing in World War II and the Cold War, particularly in Korea and Vietnam.
  288. Find this resource:
  289. Possony, Stephan T. Strategic Air Power: The Pattern of Dynamic Security. Washington, DC: Infantry Journal Press, 1949.
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  291. Though dated today, this work provides an interesting view of the importance of strategic bombing from the vantage point after World War II and before the Korean War.
  292. Find this resource:
  293. Werrell, Kenneth P. Death from the Heavens: A History of Strategic Bombing. Annapolis, MD: Naval Institute Press, 2009.
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  295. Werrell is a prolific author of military history who covers complex subjects with coherence and clarity, without oversimplifying the material. This work is an excellent example. It is a comprehensive narrative that is useful to both the lay reader and the serious student of air power.
  296. Find this resource:
  297. Tactical Air Power
  298.  
  299. Like strategic air power, tactical air power—the use of air power to support surface forces—is often a source of debate. One debate concerns its relative effectiveness in comparison with strategic air operations. Another debate is over the priority of various tactical air missions. Most agree that gaining command of the air—eliminating the enemy’s ability to use air power against your own forces—is the primary mission. But air forces generally argue that interdiction—using air attacks to isolate the enemy’s forces by destroying their lines of supply and communications—is more effective than close air support—attacking enemy forces that are actively engaged with friendly ground forces. Ground forces often stress the need for close air support. Hallion 1989 is a good general work. Cooling 1990 and Kohn and Harahan 1986, both anthologies, and Mark 1994, an excellent monograph, address the close air support and interdiction missions, largely from the American perspective. Smith 1981 addresses the more specialized dive-bombing capability, but is international in scope. Finally, van Creveld, et al. 1994 attempts to place the tactical air missions in the context of modern maneuver warfare by examining the historic relationships.
  300.  
  301. Cooling, Benjamin Franklin, ed. Case Studies in the Development of Close Air Support. Washington, DC: Office of Air Force History, 1990.
  302. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  303. This is an anthology of case studies that favors, but is not limited to, American examples.
  304. Find this resource:
  305. Hallion, Richard P. Strike from the Sky: The History of Battlefield Air Attack, 1911–1945. Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1989.
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  307. Hallion is a former Chief of Air Force History and a noted scholar of aviation history. This is a balanced survey of a broad topic.
  308. Find this resource:
  309. Kohn, Richard, and Joseph P. Harahan, eds. Air Interdiction in World War II, Korea, and Vietnam: An Interview with General Earle E. Partridge, General Jacob E. Smart, and General John W. Vogt, Jr. Washington, DC: Office of Air Force History, US Air Force, 1986.
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  311. This is another of the Kohn and Harahan interview series (see Kohn and Harahan 1988, cited under Strategic Bombing). It provides interesting insights into the perspectives held by three officers who commanded and directed major interdiction campaigns.
  312. Find this resource:
  313. Mark, Eduard. Aerial Interdiction: Air Power and the Land Battle in Three Wars. Washington, DC: Center for Air Force History, 1994.
  314. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  315. This is an objective and detailed analysis of air interdiction campaigns in World War II, the Korean War, and the War in Southeast Asia. Mark provides clear assessments based on clear criteria, and he probes both the possibilities and limitations inherent to this mission.
  316. Find this resource:
  317. Smith, Peter C. The History of Dive Bombing. Annapolis, MD: Nautical & Aviation, 1981.
  318. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  319. Smith, who has also written a broader illustrated survey, Close Air Support (1990), focuses on the development and use of dive bombers in tactical air operations. He looks at both the land-based and naval applications of this type of aircraft.
  320. Find this resource:
  321. van Creveld, Martin, Steven L. Canby, and Kenneth S. Brower. Air Power and Maneuver Warfare. Maxwell AFB, AL: Air University Press, 1994.
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  323. This work was written for the US Air Force after the successful air campaign in Operation Desert Storm 1991. The authors examine the role of air power in what has been termed the Revolution in Military Affairs (RMA). They place the use of air power in a historic context and explore the relationships between air power and ground force mobility.
  324. Find this resource:
  325. Aerial Combat
  326.  
  327. The use of aircraft to bring down enemy aircraft dates to the first months of World War I. The importance of being able to remove an enemy air threat and then to use air power for one’s own purposes made the case for this mission quite clear. It is often portrayed as the most exciting and glamorous of the various aerial missions. This was promoted by governments in both world wars and has received a boost from novels, movies, and television. In reality, it is a complicated and dangerous enterprise. The three works cited here are written by three pilots, J. E. “Johnnie” Johnson of the Royal Air Force (Johnson 2001), Robert L. Shaw of the US Navy (Shaw 1985), and Edward H. Sims of the US Army Air Forces (Sims 1972).
  328.  
  329. Johnson, J. E. Full Circle: The Story of Air Fighting. London: Cassell, 2001.
  330. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  331. Written in 1964 by the leading British ace of World War II, this is a flowing narrative of air combat from World War I through the Korean War and the early years of air operations in Vietnam. Johnson clearly explains the correlations between fighter tactics, speed, and formations.
  332. Find this resource:
  333. Shaw, Robert L. Fighter Combat: Tactics and Maneuvering. Annapolis, MD: Naval Institute Press, 1985.
  334. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  335. The author, a former US Navy fighter pilot, describes the tactics of aerial combat in detail. He provides useful diagrams and discusses the development of individual tactics.
  336. Find this resource:
  337. Sims, Edward H. Fighter Tactics and Strategy, 1914–1970. New York: Harper & Row, 1972.
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  339. Sims describes the evolution of aerial combat and provides a narrative of major air campaigns through 1970. He deals with the strategies, tactics, and doctrines that shaped air-to-air combat.
  340. Find this resource:
  341. Reconnaissance and Intelligence
  342.  
  343. The scouting function was the original mission for aircraft, conceived in the period before World War I. Its importance has grown over time and now includes space-based as well as aircraft-based systems. Thornborough 1993 provides a good general survey. Trenear-Harvey 2009 is a useful reference source.
  344.  
  345. Thornborough, Anthony. Sky Spies: Three Decades of Airborne Reconnaissance. London: Arms & Armour, 1993.
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  347. Thornborough describes the evolution of aerial reconnaissance from the early days of aerial “scouting” to the more sophisticated platforms of the Cold War.
  348. Find this resource:
  349. Trenear-Harvey, Glenmore S. Historical Dictionary of Air Intelligence. Lanham, MD: Scarecrow, 2009.
  350. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  351. Despite a few unsupported claims, this is a very useful dictionary regarding the equipment, events, people, and operations associated with the field of air intelligence. A large portion of the subject relates to reconnaissance, but not all by any means.
  352. Find this resource:
  353. Aerial Electronic Warfare
  354.  
  355. Given its importance in modern warfare, electronic warfare receives inadequate attention in many air power studies. This is partly due to the esoteric knowledge required to understand the subject, and partly due to the classified nature of many aspects of the topic. Buderi 1996 leads us into the field by exploring how radar and its importance sparked the development of what is called electronic warfare. Kuehl 1992 takes us into the evolution within the US Air Force.
  356.  
  357. Buderi, Robert. The Invention that Changed the World: How a Small Group of Radar Pioneers Won the Second World War and Launched a Technological Revolution. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1996.
  358. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  359. Buderi describes how radar and associated technologies decisively affected campaigns throughout World War II and went on to be a decisive factor in many aspects of the Cold War. He also describes the ever-increasing complexity of military electronics and how radar created a new frontier in warfare.
  360. Find this resource:
  361. Kuehl, Daniel Timothy. “The Radar Eye Blinded: The USAF and Electronic Warfare, 1945–1955.” PhD diss., Duke University, 1992.
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  363. Kuehl provides an interesting and scholarly overview of a field that has received less attention than it deserves. This work has been applauded by both scholars and technical experts in the field.
  364. Find this resource:
  365. Aerial Refueling
  366.  
  367. Although there were experiments in the 1920s, air-to-air refueling did not become a practical factor in military aviation until the period after World War II. Jet aircraft made this capability both more practical and more necessary. Byrd 1994, Holder and Wallace 2000, and Tanner 2006 are the best general treatments of this subject.
  368.  
  369. Byrd, Vernon B. Passing Gas: The History of Inflight Refueling. Chico, CA: Byrd, 1994.
  370. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  371. A survey of the American development of air-to-air refueling.
  372. Find this resource:
  373. Holder, William G., and Mike Wallace. Range Unlimited: A History of Aerial Refueling. Atglen, PA: Schiffer, 2000.
  374. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  375. This work covers the development of aerial refueling around the world and examines the various techniques that emerged. The authors also make predictions for the future.
  376. Find this resource:
  377. Tanner, Richard M. History of Air-to-Air Refueling. Barnsley, UK: Pen and Sword, 2006.
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  379. Tanner focuses primarily on the British and American developments, beginning in the 1920s. He is interested in how and why the Americans showed more interest and led the field in the postwar evolution. This work is very detailed regarding the evolution of the specialized technologies.
  380. Find this resource:
  381. Military Airlift
  382.  
  383. The use of aircraft to move military forces and supplies is often misunderstood. While this is the fastest way to move such resources great distances at high speed, it is also quite expensive and the capacity for such lift is limited, even for the largest air powers. It is an important resource, but only a few nations have major capabilities in this field. Rutenberg and Allen 1985 demonstrates the unique capabilities of air transport within the broader subject of military logistics, while Wragg 1986 focuses on the changes and developments within the field of military airlift.
  384.  
  385. Rutenberg, David C., and Jane S. Allen, eds. The Logistics of Waging War: American Logistics, 1774–1985, Emphasizing the Development of Air Power. Gunter AFS, AL: Air Force Logistics Management Center, 1985.
  386. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  387. This is a USAF study that traces the development of American logistics to place the role of military airlift into historical perspective.
  388. Find this resource:
  389. Wragg, David W. Airlift: A History of Military Air Transport. Novato, CA: Presidio, 1986.
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  391. Wragg, a noted military author, provides a useful overview of the development of military airlift. It is a general but useful introduction to the subject.
  392. Find this resource:
  393. Airborne and Airmobile Operations
  394.  
  395. The possibility of using aircraft to transport soldiers to the rear of an enemy was discussed at least as early as the late 18th century, at the time of the first French balloon experiments. Practical development began in the period after World War I. During World War II, major airborne operations revealed both the potential and the problems associated with this mission. After the war, new technologies both threatened the mission and offered new options. This gave rise to the air assault or airmobile concept (there are debates about the meanings of all of these terms). Harclerode 2005 and Weeks 1988 provide general treatments of the subject. Galvin 1969 is a bit dated, but it focuses primarily on the airmobile development and wears twin hats—Galvin had personal experience as an Army officer, and he studied the issue as a scholar interested in the development of doctrine. Stockfisch 1995 and Tolson 1999 provide overviews of the Howze Board of 1962 and the evolution of airmobility through most of the American operations in Vietnam.
  396.  
  397. Galvin, John R. Air Assault: The Development of Airmobile Warfare. New York: Hawthorne, 1969.
  398. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  399. Written by a retired US Army general and academic, this is a well-informed overview of the evolution of the airmobile concept, which emerged in the 1950s and 1960s. It is dated, but useful.
  400. Find this resource:
  401. Harclerode, Peter. Wings of War: Airborne Warfare, 1918–1945. London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 2005.
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  403. Harclerode is a former British officer who served in the SAS and the Parachute Regiment, but he does not limit this survey to British developments. Rather, he provides a dry, but useful narrative of the evolution of airborne operations from the earliest Italian, Soviet, and German experiments through the end of World War II.
  404. Find this resource:
  405. Stockfisch, J. A. The 1962 Howze Board and Army Combat Developments (MR-435). Santa Monica, CA: RAND, 1995.
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  407. This is a clear and concise survey of the US Army Tactical Mobility Requirements Board, which generated a report in 1962 that many credit with being the seminal force behind the development of the air assault concept in the US Army.
  408. Find this resource:
  409. Tolson, John J. Airmobility, 1961–1971. CMH pub. 90-4. Washington, DC: Department of the Army, 1999.
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  411. Tolson, a lieutenant general personally involved in the development of helicopter airmobility concepts, provides a clear narrative of the development of these concepts within the Army and their applications in combat in Vietnam. First printed in 1973.
  412. Find this resource:
  413. Weeks, John. Assault from the Sky: The History of Airborne Warfare. Newton Abbot, UK: David & Charles, 1988.
  414. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  415. Like Harclerode 2005, this work is a survey of airborne operations. Weeks addresses the evolution of airborne warfare from the 1920s through the Cold War.
  416. Find this resource:
  417. Helicopters
  418.  
  419. Rotary wing aircraft were first developed in the period after World War I, and they were tested in World War II. Nevertheless, it was in the period after this war that helicopters came into their own in a variety of military and civilian applications. Jackson 2005 is a good overview of the technologies, and the online Helicopter History Site is extremely useful for both current and historical developments. Wragg 1983 provides a nice narrative of military helicopters, and Allen 1993 is a comprehensive history of the doctrines developed to take advantage of helicopter capabilities—it is the only work to cover the subject across the scope and time span of the Cold War.
  420.  
  421. Allen, Matthew. Military Helicopter Doctrines of the Major Powers, 1945–1992: Making Decisions About Air-Land Warfare. Westport, CT: Greenwood, 1993.
  422. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  423. Allen’s work is the only attempt to date to provide an international survey of helicopter doctrines. This work is scholarly and comprehensive. It is the best work in this field by far.
  424. Find this resource:
  425. Helicopter History Site.
  426. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  427. This is a broad-based website that addresses an array of helicopter missions, capabilities, and issues. It includes an extensive bibliography from a variety of media.
  428. Find this resource:
  429. Jackson, Robert, ed. Helicopters: Military, Civilian, and Rescue Rotorcraft. San Diego, CA: Thunder Bay, 2005.
  430. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  431. Jackson provides a useful reference work concerning the development of helicopters, organized by type and mission.
  432. Find this resource:
  433. Wragg, David W. Helicopters at War: A Pictorial History. London: Robert Hale, 1983.
  434. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  435. Despite the title, this is more than a picture book. Wragg provides a useful overview of helicopter technologies and missions.
  436. Find this resource:
  437. Air Defenses
  438.  
  439. The ability of ground-based weapons to defend against aerial attack has increased over time. Unfortunately, there have not been as many serious studies as the importance of the subject would seem to justify. This section contains an excellent survey by Crabtree 1994 and two works that address the development of anti-aircraft guns: Hogg 1978 and Werrell 1988. Boyce 1947 is a collection of reports regarding Allied scientific developments relating to air defenses in World War II. Westermann 2005 is devoted to the German developments.
  440.  
  441. Boyce, Joseph C., ed. New Weapons for Air Warfare: Fire-Control Equipment, Proximity Fuzes, and Guided Missiles: Science in World War II. Boston: Little, Brown, 1947.
  442. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  443. Boyce edited papers from the US Office of Scientific Research and Development detailing the research projects that resulted in proximity fuzes, guided missiles, and other anti-aircraft equipment developed by the allies in World War II.
  444. Find this resource:
  445. Crabtree, James D. On Air Defense. Westport, CT: Praeger, 1994.
  446. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  447. This work provides a general overview of the evolution of air defenses, including detection equipment, weapons, and command and control organizations.
  448. Find this resource:
  449. Hogg, Ian V. Anti-Aircraft: A History of Air Defence. London: MacDonald & James, 1978.
  450. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  451. The author is an internationally recognized authority on weapons technology, and this survey provides exceptional coverage of a broad and complex field.
  452. Find this resource:
  453. Werrell, Kenneth. Archie, Flak, AAA, and SAM: A Short Operational History of Ground-Based Air Defense. Maxwell AFB, AL: Air University Press, 1988.
  454. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  455. Werrell has covered a variety of air-power subjects in his career, and this work, written for the US Air Force, is an interesting overview of the evolution of air defense weapons and systems.
  456. Find this resource:
  457. Westermann, Edward B. Flak: German Anti-Aircraft Defenses, 1914–1945. Lawrence: University Press of Kansas, 2005.
  458. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  459. Based on his doctoral dissertation, the author provides an in-depth and incisive overview of the development of German anti-aircraft guns, radars, searchlights, and organizations through and between the world wars.
  460. Find this resource:
  461. Air Defense Suppression
  462.  
  463. Throughout the history of warfare, new weapons have led to attempts to counter them. So, just as aircraft stimulated the development of air defenses, air defenses led to the development of methods to attack the defenses. Thornborough and Mormillo 2002 offers a broad treatment of the subject, while Halberstadt 1992 addresses US Air Force developments, and Brungess 1994 examines the issue following the First Gulf War and before the Kosovo air campaign.
  464.  
  465. Brungess, James R. Setting the Context: Suppression of Enemy Air Defenses and Joint War Fighting in an Uncertain World. Maxwell AFB, AL: Air University Press, 1994.
  466. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  467. Brungess deals with the need to be able to neutralize enemy air defenses if air power is to play an important role in operations with friendly surface forces.
  468. Find this resource:
  469. Halberstadt, Hans. The Wild Weasels: History of US Air Force SAM Killers, 1965 to Today. Osceola, WI: Motorbooks, 1992.
  470. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  471. This work traces the basic development of “Wild Weasel” air defense suppression capabilities, beginning in the Vietnam War and continuing through the Cold War. It is descriptive rather than analytical and focuses primarily on the use of the F-4 Phantom II fighter-bomber in this role.
  472. Find this resource:
  473. Thornborough, Anthony M., and Frank B. Mormillo. Ironhand: Smashing the Enemy’s Air Defences. Sparkford, UK: Patrick Stephens, 2002.
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  475. Thornborough and Mormillo examine the development of air defense suppression capabilities from World War II into the early 21st century. This work focuses on Western capabilities, but is not limited to them. It is a much broader treatment than Halberstadt 1992.
  476. Find this resource:
  477. Aviation Medicine
  478.  
  479. Transporting human beings up into the atmosphere entails physiological and even psychological challenges—especially when one goes beyond transportation and engages in combat. Robinson 1973 provides a solid overview. Grinkler and Spiegel 1963 is a psychological evaluation of the stresses of combat as it affected American airmen in World War II.
  480.  
  481. Grinkler, Roy R., and John P. Spiegel. Men Under Stress. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1963.
  482. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  483. First published in 1945, this is a synopsis of the psychological surveys conducted with American Army Air Forces aircrew after their service in World War II. It is a detailed and insightful work. The study revealed a sophisticated and complex series of observations concerning a variety of issues. These are issues that have become even better known in the past sixty-five years.
  484. Find this resource:
  485. Robinson, Douglas Hill. The Dangerous Sky: A History of Aviation Medicine. Seattle: University of Washington Press, 1973.
  486. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  487. The best survey of the subject. Somewhat dated, but Robinson traces the evolution of the field up to the 1970s.
  488. Find this resource:
  489. Aviation Law
  490.  
  491. The legal aspects of air power are often overlooked in general treatments of the subject. Nevertheless, this is a vital subject that is growing ever more important. The commercial and civil issues are covered in Hamilton 2011 and Speciale 2006. Wyman 1984, Spaight 1924, and Spaight 1930 treat the emerging debates about the legality of air warfare following the experiences of World War I and in regard to the emerging theories of air war. The essays in Howard 1979 provide an overview and continue the discussion into the Cold War. A modern survey of the laws of warfare that apply to air power can be found in Ronzitti and Venturini 2006 and Waxman 2000.
  492.  
  493. Hamilton, J. Scott. Practical Aviation Law. Newcastle, WA: Aviation Supplies & Academics, 2011.
  494. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  495. This volume provides a brief overview of the development and state of aviation law in the early 21st century. It is designed for use by both pilots and laymen. There is special attention paid to the impact legal changes have had on the aviation industry.
  496. Find this resource:
  497. Howard, Michael, ed. Restraints on War: Studies in the Limitation of Armed Conflict. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1979.
  498. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  499. This impressive anthology includes relevant essays by D. C. Watt on “Restraints on War in the Air before 1945,” John C. Garnett on “Limited ‘Conventional’ War in the Nuclear Age,” and Laurence Martin on “Limited Nuclear War.”
  500. Find this resource:
  501. Ronzitti, Natalino, and Gabriella Venturini, eds. The Law of Air Warfare: Contemporary Issues. Essential Air and Space Law. Utrecht, The Netherlands: Eleven International, 2006.
  502. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  503. A current survey of the main issues relating to the laws of air warfare, this work includes speculation as to the future of these laws.
  504. Find this resource:
  505. Spaight, J. M. Air Power and War Rights. London: Longmans, Green, 1924.
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  507. Spaight provides an analysis of how aerial bombardment correlated to the basic laws of warfare as understood in the aftermath of the “Great War.” This work went through three editions, the last in 1947.
  508. Find this resource:
  509. Spaight, J. M. Air Power and the Cities. London: Longmans, Green, 1930.
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  511. This is an important work by a man many considered the leading legal expert regarding air war in the period between the two world wars. This work deals with the issue of aerial bombardment of cities, a subject very much in the news in this time period. He expands here upon his analysis in Spaight 1924.
  512. Find this resource:
  513. Speciale, Raymond. Fundamentals of Aviation Law. New York: McGraw-Hill, 2006.
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  515. Speciale is a practicing aviation attorney, and this work is advertised as the “only textbook available on Aviation Law.” It is organized as a text and covers a different subject in each chapter, utilizing case studies and teaching points relating to civil aviation law.
  516. Find this resource:
  517. Waxman, Matthew C. International Law and the Politics of Urban Air Operations. Santa Monica, CA: RAND, 2000.
  518. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  519. Waxman deals specifically with the legal implications of aerial attacks in urban settings. This is an issue that dates to the origins of aerial bombardment, given the location of vital political and economic targets in urban areas.
  520. Find this resource:
  521. Wyman, Richard. “The First Rules of Air Warfare.” Air University Review (March–April 1984): 94–102.
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  523. Major Wyman provides a succinct and insightful overview of the development of laws and interpretations of laws relating to air warfare in the 1920s and 1930s.
  524. Find this resource:
  525. Aviation and Culture
  526.  
  527. Ever since people first fantasized about flight, there has been a fascination with the subject. These four works deal with the impact of actual flight on popular culture. Corn 1983, Fritzsche 1992, and Palmer 2006 address the cultural aspects of aviation in the United States, Germany, and the Soviet Union, respectively. Call 2009 looks at the use of the visual media to sell aviation via popular culture.
  528.  
  529. Call, Steve. Selling Air Power: Military Aviation and American Popular Culture After World War II. College Station: Texas A&M University Press, 2009.
  530. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  531. Call looks at the intentional use of images of air power to take advantage of the popularity of flight to sell the need for military air power in the United States in the Cold War.
  532. Find this resource:
  533. Corn, Joseph J. The Winged Gospel: America’s Romance with Aviation, 1900–1950. New York: Oxford University Press, 1983.
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  535. Corn studies the fascination of the American public from the time of the first heavier than air flights through the two world wars. He looks at the interest in military aviation, but also examines the role of barnstormers, air racers, and commercial ventures in shaping public impressions and interests.
  536. Find this resource:
  537. Fritzsche, Peter. A Nation of Fliers: German Aviation and the Popular Imagination. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1992.
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  539. Fritzsche pursues a course similar to that of Corn 1983, but he is more interested in the political implications of flight. He looks at this connection in Germany before, during, and after World War I. The correlation of aviation technology to “modernity” is of particular interest, and the author examines the role of this interest in the development of National Socialism.
  540. Find this resource:
  541. Palmer, Scott W. Dictatorship of the Air: Aviation Culture and the Fate of Modern Russia. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2006.
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  543. Palmer’s treatment is similar to Fritzsche 1992 in that he is examining how a totalitarian regime used aviation to promote its own power, both externally and internally. He is especially interested in the blend of actual aviation developments and the rhetoric the Russian and Soviet regimes used to promote their accomplishments from 1909 to 1989.
  544. Find this resource:
  545. Biographies
  546.  
  547. Aviation biographies are popular subjects, and there are a vast array under various time periods and subjects. This section is devoted to general works. DuPre 1965 is limited in scope and subject matter, and even Longyard 1994 is nearly twenty years out of date. The Famous Aviators and Notable Accomplishments website seems to be kept up to date, but it is almost totally limited to Internet sources.
  548.  
  549. DuPre, Flint O. U.S. Air Force Biographical Dictionary. New York: Franklin Watts, 1965.
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  551. This work is dated and limited to the United States Air Force, but it is still a useful reference source.
  552. Find this resource:
  553. Famous Aviators and Notable Accomplishments.
  554. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  555. This is a website that provides links to a variety of individuals and their lives in various aspects of aviation history. It is organized by names, events, and time periods.
  556. Find this resource:
  557. Longyard, William H. Who’s Who in Aviation History. Novato, CA: Presidio, 1994.
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  559. Longyard includes over five hundred entries from a wide range of aviation history. It is not all-inclusive by any means, but it is an exceptional reference tool.
  560. Find this resource:
  561. African American Aviators
  562.  
  563. The role of African Americans in aviation and the role of aviation in race relations are fascinating issues. MacGregor 1985 provides a broad overview of race relations in the American armed services and places the issue of discrimination in military aviation in that context. Hardesty and Pisano 1983 and Broadnax 2008 deal with these issues in the field of aviation as a whole, while Moye 2012, Osur 1986, Hasdorf 1977, and Sandler 1992 deal more specifically with the experiences of African Americans in the Army Air Forces in World War II. Gropeman 1978 continues the story with the independent Air Force.
  564.  
  565. Broadnax, Samuel L. Blue Skies, Black Wings: African American Pioneers of Aviation. Lincoln, NE: Bison, 2008.
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  567. This work is partly an autobiographical work by one of the famous Tuskegee Airmen. But, as interesting as Broadnax’s personal perspectives are, he goes beyond that to describe the experiences of other African American aviators, dating back even to before World War I.
  568. Find this resource:
  569. Gropeman, Alan L. The Air Force Integrates, 1945–1964. Washington, DC: Office of Air Force History, 1978.
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  571. This is an interesting, well written, and well-supported overview of the integration of the USAF. Gropeman provides a clear picture of the service as a segregated organization coming out of World War II and the problems encountered as integration became official policy. Reprinted 2002 (Honolulu, HI: University Press of the Pacific).
  572. Find this resource:
  573. Hardesty, Von, and Dominick Pisano. Black Wings: The American Black in Aviation. Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1983.
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  575. While there are many works on African Americans dealing with discrimination and segregation in the armed forces regarding aviation, there are fewer works that deal with the broader problem of exclusion from aviation as a whole. This work addresses the problems in both the military and the civil contexts. The accounts of black men and women dealing with these issues are described in detail, as are their successes and occasional failures.
  576. Find this resource:
  577. Hasdorf, James C. “Reflections on the Tuskegee Experiment: An Interview with Brig. Gen. Noel F. Parrish, USAF (Ret.).” Aerospace Historian 24 (1977): 173–180.
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  579. An interview with one of the white commanders of the Tuskegee Airmen, this was one of the first detailed accounts of the organizational issues that plagued the formation of the “experiment” to train African American pilots in World War II.
  580. Find this resource:
  581. MacGregor, Morris J., Jr. Integration of the Armed Forces, 1940–1965. Washington, DC: Center of Military History, 1985.
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  583. This broad survey covers the subject of race relations in the US Armed Forces from the colonial period to the 1980s, with special emphasis on the period after 1940. It is comprehensive and utilizes an impressive array of sources.
  584. Find this resource:
  585. Moye, J. Todd. Freedom Flyers: The Tuskegee Airmen of World War II. New York: Oxford University Press, 2012.
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  587. Part of the Oxford Oral History Series, this volume provides important insights into the attitudes and assumptions that made the struggle for equality in the US Army Air Forces a national issue. Moye uses over eight hundred interviews from the National Park Service Tuskegee Airmen Oral History Project to explore the attitudes and the events behind this vital story.
  588. Find this resource:
  589. Osur, Alan M. Blacks in the Army Air Forces During World War II: The Problem of Race Relations. Washington, DC: Office of Air Force History, 1986.
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  591. While many Americans know the story of the Tuskegee Airmen, the broader story of race relations in the Army Air Forces is less well known. Osur’s work, first published in 1977, describes the segregation and discrimination in nonflying as well as flying units. He documents the dysfunctional nature of these problems on many levels. He traces the efforts to deal with these problems and the slow progress that was made.
  592. Find this resource:
  593. Sandler, Stanley. Segregated Skies: All-Black Combat Squadrons of World War II. Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1992.
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  595. Sandler’s work describes the overall effort to include African American personnel in the Army Air Forces (AAF) of World War II. He goes beyond the Tuskegee Airmen and notes the AAF had a total of four black fighter squadrons and a black medium bomber group by 1945. But he also notes that the success of these units did not end racist attitudes or prejudicial policies.
  596. Find this resource:
  597. Women Aviators
  598.  
  599. The role of women in aviation is a rich field of study, and this section covers only a small portion of this literature. The Smithsonian series includes Brooks-Pazmany 1991, Oakes 1985, and Douglas 1990, providing general surveys by various time periods. Cochran and Brinley 1987 provides a similar perspective for World War II and the Cold War, through the life of one of the more important female aviators. Merryman 1998, Carl 1999, Hodgson 1996, and Noggle 1990 cover the important Woman Airforce Service Pilots (WASP). Cummings 1999 describes the challenges that remained even at the end of the 20th century. There are three bibliographies dedicated to the topic of women in aviation in the Bibliographies section.
  600.  
  601. Brooks-Pazmany, Kathleen. United States Women in Aviation 1919–1929. Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1991.
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  603. This is a general treatment of the women who pushed their way into aviation in the decade after World War I. Challenging what many in society considered “proper,” these women encountered resistance on many levels. The author discusses the attitudes of those who resisted and those who promoted the changes.
  604. Find this resource:
  605. Carl, Ann B. A WASP Among Eagles: A Woman Military Test Pilot in World War II. Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1999.
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  607. This is an autobiography of a WASP pilot who describes the difficulties and rewards of becoming a woman pilot serving her country during World War II. Her own service included testing new aircraft and led her to becomeone of the first female jet pilots in the world.
  608. Find this resource:
  609. Cochran, Jacqueline, and Maryann Bucknum Brinley. Jackie Cochran: The Autobiography of the Greatest Woman Pilot in Aviation History. New York: Bantam, 1987.
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  611. This is a biography of one of the true pioneers in women’s aviation, assembled by Brinley from Cochran’s own accounts and contributions by friends and colleagues. From establishing the Women’s Airforce Service Pilots (WASP) in World War II to serving as a consultant to NASA, Cochran left her mark on American aviation.
  612. Find this resource:
  613. Cummings, Missy. Hornet’s Nest: The Experiences of One of the U.S. Navy’s First Female Fighter Pilots. San Jose, CA: Writer’s Showcase, 1999.
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  615. When the United States made it legal for women to fly combat aircraft in 1993, Cummings was one of the first women to become a fighter pilot in the US Navy. Her reception was less than friendly, and this work describes not only the challenges of flying the high performance aircraft, but also the problems she faced in the form of unprofessional and chauvinistic behavior by her fellow officers.
  616. Find this resource:
  617. Douglas, Deborah G. United States Women in Aviation, 1940–1985. Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1990.
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  619. In this relatively short work, Douglas provides a solid overview of the roles and experiences of women in American military and civil aviation from World War II through most of the Cold War. She includes pilots as well as others in the aviation industry—including flight attendants. The political, economic, social, and cultural factors that affected the roles played by women are also discussed.
  620. Find this resource:
  621. Hodgson, Marion Stegeman. Winning My Wings: A Woman Airforce Service Pilot in World War II. Annapolis, MD: United States Naval Institute Press, 1996.
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  623. Hodgson’s account is similar to Ann Carl’s (see Carl 1999). Both women were WASP pilots, but they had somewhat different jobs. While Carl tested aircraft, Hodgson ferried aircraft from the United States to the combat theaters. This vital role has never attracted the attention it deserves, and this account is an excellent place to start remedying this oversight.
  624. Find this resource:
  625. Merryman, Molly. Clipped Wings: The Rise and Fall of the Woman Airforce Service Pilots (WASPs) of World War II. New York: New York University Press, 1998.
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  627. This is a focused and comprehensive account of the creation of the WASPs, their service, and the battle to get their service recognized. It is well cited and includes an extremely useful bibliography.
  628. Find this resource:
  629. Noggle, Anne. For God, Country, and the Thrill of It: Women Airforce Service Pilots in World War II. College Station: Texas A&M University Press, 1990.
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  631. Noggle provides a broader overview of the WASP program, complementing Carl 1999 and Hodgson 1996. Here the full importance of this program is described and supported with statistics and a general survey of the organization.
  632. Find this resource:
  633. Oakes, Claudia. United States Women in Aviation, 1930–1939. Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1985.
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  635. Oakes complements other histories of women in aviation, such as Brooks-Pazmany 1991 and Douglas 1990. This work describes the efforts of women to enter the world of aviation in the decade before World War II, as commercial pilots, racers, instructors, showmen, stewardesses, and mechanics.
  636. Find this resource:
  637. Bibliographies
  638.  
  639. The bibliographies in this field vary widely, and many of the individual sources covered in this bibliography have excellent bibliographies themselves. This section covers a sampling of general bibliographies. The first place to look is the online Air University Library website. The resources here are constantly updated and cover a range of subjects of interest to the student of air power. The three United States Air Force bibliographies (Cresswell and Berger 1971, Paszek 1973, Miller and Cresswell 1978) are detailed, if a bit dated. The online Royal Air Force “History” links are quite good and, like the American sources, are actually broader than the titles might imply. Finally, there are three Women in Aviation websites for further research: Women in Aviation and Space History, Women in Aviation Bibliography, and Women in Aviation Resource Center. Other online bibliographies are included in the US Navy websites cited under Naval Air Power.
  640.  
  641. Air University Library. Muir S. Fairchild Research Information Center.
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  643. This website is one of the most important resources in this bibliography. The Air University Library produces specialized bibliographies for students at the Air War College, the Air Command and Staff College, and the Squadron Officers’ School. Now available online, they cover an impressive array of topics. Of particular interest to students of air power are those resources relating to air doctrine, specific air campaigns, aviation personalities, and types of air missions.
  644. Find this resource:
  645. Cresswell, Mary Ann and Carl Berger. United States Air Force History: An Annotated Bibliography. Washington, DC: Office of Air Force History, 1971.
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  647. This bibliography is similar to Office of Air Force History 1978. It is even more out of date, but generally it has more extensive annotations.
  648. Find this resource:
  649. Miller, Samuel Duncan and Mary Ann Cresswell. An Aerospace Bibliography. Washington, DC: Office of Air Force History, 1978.
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  651. A scholarly bibliography designed to assist researchers in the field. Its addresses a variety of international topics, but it is focused on American aerospace power, especially topics relating to the US Air Force. It is an impressive bibliography, especially in its coverage of periodical literature, and it includes brief annotations. It is, however, dated and predates the Internet.
  652. Find this resource:
  653. Paszek, Lawrence J.. United States Air Force History: A Guide to Documentary Sources. Washington, DC: Office of Air Force History, 1973.
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  655. As the title indicates, this is a bibliography of primary source documents and document collections useful to anyone researching US Air Force history. It is now quite dated, but still useful for locating basic sources.
  656. Find this resource:
  657. Royal Air Force: History.
  658. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  659. These are official RAF history links to Internet sites focused on British air power, but very useful for students of any conflict in which the RAF was involved.
  660. Find this resource:
  661. Women in Aviation and Space History.
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  663. This site is administered by the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum and is an excellent source regarding American women involved in aviation. It is organized alphabetically and provides brief biographies and pictures of an array of individuals.
  664. Find this resource:
  665. Women in Aviation Bibliography.
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  667. This bibliography, organized alphabetically by title, is maintained by Women in Aviation International.
  668. Find this resource:
  669. Women in Aviation Resource Center Recommended Reading List.
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  671. This is a site dedicated to providing links and bibliographies and other resources relating to women in aviation.
  672. Find this resource:
  673. Journals
  674.  
  675. There is a wide array of periodical literature available in this field. This section contains the most useful for the serious student of aviation. The Air and Space Power Journal is the professional journal of the US Air Force, and Air Power History is the official publication of the Air Force Historical Foundation. Both benefit and suffer from being “in house” publications. The same can be said for the British Air Power Review. This is slightly less true of the United States Naval Institute’s Naval History and Proceedings. The highly regarded Aviation Week & Space Technology is sometimes accused of being too “pro-aviation,” but this is not much of a surprise. Air and Space, published by the Smithsonian Institution, is highly regarded in all aspects.
  676.  
  677. Air & Space. 1986–.
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  679. Published by the staff of the National Air and Space Museum of the Smithsonian Institution, this periodical covers a wide variety of civil and military aviation topics. It is designed for the general public, but is noted for the quality of its research and presentation.
  680. Find this resource:
  681. Air and Space Power Journal. 1999–.
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  683. This is the professional journal of the Air University of the United States Air Force, although its articles do not necessarily reflect the official positions of either. It was founded in 1947 as the Air University Quarterly Review, changed to the Air University Review in 1963, to the Air Power Journal in 1987, and to the Air and Space Power Journal in 1999.
  684. Find this resource:
  685. Air Power History. 1953–.
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  687. This is the publication of the Air Force Historical Foundation. This organization is composed of active and retired Air Force personnel, academics, and others with an interest in air power history. It tends to reflect views sympathetic to the United States Air Force.
  688. Find this resource:
  689. Air Power Review. 1998–.
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  691. This is a British journal published by the Royal Air Force Center for Air Power Studies. It focuses on British defense concerns, but also addresses international developments. As with the American journals it sometimes reflects an organizational bias.
  692. Find this resource:
  693. Aviation Week & Space Technology.1947–.
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  695. AW&ST addresses current issues in the aerospace industry. It covers military and commercial aviation developments, evolving research and development issues, and political decisions relating to aviation. It is well connected to sources in government and industry—to the point that its nickname is “Aviation Leak and Space Technology.”
  696. Find this resource:
  697. Naval History.1987–.
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  699. This journal is a publication of the United States Naval Institute. It was separated from the Proceedings in 1987 to focus on historical, as separate from current, naval issues. It covers an array of naval topics, but a large number deal with naval aviation.
  700. Find this resource:
  701. Proceedings of the United States Naval Institute.1873–.
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  703. The institute was founded in 1873 to promote professional discussions within the United States Navy. This covers all sorts of naval subjects, but as with its sister publication, Naval History, a major subset is naval aviation.
  704. Find this resource:
  705. History of Aviation
  706.  
  707. There are countless works on the evolution of aviation and the historical narrative can be divided by topic, events, concepts, and missions. This section follows a chronological structure subdivided by topics within historical periods.
  708.  
  709. Lighter Than Air Pioneers
  710.  
  711. The practical use of balloons, both hot air and hydrogen gas, began with the Montgolfier Brothers in late-18th-century France. It continued through the 19th century and led to the development of airships—lighter-than-air craft that were propelled and controllable. Crouch 2009 is the best general history available. Gillispie 1983 and Lowe 2004 deal with specific pioneers, Lowe having been one of those pioneers.
  712.  
  713. Crouch, Tom D. Lighter than Air: An Illustrated History of Balloons and Airships. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2009.
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  715. This is a general survey of the development of lighter-than-air craft, from the first experimenters through the development of airships in the early 20th century. Crouch concludes by looking at possible uses of such technologies in the future.
  716. Find this resource:
  717. Gillispie, Charles Coulston. The Montgolfier Brothers and the Invention of Aviation, 1783–1784: With a Word on the Importance of Ballooning for the Science of Heat and the Art of Building Railroads. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1983.
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  719. This is a detailed account of the Montgolfier brothers’ experiments, their balloons, and what their work led to—not just in regard to aviation, but in relation to other technologies as well.
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  721. Lowe, Thaddeus S. C. Memoirs of Thaddeus S.C. Lowe, Chief of the Aeronautic Corps of the Army of the United States During the Civil War: My Balloons in Peace and War. Edited by Michael Jaeger and Carol Lauritzen. Lewiston, NY: Edwin Mellen, 2004.
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  723. This is the edited memoir of the “aeronaut” who was chief of the US Army’s balloons from 1861 to 1863. Lowe provided information about Confederate forces from his tethered balloons, but ultimately never convinced the Union leadership that the information was worth the expense and trouble. Lowe describes his activities and makes his case for development of the technology.
  724. Find this resource:
  725. Heavier Than Air Pioneers
  726.  
  727. By the 19th century there were a number of inventors going beyond the dreams and fantasies of early “flying inventors.” People like George Cayley and Otto Lilienthal made some vital observations and experimented with some interesting gliders. By the end of the century, men like Chanute and Langley were bringing some order to the accumulation of what humans knew about flying. There are numerous works dealing with specific inventors, but the best survey is Hallion 2003.
  728.  
  729. Hallion, Richard P. Taking Flight: Inventing the Aerial Age from Antiquity through the First World War. New York: Oxford University Press, 2003.
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  731. Humans speculated about flight long before it was even remotely possible. Whether it was fascination with soaring birds or images of winged gods and goddesses, the concept of flight was there before the first balloons or gliders. Hallion provides a fascinating overview of how humans conceptualized flying and then gradually began to find ways to leave the ground. This is a fine survey of the various experiments and experimenters.
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  733. The Wrights
  734.  
  735. Any serious student of aviation needs to appreciate the story of the Wrights. These brothers from Ohio were remarkable on several levels and clearly influenced aviation far beyond the simple observation that “They flew.” Crouch 1990, Crouch and Jakab 2003, and Heppeheimer 2003 are the best overviews of these remarkable brothers and their work.
  736.  
  737. Crouch, Tom D. The Bishop’s Boys: A Life of Orville and Wilbur Wright. New York: W.W. Norton, 1990.
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  739. If Crouch and Jakab 2003 tells us “how” the Wright’s developed their “Flyer,” The Bishop’s Boys tells us “why.” This biography examines the lives of the brothers and explores the factors that shaped them and the personalities that emerged.
  740. Find this resource:
  741. Crouch, Tom D., and Peter L. Jakab. The Wright Brothers and the Invention of the Aerial Age. Washington, DC: National Geographic, 2003.
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  743. Crouch and Jakab provide a clear and focused narrative of how the Wrights defined the problem of controlled and sustained flight and how they set about solving that problem. They show how the Wrights combined their own skills with the data that had been gathered by other pioneers, such as Cayley, Lilienthal, and Chanute.
  744. Find this resource:
  745. Heppenheimer, Thomas A. First Flight: The Wright Brothers and the Invention of the Airplane. New York: Wiley, 2003.
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  747. Heppeheimer, an aviation author with a broad range of publications is, if anything, even more laudatory than Crouch 1990, and Crouch and Jakab 2003. He provides a broad perspective regarding what the Wright’s accomplished in comparison with their contemporaries and, like the other two works, notes the systematic approach utilized by the Wrights to develop their aircraft.
  748. Find this resource:
  749. 1903–1914
  750.  
  751. Following the Wrights’ achievement at Kitty Hawk, there were developments in aviation in North America and Europe—some quite unrelated to the Wrights, and some as a result of their influence. Munson 1969 provides nice coverage of the actual aircraft that were developed. Wohl 1994 discusses both the evolving technologies and the impression they made on the popular culture of this period. Ader 2003, originally published in 1909, provides a view of what a French inventor thought military air power could become even before airplanes had been used in combat (his views were known by officers in the US Navy). Hennessy 1958 specifically addresses the early attitudes regarding aviation found in the US Army.
  752.  
  753. Ader, Clément. Military Aviation. Edited and translated by Lee Kennett. Maxwell AFB, AL: Air University Press, 2003.
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  755. Ader, a French inventor and aviation enthusiast, was a contemporary of Lilenthal, Langley, and the Wrights. But what set him apart was this remarkable work predicting the role of military aviation in the future. His predictions regarding naval vessels designed specifically for carrying and launching aircraft caught the attention of the US Navy. Originally published in 1909.
  756. Find this resource:
  757. Hennessy, Juliette A. The United States Army Air Arm: April 1861 to April 1917. Washington, DC: Office of Air Force History, 1958.
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  759. Hennessy covers the interest in and use of aircraft, originally balloons, in the US Army in the Civil War and subsequent decades until the United States’ entry into World War I. She describes the attitudes, the equipment, and the organization.
  760. Find this resource:
  761. Munson, Kenneth. The Pocket Encyclopedia of World Aircraft in Color: Pioneer Aircraft, 1903–1914. New York: Macmillan, 1969.
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  763. Munson provides descriptions of the aircraft developed in the decade after Kitty Hawk in both the United States and Europe. A brief overview and narrative is followed by individual entries and descriptions of individual aircraft.
  764. Find this resource:
  765. Wohl, Robert. A Passion for Wings: Aviation and the Western Imagination, 1908–1918. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1994.
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  767. This is a thoughtful examination of the Western fascination with the early aviators and their machines. Wohl describes both the actual developments and the popular images that emerged in literature and the visual media. The illustrations are well chosen, and the analysis is intriguing.
  768. Find this resource:
  769. World War I
  770.  
  771. Even though most of the air power in this war was non-American, its role in shaping American attitudes and doctrines was significant. The Great War witnessed the first serious attempt to use aircraft for extended military operations. Initially it was expected they would be useful for scouting, but aerial combat, close support, and even strategic bombing followed. There are many well-known surveys of World War I, and many works dealing with specific aspects of the air operations. There are, however, relatively few good surveys of the air operations as a whole. Kennett 1991 and Morrow 1993 offer the two best overviews. Reynolds 1957 is dated but well written. Cooper 1986 offers an interesting survey of British experiences and policies. Raleigh and Jones 1922–1937 is an official history of the British experiences. Lanchester 1916 provides a primary source, including concepts the author had developed even before the war began.
  772.  
  773. Cooper, Malcolm. The Birth of Independent Air Power: British Air Policy in the First World War. London and Boston: Allen & Unwin, 1986.
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  775. As the title reveals, Cooper examines how the British experiences in World War I shaped their ideas about how best to use the new aerial weapons. The British experiences had a clear effect on American attitudes during and after the war.
  776. Find this resource:
  777. Kennett, Lee. The First Air War, 1914–1918. New York: Free Press, 1991.
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  779. This is an excellent overview of World War I in the air. If one were to read one book on this subject, Kennett’s volume would be an excellent choice.
  780. Find this resource:
  781. Lanchester, F. W. Aircraft in Warfare: The Dawn of the Fourth Arm. London: Constable, 1916.
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  783. Written by a pioneer of the British automobile industry, this work was an attempt to predict the outcomes of aerial combat. While of limited utility in this regard, many credit his approach with the later development of “operations research.”
  784. Find this resource:
  785. Morrow, John H., Jr. The Great War in the Air: Military Aviation from 1909 to 1921. Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1993.
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  787. This work expands on Morrow’s German Air Power in World War I (1982) and shows how the European military services conceived military aviation before the war, how it evolved during the war, and how they perceived its future after the war.
  788. Find this resource:
  789. Raleigh, Walter, and H. A. Jones. The War in the Air. 7 vols. London: Oxford University Press, 1922–1937.
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  791. This is the history of the Royal Air Force in World War I, based on official documents of the Historical Section of the Committee of Imperial Defence. Raleigh passed away after completing the first volume and Jones completed the series. It spans the period from the beginning of powered flight in Great Britain through the Armistice. There are also two supplemental map volumes.
  792. Find this resource:
  793. Reynolds, Quentin J. They Fought for the Sky: The Dramatic Story of the First War in the Air. New York: Rinehart, 1957.
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  795. This is a somewhat dated, but well-written and well-informed, narrative of the evolution of military air power in the Great War. It captures the uncertainty and the innovation that was so important to the development of the air services in this conflict.
  796. Find this resource:
  797. Reconnaissance
  798.  
  799. Both Finnegan 2006 and Watkis 1999 provide interesting insights into the capabilities and importance of the early reconnaissance flights.
  800.  
  801. Finnegan, Terrence J. Shooting the Front: Allied Aerial Reconnaissance and Photographic Interpretation on the Western Front—World War I. Washington, DC: National Defense Intelligence College, 2006.
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  803. Finnegan covers Allied aerial reconnaissance and photo interpretation during World War I. It is well written and makes measured claims about the development of these capabilities.
  804. Find this resource:
  805. Watkis, Nicholas C. The Western Front from the Air. Stroud, UK: Sutton, 1999.
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  807. Watkis focuses on the British experience in this field and provides many useful examples of the reconnaissance “product.” This work will interest any student of the war on the Western Front.
  808. Find this resource:
  809. Aerial Combat
  810.  
  811. The “Knights of the Sky” became a highly romanticized image of the war in the air. Most works on the air war cover the evolution of aerial combat, but for purposes of organization, most of the works that could be listed here are under World War I: Biographies, Autobiographies, and Memoirs. Franks 2003, Hallion 1984, and Winter 1982 are all general surveys of the aircraft, tactics, and campaigns that relate to this mission. Hart 2007 deals specifically with the last year of the war.
  812.  
  813. Franks, Norman. Dog-Fight: Aerial Tactics of the Aces of World War I. London: Greenhill, 2003.
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  815. Franks is a prolific author of works relating to air operations in the two world wars. This volume focuses on the aircraft, pilots, and tactics used in World War I. It is organized as a chronological narrative, tracing the evolution of the machines, formations, and tactics.
  816. Find this resource:
  817. Hallion, Richard P. Rise of the Fighter Aircraft, 1914–1918. Baltimore: Nautical & Aviation, 1984.
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  819. This is an excellent overview of the rapid evolution of what came to be known as fighter aircraft. Hallion traces the advances in aircraft, tactics, formations, and doctrines.
  820. Find this resource:
  821. Hart, Peter. Aces Falling: War Above the Trenches, 1918. London: Phoenix, 2007.
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  823. Hart provides an interesting narrative of the final months of the Great War in the air. He describes the campaigns and intersperses the broader story with firsthand accounts of individual pilots. The result is most effective.
  824. Find this resource:
  825. Winter, Denis. The First of the Few: Fighter Pilots of the First World War. London: Allen Lane, 1982.
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  827. This is a fine survey of the men who fought in the first air campaigns. Winter describes their training, their missions, their lives, and even their deaths. It is a thoughtful and important work for anyone attempting to understand the human dimensions of this conflict.
  828. Find this resource:
  829. Strategic Bombing
  830.  
  831. The development of the new concept of strategic bombing was part of the story of World War I. Robinson 1994 and Fegan 2002 address the German campaigns. On the other side, Jones 1973 investigates British developments in this field. Fredette 1966 is a dated, but still quite solid, account of the German attacks on Great Britain. All of these operations had an effect on American perceptions of strategic air power.
  832.  
  833. Fegan, Thomas. The “Baby Killers”: German Air Raids on Britain in the First World War. Barnsley, UK: Pen and Sword, 2002.
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  835. Solid survey of the first German air campaign against Great Britain, and reactions to it.
  836. Find this resource:
  837. Fredette, Raymond H. The Sky on Fire: The First Battle of Britain. New York: Holt, Rinehart & Winston, 1966.
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  839. This was one of the first scholarly accounts of the German air campaign against Britain in World War I. It was reissued by the Smithsonian in 1991.
  840. Find this resource:
  841. Jones, Neville. The Origins of Strategic Bombing: A Study of the Development of British Air Strategic Thought and Practice up to 1918. London: William Kimber, 1973.
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  843. A description of the British development of long-range bomber capabilities in World War I, and the influence this had on subsequent British doctrines.
  844. Find this resource:
  845. Robinson, Douglas H. The Zeppelin in Combat: A History of the German Naval Airship Division, 1912–1918. Atglen, PA: Schiffer, 1994.
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  847. A detailed account of the German naval airships and their role in the air campaign against Great Britain.
  848. Find this resource:
  849. American Air Power
  850.  
  851. Frandsen 2003 and Johnson 2001 describe the problems and experiences of American military aviators in World War I. Holley 1953 is more focused and provides a detailed study of the American attempts to develop early air doctrines within the context of the existing technologies. Biographies of individual Americans are to be found under World War I: Biographies, Autobiographies, and Memoirs.
  852.  
  853. Frandsen, Bert. Hat in the Ring: The Birth of American Air Power in the Great War. Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution Press, 2003.
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  855. Frandsen combines interesting accounts of the individual airmen with the problems the Americans faced. He notes that the “Yanks” were entering a war against enemies and with allies who had been fighting for three years when the Americans first arrived. The personalities, tactics, equipment, and missions are all described and correlated in this solid work.
  856. Find this resource:
  857. Holley, Irving Brinton, Jr. Ideas and Weapons: Exploitation of the Aerial Weapon by the United States During World War I; A Study in the Relationship of Technological Advance, Military Doctrine, and the Development of Weapons. Washington, DC: Office of Air Force History, 1953.
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  859. Holley’s work is an interesting example of how military technologies and doctrines correlate and shape one another. What makes this work so significant is that it examines the correlation of emerging technologies and doctrines. Few people appreciate how complicated they had become by the time of World War I.
  860. Find this resource:
  861. Johnson, Herbert A. Wingless Eagle: US Army Aviation Through World War I. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2001.
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  863. Like Frandsen 2003, Johnson’s book addresses the problems faced by the American military aviators in the World War, but he devotes more attention to the prewar developments and evaluates the extent to which wartime experiences helped solve some of the prewar misconceptions.
  864. Find this resource:
  865. Biographies, Autobiographies, and Memoirs
  866.  
  867. The works dealing with individual airmen during World War I are numerous and interesting. Bishop 1967, McCudden 2000, Rickenbacker 1919, and Richthofen 1969 are quite interesting autobiographies. Immelmann 2009 is semiautobiographical, being based in part on the author’s letters. Franks and Saunders 2008, a biography of Mannock, and Werner 1972, a biography of Boelcke, are both excellent.
  868.  
  869. Bishop, William A. Winged Warfare. New York: Ace, 1967.
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  871. Autobiographical account by the leading Canadian ace of the war. It is well written and provides descriptions of Bishop’s own experiences, plus broader observations about aerial warfare.
  872. Find this resource:
  873. Franks, Norman, and Andy Saunders. Mannock: The Life and Death of Major Edward Mannock, VC, DSO, MC, RAF. London: Grubb Street, 2008.
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  875. This relatively short and concise work tells the story of one of the most interesting British aviators of World War I. In hindsight, it is clear that Mannock suffered from what would be diagnosed as post-traumatic stress disorder, and his deterioration is part of this story. His life has attracted a number of biographers, and Franks and Saunders sort through the varying interpretations with clarity and sensitivity.
  876. Find this resource:
  877. Immelmann, Franz. Immelmann: “The Eagle of Lille.” Philadelphia: Casemate, 2009.
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  879. Written by Max Immelmann’s brother Franz, and first published in 1934, this biography uses detailed letters written by Max to provide the heart of the narrative. Franz, himself a fighter pilot, was well qualified to edit the letters and to amplify experiences and the problems faced by his older brother.
  880. Find this resource:
  881. McCudden, James Thomas Byford. Flying Fury: Five Years in the Royal Flying Corps. London: Greenhill, 2000.
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  883. This autobiography by one of the top British aces of the war provides an interesting perspective into the lives of the young men who endured the stress of early aerial combat. McCudden was noted for his calm assessment and understanding of this new form of warfare.
  884. Find this resource:
  885. Richthofen, Manfred von. The Red Baron: The Autobiography of Manfred von Richthofen. Edited by Stanley M. Ulanoff; translated by Peter Kilduff. New York: Barnes & Noble, 1969.
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  887. The personal perspectives of the leading German ace of the war.
  888. Find this resource:
  889. Rickenbacker, Edward V. Fighting the Flying Circus. New York: Frederick Stokes, 1919.
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  891. A memoir written immediately after the Armistice by the leading American ace of the war. Rickenbacker, who was a nationally famous race car driver before the war, would go on to found and lead Eastern Airlines.
  892. Find this resource:
  893. Werner, Johannes. Knight of Germany: Oswald Boelcke, German Ace. New York: Arno, 1972.
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  895. This biography is an interesting portrayal of the young pilot who served as a role model for many of the German fliers who followed him into service over the Western Front. His fame was partly due to a propaganda effort by the German government, but it was also the result of Boelcke’s skills as a pilot and his early appreciation of the need to develop effective tactical doctrines.
  896. Find this resource:
  897. Air Power Between the World Wars, 1918–1939
  898.  
  899. Following World War I, many theorists predicted how air power would affect future conflicts. Because air weapons developed so quickly between 1914 and 1918, some believed the future would see a similar expansion of capabilities. In point of fact, aviation developed in many ways during this period. This section is divided into subsections that cover the theories and subsections that cover the general developments.
  900.  
  901. Theories, 1918–1939
  902.  
  903. If one needs a broad overview of the theorists, MacIsaac 1986 is the best source. The primary sources in this section are Douhet 2010 and Slessor 1936 Dyndal 2007, an anthology, provides access to works written by Trenchard and Slessor, while Boyle 1962, a biography of Trenchard, is an excellent overview of his ideas and actions. For coverage of the evolution of American and British bomber doctrines, Biddle 2004 is exceptional. The British developments are the focus of Bialer 1980 and Robertson 1995. The American theorists follow in the section American Theories, 1918–1942.
  904.  
  905. Bialer, Uri. The Shadow of the Bomber: The Fear of Air Attack and British Politics, 1932–1939. London: Royal Historical Society, 1980.
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  907. British air policies are not Bialer’s primary interest. Instead, he examines the impact of strategic bombing theories and claims on broader British foreign and military policies. The idea expressed by Prime Minister Stanley Baldwin in 1932 that “the bomber will always get through” had an effect on British political objectives and policies.
  908. Find this resource:
  909. Biddle, Tami Davis. Rhetoric and Reality in Strategic Air Warfare: The Evolution and Reality of British and American Ideas About Strategic Bombing, 1914–1945. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2004.
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  911. In this excellent work, Biddle demonstrates not only that the claims made for strategic bombing exceeded the reality of existing capabilities, but that these claims were conscious attempts to misrepresent those capabilities.
  912. Find this resource:
  913. Boyle, Andrew. Trenchard, Man of Vision. London: Collins, 1962.
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  915. The best biography of the man called “The Father of the RAF.” Boyle’s treatment is insightful and balanced.
  916. Find this resource:
  917. Douhet, Giulio. The Command of the Air. Translated by Dino Ferrari. Tuscaloosa: University of Alabama Press, 2010.
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  919. This is the classic work that many claim influenced the development of theories of strategic bombing. Its influence is questioned by others—who often note that it was not translated completely into English until 1942. This is that translation.
  920. Find this resource:
  921. Dyndal, G. L., ed. Trenchard and Slessor: On the Supremacy of Air Power over Sea Power. Trondheim, Norway: Tapir Academic, 2007.
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  923. Dyndal has edited eight essays written by the two leading British air power theorists of the interwar period. Most of these were not readily accessible until this work was published.
  924. Find this resource:
  925. MacIsaac, David. “Voices from the Central Blue: The Air Power Theorists.” In Makers of Modern Strategy: From Machiavelli to the Nuclear Age. Edited by Peter Paret, 624–647. Oxford: Clarendon, 1986.
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  927. An excellent overview of the seminal concepts that emerged in the period leading up to World War II. This is a solid and comprehensive summary of the theories of the period.
  928. Find this resource:
  929. Robertson, Scot. The Development of RAF Strategic Bombing Doctrine, 1919–1939. Westport, CT: Praeger, 1995.
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  931. Robertson goes beyond the theories and examines the actual doctrines embraced by the Royal Air Force. He also examines the assumptions and analyses used to develop these doctrines. He concludes that there were serious problems in this process, especially regarding the British use of evidence from World War I. This would later have both direct and indirect effects on American strategic air power.
  932. Find this resource:
  933. Slessor, J. C. Air Power and Armies. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1936.
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  935. This work, also cited under British Military Developments, 1918–1940, grew out of a series of lectures Slessor gave at the British Army staff college between 1931 and 1934. The author was one of the few RAF officers who stressed the need to develop tactical air capabilities, and this work presented the heart of his analysis. There is a 2009 reprint of this work from Tuscaloosa, the University of Alabama Press.
  936. Find this resource:
  937. American Theories, 1918–1942
  938.  
  939. William Mitchell and his ideas are described in Mitchell 2006 and Hurley 1975. Arnold and Eaker 1941, Arnold and Eaker 1942, and Sherman 2002 present what many regard as somewhat more moderate proposals. De Seversky 1942 may present an even more radical perspective. Sherry 1987, meanwhile, examines these doctrines and their moral implications in a more critical vein. See also citations under American Military Developments, 1918–1942.
  940.  
  941. Arnold, H. H., and Ira C. Eaker. Winged Warfare: How Air Power Has Changed the Face of the World and What It Means to Our National Security. New York: Harper, 1941.
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  943. These officers were two of the founding fathers of American land-based air power. In this volume they combined the ideas they collected in their careers to urge the further development of American air power.
  944. Find this resource:
  945. Arnold, H. H., and Ira C. Eaker. Army Flyer. New York: Harper, 1942.
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  947. Arnold and Eaker combine personal accounts of their flying careers with observations designed to promote the development of aviation in the United States.
  948. Find this resource:
  949. de Seversky, Alexander. Victory Through Air Power. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1942.
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  951. A former Imperial Russian naval aviator, de Seversky came to the United States and continued to fly, to promote air power, and to design aircraft. He worked with Mitchell to promote bombing doctrines, and this work represents the culmination of his thinking, that wars can be won or lost by air power. Many regard his ideas as even more radical than Douhet’s. This book became the basis of a wartime movie of the same name, produced by Disney.
  952. Find this resource:
  953. Hurley, Alfred F. Billy Mitchell: Crusader for Air Power. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1975.
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  955. Despite newer biographies, this remains the classic account of Mitchell’s life and accomplishments. It is balanced and scholarly.
  956. Find this resource:
  957. Mitchell, William. Winged Defense: The Development and Possibilities of Modern Air Power: Economic and Military. New York: Dover, 2006.
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  959. Classic work by the leading American proponent of air power following World War I. Always controversial, Mitchell outlined his vision of the future of air power in this work, first written in 1925, on the eve of his famous court martial.
  960. Find this resource:
  961. Sherman, William C. Air Warfare. Maxwell AFB, AL: Air University Press, 2002.
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  963. Sherman, a colleague of Mitchell, published this work in 1926. It was highly regarded by both American and British contemporaries. The Air University edition contains an excellent introduction that provides insightful context for Sherman and his ideas.
  964. Find this resource:
  965. Sherry, Michael. The Rise of American Air Power: The Creation of Armageddon. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1987.
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  967. This is a critical survey of the American development of strategic bombardment and the failure to appreciate the human costs of such a doctrine.
  968. Find this resource:
  969. European Military Developments, 1918–1940
  970.  
  971. There are a multitude of works on the various military developments around the world in this period. This section covers the international developments that influenced American thinking during this period or later. Murray and Millett 1998 provides an excellent selection of essays, and the others deal with more specific topics. For example, Corum and Muller 1998 and Homze 1976 describe the developments in Germany, while Cain 2002 considers the French doctrines and Andersson 1994 details aviation developments in the Soviet Union. Thomas and Witts 1975 specifically address the infamous bombing of Guernica. There is, however, a lack of serious scholarship in English-language sources regarding Japanese developments and other Asian air power issues in this time period. Peattie 2003 (cited under Naval Air Power, 1910–1940), an overview of Japanese naval air power, is an exception.
  972.  
  973. Andersson, Lennart. Soviet Aircraft and Aviation, 1917–1941. Annapolis, MD: United States Naval Institute Press, 1994.
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  975. Like most works in the Putnam series of works on aircraft, this volume is very well detailed regarding the technologies. Soviet aircraft and design doctrines are also well covered. The overall air doctrines, however, do not receive a great deal of attention.
  976. Find this resource:
  977. Cain, Anthony Christopher. The Forgotten Air Force: French Air Doctrine in the 1930s. Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution Press, 2002.
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  979. Many people forget that the French Armée de l’Air was one of the most highly respected air forces in the world at the end of World War I. Cain examines what happened to this service in the years leading up to World War II, and identifies the issues that undermined French air power.
  980. Find this resource:
  981. Corum, James S., and Richard R. Muller. The Luftwaffe’s Way of War: German Air Force Doctrine, 1911–1945. Baltimore: Nautical & Aviation, 1998.
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  983. This work explores the development of German assumptions about military air power and the doctrines that emerged, from before World War I until the end of the Second. Its treatment of the interwar years is very useful.
  984. Find this resource:
  985. Homze, Edward L. Arming the Luftwaffe: The Reich Air Ministry and the German Aircraft Industry, 1919–39. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1976.
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  987. The definitive account of how the German military maintained and resurrected military aviation in the interwar period.
  988. Find this resource:
  989. Murray, Williamson, and Allan R. Millett, eds. Military Innovation in the Interwar Period. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1998.
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  991. This is an excellent collection of essays describing the military evolution between the world wars. Essays of particular interest are those by Geoffrey Till on aircraft carriers, Williamson Murray on strategic bombing, Richard Muller on close air support, and Allan Beyerchen on radio and radar developments.
  992. Find this resource:
  993. Thomas, Gordon, and Max Morgan Witts. Guernica: The Crucible of World War II. Chelsea, MI: Scarborough House, 1975.
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  995. The title states the thesis of this work and the narrative provides a detailed account, told from a number of firsthand perspectives.
  996. Find this resource:
  997. British Military Developments, 1918–1940
  998.  
  999. British developments between the two world wars were especially important to the Americans, for several reasons. First of all, from the experiences in the “Great War” through the 1930s, American aviators took note of what happened in the British services. Second, although this was not known, British and American air forces were going to work together even more closely in World War II, and what the British did in the period leading up to that conflict ended up having a considerable effect on American air power. Smith 1984 provides a solid overview of British air policies and the factors that affected them. Spaight 1926 provides contemporary speculation on how air power might play a significant economic role in future conflicts, and James 2002 addresses the preparations that were made for air defense. Slessor 1936 and Omissi 1990 address the use of air power for tactical air support and “air policing.” British conceptualization of air doctrines, especially those relating to strategic bombing, are cited in Theories, 1918–1939.
  1000.  
  1001. James, T. C. G. The Growth of Fighter Command, 1936–1940. Edited by Sebastian Cox. London:Frank Cass, 2002.
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  1003. This is the first of what will be a two-volume series on the “Air Defence of Great Britain.” Based on previously classified reports, this volume covers the organization of Fighter Command in 1936, the creation of a comprehensive air defense system, including radar, and its performance in combat through the Battle of Britain. The editor has been the Head of the Air Historical Branch of the Royal Air Force since 1996.
  1004. Find this resource:
  1005. Omissi, David. Air Power and Colonial Control: The Royal Air Force 1919–1939. Manchester, UK: Manchester University Press, 1990.
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  1007. This is a description and analysis of the British efforts to conduct “air policing” between the wars. Omissi examines the political, economic, technological, and personality issues which affected these policies. It is of particular note that he is interested in the effect of these air policies on British colonial policies, as well as the reverse.
  1008. Find this resource:
  1009. Slessor, J. C. Air Power and Armies. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1936.
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  1011. This work grew out of a series of lectures Slessor gave at the British Army staff college between 1931 and 1934. The author was one of the few RAF officers who stressed the need to develop tactical air capabilities, and this work presented the heart of his analysis. There is a 2009 reprint of this work from Tuscaloosa, the University of Alabama Press.
  1012. Find this resource:
  1013. Smith, Malcolm. British Air Strategy between the Wars. Oxford: Clarendon, 1984.
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  1015. Smith begins with the development of the British “Independent Air Force” in 1918, discusses the evolution of general planning in the 1920s and 1930s, and then looks at the more specific plans that emerged in the late 1930s. Smith is especially good at placing British air power developments in the larger political, economic, and cultural perspective of the times.
  1016. Find this resource:
  1017. Spaight, J. M. Aircraft in Commerce and War. London: Longman’s, Green, 1926.
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  1019. In this work, Spaight examined how air power could be used to interdict British sea lanes and limit international commerce in ways that might prove significant in the future. As such, this work was quite prophetic.
  1020. Find this resource:
  1021. American Military Developments, 1918–1942
  1022.  
  1023. While Mitchell and others espoused various theories of air power, the following works address the developments regarding organizations, aircraft, leaders, and actual doctrines. Finney 1955 and Greer 1955 describe the organization and the process by which the Army air arm developed its doctrines between the wars. Johnson 1998 and Maurer 1987 approach the issue of American military aviation from slightly different, but interesting, perspectives. Along complementary lines, Underwood 1991 addresses the civil and military developments that took place in the 1930s, and how they affected one another. Copp 1980 deals with the personalities of the period, and White 2001 deals with one commander in particular, Mason Patrick. See also Kelsey 1982, cited under World War II: American Strategic Bombing.
  1024.  
  1025. Copp, DeWitt S. Few Great Captains: The Men and Events that Shaped the Development of U.S. Air Power. Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1980.
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  1027. Copp begins with the officers who learned to fly with the Wrights, and then follows the professional development of the leaders who emerged in the Army air arm up to the US entry in to World War II. This narrative continues in Copp 1982, cited under World War II.
  1028. Find this resource:
  1029. Finney, Robert T. History of the Air Corps Tactical School, 1920–1940. USAF Historical Study 100. Maxwell AFB, AL: Air University Press, 1955.
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  1031. This monograph is a solid narrative history of the institution where US Army air arm doctrines were developed between the two world wars. It complements Greer 1955.
  1032. Find this resource:
  1033. Greer, Thomas H. The Development of Air Doctrine in the Army Air Arm, 1917–1941. USAF Historical Study 89. Maxwell AFB, AL: Air University Press, 1955.
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  1035. Greer complements Finney 1955 by focusing on the specific doctrines that were developed at the Air Corps Tactical School.
  1036. Find this resource:
  1037. Johnson, David E. Fast Tanks, Heavy Bombers: Innovation in the U.S. Army, 1917–1945. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1998.
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  1039. An important overview of the doctrinal developments in the US Army and Army Air Corps both before and during World War II. It is of particular interest to anyone interested in the development of joint air-ground capabilities.
  1040. Find this resource:
  1041. Maurer, Maurer. Aviation in the United States Army, 1919–1939. Washington, DC: Office of Air Force History, 1987.
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  1043. A comprehensive survey of Army aviation in the United States between the world wars, with an emphasis on how the air arm gradually grew and sorted through various problems with the air mail and other issues. It includes a detailed bibliography of documentary sources.
  1044. Find this resource:
  1045. Underwood, Jeffrey S. The Wings of Democracy: The Influence of Air Power on the Roosevelt Administration, 1933–1941. College Station: Texas A&M University Press, 1991.
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  1047. Underwood evaluates the impact the Roosevelt administration had on the development on both military and civilian aviation in the United States in the years preceding Pearl Harbor. He also assesses the ways in which aviation influenced the policies of the government.
  1048. Find this resource:
  1049. White, Robert P. Mason Patrick and the Fight for Air Service Independence. Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution Press, 2001.
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  1051. This is an excellent biography of an officer who is often either ignored or misunderstood. As the commander who tried to moderate the rhetoric generated by the brilliant, but sometimes abrasive, Billy Mitchell, Patrick’s own ideas are often overlooked. White provides an interesting and useful portrait of his subject.
  1052. Find this resource:
  1053. Naval Air Power, 1910–1940
  1054.  
  1055. This period was seminal for the development of the naval aviation forces that would be so important in World War II. An especially important concept was the “Fast Carrier Task Force” that emerged in the United States Navy. This is the subject examined by Reynolds 2008, while Ivey 1997, Trimble 1994, and Reynolds 1991 deal with the roles of William Moffett and John Towers in the development of US naval aviation. Peattie 2003 is a solid overview of Japanese naval air power.
  1056.  
  1057. Ivey, Jack M. The Paradoxical Paradigm: Aviation Leadership, 1918–1926; How William Moffett Changed the Navy and How Billy Mitchell Prevented the Formation of a Separate Air Force. AU/AWC/RWP-090/97-04. Maxwell AFB, AL: Air University Press, 1997.
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  1059. This is an interesting study of the different approaches used by Billy Mitchell and William Moffett in their respective services. This research report examines the relative accomplishments of the Army officer who embraced controversy and the naval officer who attempted to work within the Navy and existing doctrines.
  1060. Find this resource:
  1061. Peattie, Mark R. Sunburst: The Rise of Japanese Naval Air Power, 1909–1941. Barnsley, UK: Chatham, 2003.
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  1063. Peattie tracks the evolution of Japanese naval aviation from its foundation to the attack on Pearl Harbor. He describes the evolution of the aircraft, the carriers, the training, and the doctrines. This is the best survey of the subject.
  1064. Find this resource:
  1065. Reynolds, Clark G. Admiral John H. Towers: The Struggle for Naval Air Supremacy. Annapolis, MD: Naval Institute Press, 1991.
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  1067. This is an excellent biography of an officer who played a vital role in promoting and developing naval aviation prior to World War II. He was especially effective at supporting the programs he identified as crucial to the perceived mission. He served as the chief of the Bureau of Aeronautics, 1939–1942, and later commanded carrier groups in the Pacific.
  1068. Find this resource:
  1069. Reynolds, Clark G. The Fast Carriers: The Forging of an Air Navy. Annapolis, MD: Naval Institute Press, 2008.
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  1071. Reynolds describes the development of the ships, aircraft, support technologies, and doctrines that were combined to create the US Navy’s “Fast Carrier Task Forces.” This work was first published in 1968.
  1072. Find this resource:
  1073. Trimble, William F. Admiral William A. Moffett: Architect of Naval Aviation. Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1994.
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  1075. An interesting biographical study of a naval officer who played a key role in the development of US naval aviation. Trimble’s treatment is comprehensive and goes beyond the biographical to examine Moffett’s role in the major decisions affecting US naval aviation in this period.
  1076. Find this resource:
  1077. Civil Aviation, 1918–1940
  1078.  
  1079. As aviators and engineers “pushed the envelope” in the period between the wars, commercial aviation slowly became a reality. Angelucci and Matricardi 1976 provides a solid overview of the technologies and the organizations that emerged. Crouch 1977, Kessener 2010, and Winters 2010 provide interesting biographies of two of the airmen who came to symbolize the willingness of pilots to promote aviation, even at great personal risk.
  1080.  
  1081. Angelucci, Enzo, and Paolo Matricardi. World Aircraft, 1918–1935. Rand McNally Color Illustrated Guides. Chicago: Rand McNally, 1976.
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  1083. This is a narrative of civil aviation between 1918 and 1935, followed by brief descriptions of prominent aircraft from the period. It is useful as a reference work for the aircraft, but it is also a concise and useful overview of the technologies and organizations, especially the airlines.
  1084. Find this resource:
  1085. Crouch, Tom D., ed. Charles A. Lindbergh: An American Life. Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1977.
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  1087. Crouch provides a useful and illuminating anthology of essays concerning Lindbergh, his background, his accomplishments, and his legacy.
  1088. Find this resource:
  1089. Kessener, Thomas. The Flight of the Century: Charles Lindbergh and the Rise of American Aviation. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2010.
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  1091. Kessener goes beyond the usual biographies of Lindbergh or the accounts of his 1927 flight from New York to Paris. This volume provides an insightful account of the flight and the pilot, but it also places the achievement into the broader context of the growth of aviation in this period.
  1092. Find this resource:
  1093. Winters, Kathleen C. Amelia Earhart: The Turbulent Life of an American Icon. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2010.
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  1095. There are many works written on the famous aviatrix and her disappearance. Winters’s volume is a measured and logical overview.
  1096. Find this resource:
  1097. World War II
  1098.  
  1099. Given the scale of this subject, it is impossible to cover all of the fields in detail. The following represent a selection based on an effort to cover the most important issues. An impressive online bibliography for the subject (World War II, Air War: Bibliography can be found at the Citizendium website. Murray 1999 and Overy 1980 are two good general surveys, with Murray including World War I and the interwar years as well. Copp 1982 and Perret 1993 describe the evolution of American Army air power during the war, and Craven and Cate 1948–1958 provides the official history. Lyall 1968 provides an interesting overview of the British experience.
  1100.  
  1101. Copp, DeWitt S. Forged in Fire: Strategy and Decisions in the Airwar over Europe 1940–1945. Garden City, NJ: Doubleday, 1982.
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  1103. This continues the discussion of the individuals who shaped the US Army Air Forces begun in Copp 1980, cited under American Military Developments, 1918–1942.
  1104. Find this resource:
  1105. Craven, Wesley F., and James L. Cate, eds. The Army Air Forces in World War II. 7 vols. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1948–1958.
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  1107. This is the official history of the US Army Air Forces in World War II. It was written by a team of academic historians serving in the war, and the quality of the research, analysis, and presentation is impressive. The individual volumes, available online are as follows: Plans and Early Operations (1948), Europe: Torch to Pointblank (1949), Europe: Argument to V-E Day (1951), The Pacific: Guadalcanal to Saipan (1950), The Pacific: Matterhorn to Nagasaki (1953), Men and Planes (1955), and Services around the World (1958).
  1108. Find this resource:
  1109. Lyall, Gavin, ed. The War in the Air: The Royal Air Force in World War II. New York: William Morrow, 1968.
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  1111. This is an anthology of essays about and, in some cases, by British airmen in World War II. It is organized chronologically.
  1112. Find this resource:
  1113. Murray, Williamson. War in the Air, 1914–45. London: Cassell, 1999.
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  1115. A solid survey of World War II and the development of the technologies and doctrines in the years leading to the conflict.
  1116. Find this resource:
  1117. Overy, Richard J. The Air War, 1939–1945. New York: Stein and Day, 1980.
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  1119. An outstanding survey of air power in World War II. If one were limited to one volume for this subject, this would be an excellent choice.
  1120. Find this resource:
  1121. Perret, Geoffrey. Winged Victory: The Army Air Forces in World War II. New York: Random House, 1993.
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  1123. Perret wrote this as a companion to his work on the US Army in World War II, titled There’s A War to Be Won (New York: Random House, 1991). It is a similar work. Perret describes the doctrines, the equipment, the mobilization, the training, and the operations of the Army Air Forces. It is very readable and invaluable for anyone who wants to appreciate the scale and complexity of the American air effort in this war.
  1124. Find this resource:
  1125. World War II, Air War: Bibliography. Citizendium.
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  1127. There are numerous bibliographies on various aspects of World War II. This is an online example that is broad and comprehensive.
  1128. Find this resource:
  1129. The European Theaters
  1130.  
  1131. Describing the employment of air power during World War II in the European theaters is a daunting task. There are countless general works and an array of subheadings. Andrews 1970 approaches the subject by examining the decisions and leadership of the air force commanders on both sides. Murray 1985 volume is focused on the Luftwaffe, and Terraine 1985 deals with the Royal Air Force in the European theaters. See also Galland 1990 (cited under Non-American Biographies, Autobiographies, and Memoirs).
  1132.  
  1133. Andrews, Allen. The Air Marshals: The Air War in Western Europe. New York: William Morrow, 1970.
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  1135. Andrews approaches the war in Europe through an interesting methodology. He focuses on the senior British, German, and American officers and the decisions they had to make in the prosecution of the war. His narrative is rich in detail and his prose is most effective. The result is a work that describes the strategic issues of this conflict, making the role of the individual personalities quite clear.
  1136. Find this resource:
  1137. Murray, Williamson. Luftwaffe. Baltimore: Nautical & Aviation, 1985.
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  1139. As the title indicates, this is a basic narrative of the German Air Force from prewar preparations to the end of the war in 1945. It is detailed and well supplied with vital statistics, maps, and well-cited sources.
  1140. Find this resource:
  1141. Terraine, John. A Time for Courage: The Royal Air Force in the European War, 1939–1945. New York: Macmillan, 1985.
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  1143. This is a comprehensive work dealing with the Royal Air Force’s involvement in the European campaigns, organized both chronologically and topically. In addition to addressing the Royal Air Force’s role in the major land campaigns, Terraine deals with the Combined Bomber offensive, the air aspects of the Battle of the Atlantic, and the RAF missions in North Africa and the Mediterranean.
  1144. Find this resource:
  1145. The Battle of Britain
  1146.  
  1147. This campaign deserves special attention due to its status as the first military campaign fought entirely between air forces—and because American political and military leaders tracked its course with great intensity. While there have been numerous accounts written over the years, these are the most recent syntheses. Holland 2011 provides a clear narrative, and Ray 1994 offers some interesting analysis of the ongoing dialectics. Addison and Crang 2000, an anthology, does the same with a collection of scholarly essays.
  1148.  
  1149. Addison, Paul, and Jeremy A. Crang, eds. The Burning Blue: A New History of the Battle of Britain. London: Pimlico, 2000.
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  1151. Addison and Craig have put together an interesting collection of essays by a variety of noteworthy historians dealing with a number of aspects of the Battle of Britain. These range from Japanese and American perspectives on the campaign, to movie portrayals, to pilots’ letters describing their lives and thoughts.
  1152. Find this resource:
  1153. Holland, James. The Battle of Britain: Five Months that Changed History, May–October 1940. New York: St. Martin’s, 2011.
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  1155. Holland has the most recent campaign narrative. It is a solid overview of the campaign and places the battle in the broader strategic perspective. First published 2010 (London: Bantam).
  1156. Find this resource:
  1157. Ray, John. The Battle of Britain: New Perspectives: Behind the Scenes of the Great Air War. London: Arms and Armour, 1994.
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  1159. Ray deals with the debates that have arisen since 1940 concerning the tactical doctrines of the RAF and the Luftwaffe, the clash of personalities, and the decision to relieve Dowding. This work is well researched and provides a number of interesting insights.
  1160. Find this resource:
  1161. Tactical Air Operations
  1162.  
  1163. The role of tactical aviation in the European theaters was extremely important, and many historians slight this subject in light of the more famous dialectics inherent to the strategic bombing campaign. Deichmann 1999 covers the German doctrines and operations, while Gooderson 1998 does the same for the allies. Hughes 1995 and Spires 2002 examine the American tactical air doctrine that came to fruition in northwestern Europe in the campaigns of 1944–1945. Rostow 1981 is an important and incisive work regarding the air power priorities prior to the D-Day invasion. See also Orange 1992, a biography of Air Marshal Coningham, in Non-American Biographies, Autobiographies, and Memoirs.
  1164.  
  1165. Deichmann, Paul. Spearhead for Blitzkrieg: Luftwaffe Operations in Support of the Army, 1939–1945. Edited by Alfred Price. New York: Ivy, 1999.
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  1167. This work resulted from a study funded by the US Air Force after the war to understand the German development and use of air power. Despite the title, it begins with a brief summary of the development of German tactical air power in World War I.
  1168. Find this resource:
  1169. Gooderson, Ian. Air Power at the Battlefront: Allied Close Air Support in Europe, 1943–1945. London: Frank Cass, 1998.
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  1171. This is a comprehensive survey of the British and American tactical air support systems that had evolved in North Africa and proved vital in the campaigns in western Europe.
  1172. Find this resource:
  1173. Hughes, Thomas Alexander. Over Lord: General Pete Quesada and the Triumph of Tactical Air Power in World War II. New York: Free Press, 1995.
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  1175. A solid description of the development of American tactical air capabilities in the European theater of operations, with a special emphasis on the operations and doctrines of General “Pete” Quesada’s IX Tactical Air Command (TAC), which supported the US First Army in the drive from the Normandy beaches to Germany.
  1176. Find this resource:
  1177. Rostow, W. W. Pre-Invasion Bombing Strategy: General Eisenhower’s Decision of March 25, 1944. Austin: University of Texas Press, 1981.
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  1179. This is an interesting and insightful evaluation of the debate that occurred in 1944 about the most effective targeting doctrine to reduce the German ability to respond to the invasion of Normandy. Rostow played a key role in this debate in 1944, and subsequently was an important American policymaker through the 1960s.
  1180. Find this resource:
  1181. Spires, David N. Patton’s Air Force: Forging a Legendary Air-Ground Team. Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution Scholarly Press, 2002.
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  1183. While Hughes 1995 focuses on Quesada and IX TAC, Spires examines the development of American air doctrine in the TAC that supported Patton’s famous Third Army, General O. P. Weyland’s XIX TAC. Like Hughes, he evaluates the evolution of the air support doctrines and the role of personalities in the cooperation between American air and ground forces.
  1184. Find this resource:
  1185. Strategic Bombing in Europe
  1186.  
  1187. The British and American strategic bomber forces applied their own doctrines of strategic bombardment to Nazi Germany in World War II. After the Casablanca Conference in 1943, these were united in what was termed the Combined Bomber Offensive (CBO). The effectiveness of the various doctrines, the overall success of the campaign, and the morality of the effort are addressed in the following works to varying degrees. Friedrich 2006, Grayling 2006, and Levine 1992 are general surveys. Addison and Crang 2006 is an anthology that looks specifically at the bombing of Dresden in 1945—an especially controversial event in the campaign. Mierzejewski 1988 is specifically dedicated to evaluating the targeting priorities.
  1188.  
  1189. Addison, Paul, and Jeremy A. Crang, eds. Firestorm: The Bombing of Dresden. London: Pimlico, 2006.
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  1191. An impressive anthology of essays dealing with the debate over the firebombing of Dresden in February 1945.
  1192. Find this resource:
  1193. Friedrich, Jörg. The Fire: The Bombing of Germany, 1940–1945. New York: Columbia University Press, 2006.
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  1195. Another interesting account of the air war as seen from the German perspective.
  1196. Find this resource:
  1197. Grayling, A. C. Among the Dead Cities: Was the Allied Bombing of Civilians in WWII a Necessity or a Crime? London: Bloomsbury, 2006.
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  1199. A provocative account of the allied bombing campaigns by a British professor of philosophy. Grayling has generated considerable debate and makes many insightful observations. He is interested in evaluating the moral implications of the bombing campaign, and he examines the arguments on both sides of this debate.
  1200. Find this resource:
  1201. Levine, Alan J. The Strategic Bombing of Germany, 1940–1945. Westport, CT: Praeger, 1992.
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  1203. Levine has written a solid survey of the Combined Bomber offensive. It covers both the British and the American campaigns and is very detailed regarding the aircraft, the training, the doctrines, the defenses, the targeting, and the results.
  1204. Find this resource:
  1205. Mierzejewski, Alfred C. The Collapse of the German War Economy, 1944–1945: Allied Air Power and the German National Railway. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1988.
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  1207. This excellent work examines the assumptions behind the targeting priorities of the bombing offensive, with a special focus on transportation targets, the bombing of these targets, and the consequences.
  1208. Find this resource:
  1209. British Strategic Bombing
  1210.  
  1211. A student of American strategic bombing in Europe must be aware of the British campaign, for a variety of reasons. The British official report, Webster and Frankland 1961, and a more recent overview of the reports, Cox 1998, provide comprehensive accounts of the British strategic bombing efforts. Overy 1997 is a solid survey of the British effort, and Harris 2005 provides an authoritative defense of the British assumptions and doctrines.
  1212.  
  1213. Cox, Sebastian, ed. The Strategic Air War against Germany, 1939–1945: The Official Report of the British Bombing Survey Unit. London: Frank Cass, 1998.
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  1215. This is a nicely edited edition of the official British survey of the strategic bombing offensive. It was the rough equivalent of the United States Strategic Bombing Survey (USSBS). Sebastian Cox is the chief of the RAF History Division.
  1216. Find this resource:
  1217. Harris, Arthur. Bomber Offensive. Barnsley, UK: Pen and Sword, 2005.
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  1219. This is “Bomber” Harris’s description and, to some extent, justification of the British role in the Combined Bomber Offensive. It is clear and logical and provides an interesting insight into the assumptions and objectives of the so-called Bomber Barons. It does not attempt to be balanced.
  1220. Find this resource:
  1221. Overy, Richard J. Bomber Command, 1939–1945. London: HarperCollins, 1997.
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  1223. This is a clear and well-organized account of the strategic air campaign waged by British Bomber Command. It is objective and balanced.
  1224. Find this resource:
  1225. Webster, Charles, and Noble Frankland. The Strategic Air Offensive against Germany. 4 vols. London: Her Majesty’s Stationery Office, 1961.
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  1227. This is the official RAF history of the strategic air campaign.
  1228. Find this resource:
  1229. American Strategic Bombing
  1230.  
  1231. Crane 1993 and Schaffer 1985 deal with the American strategic bombing campaign in Europe, its effectiveness, and, to some extent, its morality. Miller 2006 provides an exceptional overview of the American effort, while McFarland 1995 addresses the American doctrine of “precision bombing.” Along similar lines, Kelsey 1982 has an insider’s perspective on how the technology and the doctrines came together. The official histories of the bombing campaigns are provided by the United States Strategic Bombing Survey Summary Report from 1945, and MacIsaac’s evaluation in MacIsaac 1976.
  1232.  
  1233. Crane, Conrad C. Bombs, Cities and Civilians: American Airpower Strategy in World War II. Lawrence: University Press of Kansas, 1993.
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  1235. Conrad Crane, a retired US Army officer, wrote this account to examine the claims of other historians that American bombing doctrine shifted from precision targeting to “area” attacks in the last months of the war in Europe. His conclusion is that their analysis was flawed and that the Americans remained committed to accuracy and attacks on specific targets to maximize the efficiency of the campaign.
  1236. Find this resource:
  1237. Kelsey, Benjamin S. Dragon’s Teeth? The Creation of United States Air Power in World War II. Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1982.
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  1239. Kelsey was an American aeronautical engineer, Army Air Corps officer, and test pilot who helped develop fighter aircraft and associated equipment, including drop tanks, in World War II. This work is an insider’s account of how military aircraft were developed in the United States before and during World War II.
  1240. Find this resource:
  1241. MacIsaac, David. Strategic Bombing in World War Two: The Story of the United States Strategic Bombing Survey. New York: Garland, 1976.
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  1243. This work grew out of MacIsaac’s PhD dissertation and is a detailed account of the creation of the survey, its analysis of the bombing campaign, and its conclusions.
  1244. Find this resource:
  1245. McFarland, Stephen L. America’s Pursuit of Precision Bombing, 1910–1945. Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1995.
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  1247. McFarland has written a well-researched account of the development and use of the Norden bombsight. He describes the need for an improved bombsight, the problems encountered in developing one, and the results achieved with the bombsight in the war. In the process, he shows that “precision” is a relative term. McFarland writes a compelling narrative that is supported by impressive research. His conclusions are measured and clearly supported by his evidence.
  1248. Find this resource:
  1249. Miller, Donald L. Masters of the Air: America’s Bomber Boys Who Fought the Air War against Nazi Germany. New York: Simon & Schuster, 2006.
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  1251. Miller describes the American daylight bombing campaign with a comprehensive narrative that explains the objectives, the methods, the training, the equipment, the problems, and the operations. It is very well written and exceptionally well informed.
  1252. Find this resource:
  1253. Schaffer, Ronald. Wings of Judgment: American Bombing in World War II. New York: Oxford University Press, 1985.
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  1255. This is an assessment of the effect of morality on the American portion of the Combined Bomber Offensive. Schaffer notes that the planners and commanders of the strategic air campaign were aware of the moral implications of bombing urban areas, and that this had an effect on both the planning and the execution of the campaign. He also notes, however, that military necessity often trumped moral considerations.
  1256. Find this resource:
  1257. United States Strategic Bombing Survey: Summary Report (European War). Washington, DC, Government Printing Office, 1946.
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  1259. An online version of the 1945 summary of the US Bombing Survey. The project included over one hundred individual reports and addendum. The summary is a synthesis of these reports and cites them in detail.
  1260. Find this resource:
  1261. The “V Weapons”
  1262.  
  1263. The advent of unmanned cruise and ballistic missiles by the Germans may have taken air power to a new level in the last year of the war. Collier 1965 is a bit dated, but it is a solid survey. Neufeld 1995 is much more up to date and deals specifically with the V-2.
  1264.  
  1265. Collier, Basil. The Battle of the V-Weapons, 1944–45. New York: William Morrow, 1965.
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  1267. Although Collier’s account is dated and suffers from lack of information about “Ultra” intelligence, this is still a very useful overview and narrative of the development of the V-1 and V-2 weapons.
  1268. Find this resource:
  1269. Neufeld, Michael J. The Rocket and the Reich: Peenemünde and the Coming of the Ballistic Missile Era. New York: Free Press, 1995.
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  1271. Neufeld, a former curator of the World War II section of the National Air and Space Museum of the Smithsonian Institution, describes the technological, political, and strategic development of the V-2 ballistic missile. He is very effective in explaining how the synthesis of these factors both drove and hindered its development. He concludes with a description of the competition of the Allied powers to gain access to the technology and the designers.
  1272. Find this resource:
  1273. The Eastern Front
  1274.  
  1275. This section is included in this bibliography because of the importance of Soviet air power to the United States, both as an ally during World War II and as an adversary in the Cold War. Coverage of the air war over the Eastern Front has improved in recent years. Brookes 2003, Air War over Russia, is imperfect but useful. Hardesty 1982, a description of Soviet air operations, and Muller 1992, an account of German air power in Russia, complement one another. Hayward 1998 addresses the failure of the Luftwaffe in the Stalingrad campaign, but also describes the overall air efforts from 1941 through 1943. In regard to the unprecedented Soviet use of women pilots, see Myles 1981 and Noggle 2001. Finally, Rudel 1973, Reshetnikov 2008, and Timofeeva-Egorova 2010 (all cited under Non-American Biographies, Autobiographies, and Memoirs) should also be noted.
  1276.  
  1277. Brookes, Andrew. Air War over Russia. Hersham, UK: Ian Allan, 2003.
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  1279. This is an interesting, though flawed, overview of the air war on the Eastern Front. The author provides far more information about the Luftwaffe operations and perspectives than about the Soviet Air Force. There are also some errors in fact, as noted in many reviews of the work. Nevertheless, because of the limited number of surveys of this field, it is included here as a work one should consider when dealing with this subject.
  1280. Find this resource:
  1281. Hardesty, Von. Red Phoenix: The Rise of Soviet Air Power, 1941–1945. Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1982.
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  1283. This is the best general survey of the Soviet Air Force in World War II. Hardesty combines scholarship, clear prose, and a logical organization in a most effective manner.
  1284. Find this resource:
  1285. Hayward, Joel S. A. Stopped at Stalingrad: The Luftwaffe and Hitler’s Defeat in the East, 1942–1943. Lawrence: University Press of Kansas, 1998.
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  1287. Hayward deals with the preparations made by the Luftwaffe for fighting on the Eastern Front and the problems that emerged as the campaign developed. These came to a head in the disastrous attempts to support the Sixth Army trapped at Stalingrad in late 1942.
  1288. Find this resource:
  1289. Muller, Richard. The German Air War in Russia. Baltimore: Nautical & Aviation, 1992.
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  1291. This is a solid narrative of the air war over the Eastern Front, and actually goes into more detail than does Hardesty 1982. It is also quite measured and insightful in analyzing the strengths and weaknesses of the German and Soviet air forces engaged on this front.
  1292. Find this resource:
  1293. Myles, Bruce. Night Witches, the Untold Story of Soviet Women in Combat. Novato, CA: Presidio, 1981.
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  1295. This is an interesting work about the Soviet women who flew night missions over the Eastern Front in obsolete aircraft. The missions were exceptionally dangerous, but they were a significant nuisance factor and largely frustrated Luftwaffe efforts to end them. Indeed, the term “Night Witches” was coined by the Germans to recognize the degree to which these efforts aggravated them.
  1296. Find this resource:
  1297. Noggle, Anne. A Dance with Death: Soviet Airwomen in World War II. College Station: Texas A&M University Press, 2001.
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  1299. Noggle, who was a US Women’s Airforce Service Pilot (WASP) during World War II, interviewed Soviet women veterans in the early 1990s. The oral history interviews are the basis for this overview and cover the nonflying as well as the flying roles played by these women. Noggle also describes the extent to which the veterans remained in contact after the war.
  1300. Find this resource:
  1301. The Pacific Theaters
  1302.  
  1303. As with the European theaters in World War II, it is virtually impossible to know where to begin. The works cited in this section are noteworthy and should be known to any serious student of the subject. Bergerud 2000 provides an interesting survey of the air campaigns in the South Pacific, but it does not cover all of the Pacific theaters. Okumiya, et al. 1979 is an interesting view of the Pacific War as seen by Japanese veterans barely ten years after the Japanese surrender.
  1304.  
  1305. Bergerud, Eric M. Fire in the Sky: The Air War in the South Pacific. Boulder, CO: Westview, 2000.
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  1307. Bergerud covers the role of air power in the campaigns in the South Pacific. He provides a detailed account of operations by the Japanese, British, Dutch, Australian, and American air forces—both land-based and naval.
  1308. Find this resource:
  1309. Okumiya, Masatake, Jiro Horikoshi, and Martin Caiden. Zero! The Air War in the Pacific During World War II from the Japanese Viewpoint. Washington, DC: Zenger, 1979.
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  1311. First published in 1956, this is a fascinating and invaluable presentation of the Japanese perspective on the war. It was first written for the Japanese public, just over ten years after VJ Day. The development of the “Zero” fighter is a central focus of this work, but it is placed in the broader context of the wars in East Asia and the Pacific, 1937–1945.
  1312. Find this resource:
  1313. Naval Air Power
  1314.  
  1315. There are extensive accounts of every naval campaign in the Pacific in World War II. The serious student of these campaigns will find a multitude of works relating to each. This section includes basic works that are the most useful. Both Hearn 2005 and Sears 2011 cover the naval aviation components of the Pacific War.
  1316.  
  1317. Hearn, Chester G. Carriers in Combat: The Air War at Sea. Mechanicsburg, PA: Stackpole, 2005.
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  1319. Hearn’s narrative is clear, comprehensive, and well informed. He describes the campaigns, the technologies, and the doctrines. His bibliography is a gold mine for anyone wishing to pursue specific aspects of the naval air war in the Pacific.
  1320. Find this resource:
  1321. Sears, David. Pacific Air: How Fearless Flyboys, Peerless Aircraft, and Fast Flattops Conquered the Skies in the War with Japan. Philadelphia: Da Capo, 2011.
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  1323. Despite the title, this work provides an interesting overview of the air campaigns fought by the US Navy in the Pacific War. The emphasis is on operational accounts, but the coverage of the strategic aspect is sound. This is a “popular history,” but it is based on solid research.
  1324. Find this resource:
  1325. Land-based Tactical Air Power
  1326.  
  1327. The use of land-based air power in the Pacific was always affected by the problems caused by the need to fly long distances, often over water. The best work dealing with these issues is Kenney 1949, cited under American Army Air Forces Biographies, Autobiographies, and Memoirs. In addition to the Pacific War, there were operations in China and Southeast Asia. Ford 1991 and Byrd 1987, on the American Volunteer Group in China, are the best written accounts on the group. But no coverage of the Flying Tigers would be complete without Scott 1976, (cited under American Army Air Forces Biographies, Autobiographies, and Memoirs).
  1328.  
  1329. Byrd, Martha. Chennault: Giving Wings to the Tiger. Tuscaloosa: University of Alabama Press, 1987.
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  1331. This is a scholarly and comprehensive overview of Lieutenant General Claire Lee Chennault and the efforts to create the American Volunteer Group. Because it goes beyond being a biography of Chennault, it is listed here instead of in American Army Air Forces Biographies, Autobiographies, and Memoirs.
  1332. Find this resource:
  1333. Ford, Daniel. Flying Tigers: Claire Chennault and the American Volunteer Group. Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1991.
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  1335. This is a detailed and objective account of the operations of the American Volunteer Group, which served in support of the Nationalist Chinese. Known as the “Flying Tigers,” these young men became popular heroes, and many legends were created. Ford’s account describes the difficulties encountered in creating this group and Claire Chennault’s role in this project.
  1336. Find this resource:
  1337. Kamikazes
  1338.  
  1339. The large-scale use of piloted aircraft to crash intentionally into enemy ships was not anticipated by either side prior to the outbreak of the Pacific War. The Japanese decision to conduct such operations in the autumn of 1944 was a significant event and led to serious Allied losses, especially off Okinawa in early 1945. The first account of the Japanese perspective to appear in the West, Inoguchi, et al. 1994, originally appeared in 1958. Naito 1989 continued and expanded the collection of accounts from former pilots. Lamont-Brown 1997 uses firsthand accounts, but is largely an attempt to place the kamikaze concept into a broader historical and strategic perspective.
  1340.  
  1341. Inoguchi, Rikihei, Tadashi Nakajima, and Robert Pineau. The Divine Wind: Japan’s Kamikaze Force in World War II. Annapolis, MD: Naval Institute Press, 1994.
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  1343. This was the standard work on kamikazes when it came out in 1958 and remained so for many years. It is a collection of accounts from naval aviators who volunteered for these missions. In some cases these are survivors’ accounts, but the most important source is letters from young men who did not survive. It has been replaced in terms of detail and scope, but it remains an important resource.
  1344. Find this resource:
  1345. Lamont-Brown, Raymond. Kamikaze: Japan’s Suicide Samurai. London: Cassell, 1997.
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  1347. Lamont-Brown explains the cultural and military roots of the political-military decision to embrace large-scale suicide attacks, and he describes the evolution of the attacks. He also describes and evaluates the effects.
  1348. Find this resource:
  1349. Naito, Hatsuho. Thunder Gods: The Kamikaze Pilots Tell Their Story. Translated by Mayumi Ichikawa. Tokyo: Kodansha, 1989.
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  1351. Naito, an engineer during the war who worked on kamikaze designs, located a number of men who had volunteered for and trained to be suicide pilots. Their explanations of their motives and feelings are extremely interesting.
  1352. Find this resource:
  1353. Strategic Air Power
  1354.  
  1355. For much of the war, Japan was simply too far from Allied bases for a sustained strategic bombing effort. The Doolittle Raid in 1942, as described in Lawson 2004 and Glines 2000, was a strategic mission in-as-much as it was an independent action designed to make a political and psychological point on several levels. Nevertheless, the real strategic effort could not begin until late 1944, when bases close enough to Japan were finally available. Wolk 2010 details the Army Air Force preparation, organization, and execution of this campaign. Tillman 2010 and Werrell 1996 are solid narratives and evaluations of the bombings. The United States Strategic Bombing Survey Summary Report from 1946 is the official evaluation of the results and significance of this campaign.
  1356.  
  1357. Glines, Carroll V. The Doolittle Raid: America’s Daring First Strike against Japan. Atglen, PA: Schiffer, 2000.
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  1359. Glines, a retired Air Force colonel who also coauthored General Doolittle’s autobiographical I Could Never Be so Lucky Again, describes the April 1942 raid on Japan by sixteen Army Air Force B-25 bombers, launched from the aircraft carrier USS Hornet. Glines uses firsthand accounts, but also places the mission into the larger strategic perspective.
  1360. Find this resource:
  1361. Lawson, Ted W. Thirty Seconds over Tokyo. Edited by Robert Considine. New York: Pocket, 2004.
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  1363. This account of the raid, written by a survivor, first appeared in 1943 and was made into a movie the next year. Later works are more complete, but this account remains important, in part because it is a firsthand account and captures the wartime sense of what this mission signified.
  1364. Find this resource:
  1365. Tillman, Barrett. Whirlwind: The Air War Against Japan, 1942–1945. New York: Simon & Schuster, 2010.
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  1367. Tillman explains and evaluates the role played by strategic bombing in the war in the Pacific, beginning with the Doolittle Raid and continuing through the firebombings of major Japanese cities and the final atomic attacks in August of 1945. He covers the assumptions, the limitations, and the campaigns.
  1368. Find this resource:
  1369. United States Strategic Bombing Survey: Summary Report (Pacific War). Washington, DC: Government Printing Office, 1946.
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  1371. This is online edition of the summary of the US Bombing Survey. It also provides links to the complete survey if one needs to pursue specific details.
  1372. Find this resource:
  1373. Werrell, Kenneth P. Blankets of Fire: U.S. Bombers over Japan during World War II. Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1996.
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  1375. Werrell’s volume deals with the development of the American doctrine to use area bombing with incendiary weapons on Japanese cities. He investigates the factors that led to this decision, describes the attacks, and evaluates the results.
  1376. Find this resource:
  1377. Wolk, Herman S. Cataclysm: General Hap Arnold and the Defeat of Japan. Denton: University of North Texas Press, 2010.
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  1379. Wolk describes the role played by the Chief of the Army Air Forces in promoting the use of strategic air power in the final assault on the Japanese home islands. In particular, he details the creation of the Twentieth Air Force and the B-29 force that conducted the strategic raids on Japan. He covers the tactics, operations, and results of these missions, as well as the role played by Arnold in all of the above.
  1380. Find this resource:
  1381. The Manhattan Project and the Atomic Bombings
  1382.  
  1383. The American creation of nuclear weapons and the decision to use them are highly complicated and controversial subjects. Wyden 1984 is an excellent overview. Baker 1976 is a collection of essays from both sides of the debate about the decision to use these weapons on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Alperovitz 1995 is by a leading critic of the decision.
  1384.  
  1385. Alperovitz, Gar. The Decision to Use the Atomic Bomb and the Architecture of an American Myth. New York: Alfred Knopf, 1995.
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  1387. Alperovitz is possibly the best-known and most effective critic of the decision to use atomic bombs on Japanese cities in 1945.
  1388. Find this resource:
  1389. Baker, Paul R., ed. The Atomic Bomb: The Great Decision. Hinsdale, IL: Dryden, 1976.
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  1391. Anyone discussing the decision to drop the atomic bombs on Japan should be required to read this anthology—or one like it. Baker presents a collection of essays on both sides of the debate. Even a brief perusal reveals that there is evidence and logic on both sides.
  1392. Find this resource:
  1393. Wyden, Peter. Day One: Before Hiroshima and After. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1984.
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  1395. This work describes the discovery of atomic fission as a potential weapon, the creation of the first bombs, the decision to use them, and the consequences. It is well researched and clearly written.
  1396. Find this resource:
  1397. Reconnaissance and Intelligence
  1398.  
  1399. The improvements in aerial reconnaissance in World War II were significant, and many students of aviation are not familiar with the subject. Staerck 1998 provides a good overview of Allied capabilities, and Smith 2004 describes the development of the interpretation methodologies. Kreis 1996 is the best work on American air intelligence during the war. The issue of deception, always a concern with photographic intelligence, is covered in Stanley 1998.
  1400.  
  1401. Kreis, John F., ed. Piercing the Fog: Intelligence and Army Air Force Operations in World War II. Washington, DC: Air Force History and Museums Program, 1996.
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  1403. This is a scholarly and comprehensive collection of articles covering the creation, organization, and accomplishments of the Army Air Forces’ intelligence organizations. Reconnaissance is a major part of the story, but this work is comprehensive and addresses the intelligence needs and programs on a broad scale.
  1404. Find this resource:
  1405. Smith, Constance Babington. Evidence in Camera: The Story of Photographic Intelligence in the Second World War. Stroud, UK: Sutton, 2004.
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  1407. First published in 1957, this is a memoir by one of the pioneers of the science, possibly the “art,” of photographic interpretation. The process had begun in World War I, but new technologies and new needs drove the interpreters to develop far more advanced techniques. This work explains the processes and the improvements made during World War II.
  1408. Find this resource:
  1409. Staerck, Chris, ed. Allied Photo Reconnaissance of World War II. San Diego, CA: Thunder Bay, 1998.
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  1411. This volume begins with a brief overview of aerial reconnaissance and then focuses on the evolution of allied capabilities between 1939 and 1945.
  1412. Find this resource:
  1413. Stanley, Roy M., II. To Fool a Glass Eye: Camouflage versus Photoreconnaissance in World War II. Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1998.
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  1415. Stanley tells a fascination story of deception and detective work. As reconnaissance became more important, so did the need to avoid being seen. The author describes the evolution of this competition and provides well-chosen photographs to illustrate the narrative.
  1416. Find this resource:
  1417. Electronic Warfare
  1418.  
  1419. The works cited under Aerial Electronic Warfare provide background for this section. In regard to World War II, Price 2006 and Brown 1999 deal specifically with the developments before and during the war, as well as their importance. Phelps 2010 focuses specifically on Anglo-American cooperation in this field.
  1420.  
  1421. Brown, Louis. A Radar History of World War II: Technical and Military Imperatives. Bristol, UK: Institute of Physics Publishing, 1999.
  1422. DOI: 10.1887/0750306599Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  1423. Brown provides an overview that is both comprehensive and clear. This is difficult to do with a technical subject, but this work is exceptional. He describes the concepts, the equipment, the wartime evolution, and the consequences.
  1424. Find this resource:
  1425. Phelps, Stephen. The Tizard Mission: The Top-Secret Operation that Changed the Course of World War II. Yardley, PA: Westholme, 2010.
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  1427. Phelps describes the so-called Tizard mission, named for the famous scientist turned government official, Sir Henry Tizard, who led the group. The mission came to the United States in 1940 to exchange British scientific data for American production. The story includes, but is not limited to, the effect this had on Allied electronic equipment, especially radar and related devices.
  1428. Find this resource:
  1429. Price, Alfred. Instruments of Darkness: The History of Electronic Warfare, 1939–1945. Rev. ed. Barnsley, UK: Greenhill, 2006.
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  1431. Price is a former RAF officer, historian, and noted authority on aviation and electronic warfare. This work is an excellent survey of the evolution of electronic warfare capabilities during World War II. First published in 1967, it has been edited and expanded.
  1432. Find this resource:
  1433. Airborne Operations
  1434.  
  1435. Bilstein 2005, Rottman and Dennis 2006, and Gavin 1980 all provide general surveys of airborne operations conducted by the various armies and air forces during the war. Gavin 1992 and Huston 1998 focus more specifically on the American experiences.
  1436.  
  1437. Bilstein, Roger E. Airlift and Airborne Operations in World War II. Honolulu, HI: University Press of the Pacific, 2005.
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  1439. Interesting survey of the development of airborne operations and their evolution during the war, primarily focused on the American experience.
  1440. Find this resource:
  1441. Gavin, James M. Airborne Warfare. Nashville: Battery, 1980.
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  1443. This work, first written in the 1950s, by one of the most experienced airborne commanders of World War II, describes the evolution of airborne forces. Gavin concludes with a proposal to develop improved airborne forces to deal with the American security concerns of the early Cold War. As such, it provides an interesting window into doctrinal development in this period.
  1444. Find this resource:
  1445. Gavin, James M. On to Berlin: Battles of an Airborne Commander, 1943–1946. New York: Bantam, 1992.
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  1447. Originally written in 1978, this is a personal memoir of one of the major American airborne commanders in World War II. It is both interesting and informative.
  1448. Find this resource:
  1449. Huston, James A. Out of the Blue: U.S. Army Airborne Operations in World War II. West Lafayette, IN: Purdue University Press, 1998.
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  1451. Best scholarly coverage of American airborne operations during the war. First published in 1972.
  1452. Find this resource:
  1453. Rottman, Gordon, and Peter Dennis. World War II Airborne Warfare Tactics. Oxford: Osprey, 2006.
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  1455. Concise overview of the development of airborne tactics by the German, Soviet, British, and American armies.
  1456. Find this resource:
  1457. American Army Air Forces Biographies, Autobiographies, and Memoirs
  1458.  
  1459. Daso 2000, a biography of “Hap” Arnold; Doolittle and Glines 1991; Kenney 1949; Davis 1992, a biography of Carl Spaatz; Parton 1986, a biography of Eaker; and the works on and by General LeMay (Kozak 2009 and LeMay and Kantor 1965) provide interesting descriptions of the lives of some key American Army Air Force aviators. Gabreski 1998 and the classic account of the “Flying Tigers” by Colonel Scott (Scott 1976) tell the story from the operational level. Ford 1991 and Byrd 1987, treatments of Chennault and the “Flying Tigers,” are both cited under Land-based Tactical Air Power.
  1460.  
  1461. Daso, Dik Alan. Hap Arnold and the Evolution of American Airpower. Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution Press, 2000.
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  1463. This is a scholarly and insightful biography of the man who led the Army Air Forces through World War II. Arnold was a complex individual, and Daso captures this, as well as his role in shaping the structure, strategies, and doctrines of this organization.
  1464. Find this resource:
  1465. Davis, Richard G. Carl A. Spaatz and the Air War in Europe. Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1992.
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  1467. A scholarly biography of an important figure who is often overlooked. Spaatz was possibly even more important than Arnold in convincing the Army that the Air Force should be independent.
  1468. Find this resource:
  1469. Doolittle, James H., with C. V. Glines. I Could Never Be So Lucky Again: An Autobiography. New York: Bantam, 1991.
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  1471. Doolittle provides a lively and informative memoir of one of the most important people in American aviation in the 20th century—himself. From his days as an air racer, test pilot, and graduate student of aeronautical engineering to his famous service in the Army Air Forces, Doolittle helped shape the direction of aviation in the United States.
  1472. Find this resource:
  1473. Gabreski, Francis. Gabby: A Fighter Pilot’s Life. Atglen, PA: Schiffer Military History, 1998.
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  1475. This is a lively personal memoir by one of the most dynamic American fighter pilots of World War II and the Korean War.
  1476. Find this resource:
  1477. Kenney, George C. General Kenney Reports: A Personal History of the Pacific War. New York: Duell, Sloan and Pearce, 1949.
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  1479. An open and comprehensive memoir of the Army Air Force commander in the Southwest Pacific. His narrative is detailed and comprehensive.
  1480. Find this resource:
  1481. Kozak, Warren. LeMay: The Life and Wars of General Curtis LeMay. Washington, DC: Regnery, 2009.
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  1483. This is a balanced biography of a controversial air commander. It is a far more detailed and balanced account than the earlier Kantor and LeMay collaboration, LeMay and Kantor 1965.
  1484. Find this resource:
  1485. LeMay, Curtis E., and MacKinlay Kantor. Mission with Lemay: My Story. Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1965.
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  1487. This work was LeMay’s opportunity to explain his role in the strategic bombing of Japan, as well as the creation of Strategic Air Command after the war. As such it is a polemic and an interesting source for anyone investigating the life of this important figure in the development of American strategic air power.
  1488. Find this resource:
  1489. Parton, James. “Air Force Spoken Here”: General Ira Eaker and the Command of the Air. Bethesda, MD: Adler & Adler, 1986.
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  1491. Parton provides a sympathetic, but not biased, biography of one of the founding fathers of the US Air Force. This is an interesting and insightful work.
  1492. Find this resource:
  1493. Scott, Robert L. God Is My Co-Pilot. New York: Ballantine, 1976.
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  1495. Originally published in 1944, this is an excellent overview of service in Burma and China with the American Volunteer Group, better known as the “Flying Tigers.”
  1496. Find this resource:
  1497. American Naval Aviation Biographies
  1498.  
  1499. Ewing 2002, Ewing 2004, and Ewing and Lundstrom 1997 are biographies of three American naval fighter pilots from early in the war in the Pacific, Jimmy Flatley, Jimmie Thach, and Butch O’Hare. Moving on to the senior naval air leadership, Potter 1985, Harris 2012, Lundstrom 2006, Reynolds 2005, and Taylor 1954 address, respectively, the lives of Admirals Halsey, Nimitz, Fletcher, Clark, and Mitscher. These works, while biographical, describe the prewar and wartime evolution of American naval air capabilities.
  1500.  
  1501. Ewing, Steve. Reaper Leader: The Life of Jimmy Flatley. Annapolis, MD: Naval Institute Press, 2002.
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  1503. This is the second of a trilogy of biographies Ewing authored or coauthored about US naval aviators in the Pacific War. Flatley was less well known than Thach, but as the author notes, this officer’s career paralleled the development of American naval air power. From his initial combat operations through his rise to key command positions later in the war, Flatley’s tactical experience proved invaluable in forming American naval air doctrines.
  1504. Find this resource:
  1505. Ewing, Steve. Thach Weave: The Life of Jimmie Thach. Annapolis, MD: Naval Institute Press, 2004.
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  1507. Ewing, the senior curator at the Patriots Point Naval and Maritime Museum, provides a biography of one of the more innovative fighter pilots in the US Navy in the early years of World War II. Flying fighters that were inferior in performance to the Japanese “Zero,” and Thach pioneered formations and maneuvers, such as the “Thach Weave,” to reduce the Japanese advantages. But, as Ewing notes, Thach’s career as a fighter pilot, tactical theorist, test pilot, operations officer, task force commander, and strategist went far beyond the tactics and formations that bear his name.
  1508. Find this resource:
  1509. Ewing, Steve, and John B. Lundstrom. Fateful Rendezvous: The Life of Butch O’Hare. Annapolis, MD: Naval Institute Press, 1997.
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  1511. As with the biographies of Thach and Flatley, this work focuses on the role of an individual pilot in the development of American naval air power in World War II. Unlike Thach and Flatley, O’Hare did not survive the war, but the life of this Medal of Honor flyer serves as an excellent window into the operations of US naval air units in the early campaigns of this war.
  1512. Find this resource:
  1513. Harris, Brayton. Admiral Nimitz: The Commander of the Pacific Ocean Theater. Basingstoke, UK, and New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2012.
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  1515. This is the most recent biography of the admiral who commanded the Central Pacific theater in World War II. Nimitz is credited with being the first commander of the US Pacific Fleet who truly understood naval air power. Harris clearly and objectively describes Nimitz’s professional development and his key command decisions.
  1516. Find this resource:
  1517. Lundstrom, John B. Black Shoe Carrier Admiral: Frank Jack Fletcher at Coral Sea, Midway and Guadalcanal. Annapolis, MD: Naval Institute Press, 2006.
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  1519. Fletcher was the commander of American carrier forces at the naval actions described in the title. Despite American successes in all of these campaigns, Fletcher and his decisions have been the subject of much debate. Lundstrom reviews Fletcher’s career, his decisions, and the resultant controversies with objectivity and impressive scholarship.
  1520. Find this resource:
  1521. Potter, E. B. Bull Halsey. Annapolis, MD: Naval Institute Press, 1985.
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  1523. Potter, the well-known naval historian who spent a career teaching at the United States Naval Academy, provides an excellent biography of one of the most important naval aviation commanders in the Pacific War. “Bull” Halsey was controversial for his language and for his actions, most notably his actions at Leyte Gulf in October 1944. Potter provides an interesting portrayal of the man and of his actions.
  1524. Find this resource:
  1525. Reynolds, Clark. On the Warpath in the Pacific: Admiral Jocko Clark and the Fast Carriers. Annapolis, MD: Naval Institute Press, 2005.
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  1527. The noted naval historian Clark Reynolds helped Admiral Clark write his autobiography in 1967 and had unmatched access to the personal and official papers relating to this officer’s life and career. Reynold’s overview of “Jocko” Clark provides a window into the prewar development, as well as the wartime expansion and employment, of American naval aviation.
  1528. Find this resource:
  1529. Taylor, Theodore. The Magnificent Mitscher. New York: Norton, 1954.
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  1531. Marc Mitscher was one of the earliest proponents of aviation in the US Navy. This early biography of the man is well written, well informed, and broad in scope. In many ways it can serve as a history of US naval aviation from World War I to World War II. It was republished in 2006 as part of the prestigious Bluejacket series of the Naval Institute Press.
  1532. Find this resource:
  1533. Non-American Biographies, Autobiographies, and Memoirs
  1534.  
  1535. Johnson 1957, a description of the author’s experiences as a fighter pilot, and Orange 1992, an excellent work on Air Marshal Coningham, are representative of the works available on some of the key British airmen. On the other side, Galland 1990, a personal account, and Toliver and Constable 1990, a biography of Galland, offer interesting insights into the life of the man who became the head of German fighter forces. Rudel 1973, another memoir, does the same for a German Stuka pilot. Lee 1972, a biography of Herman Goering, provides a broader perspective of the German war effort. Last, but not least, are two personal memoirs written by Soviet pilots: Timofeeva-Egorova 2010 describes the author’s life as a ground attack pilot on the Eastern Front, and Reshetnikov 2008 is by a former medium-bomber pilot who survived 307 missions.
  1536.  
  1537. Galland, Adolf. The First and the Last: The Rise and Fall of the Luftwaffe, 1939–45. Cutchogue, NY: Buccaneer, 1990.
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  1539. This is the personal memoir of the fighter pilot who became the commander of all Luftwaffe fighter forces. Galland describes individual fighter sorties, quarrels with the Luftwaffe high command, and a host of other conflicts in between. This work provides an interesting window into the Luftwaffe throughout the war. See also Toliver and Constable 1990.
  1540. Find this resource:
  1541. Johnson, J. E. Wing Leader. New York: Ballantine, 1957.
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  1543. Johnson, the leading British ace of the war, penned a lively, informative, and thoughtful memoir about his experiences in the war. It is regarded by many as the best of its type written about experiences in this war.
  1544. Find this resource:
  1545. Lee, Asher. Goering: Air Leader. New York: Hippocrene, 1972.
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  1547. There are other more detailed biographies, but Lee’s account is effective and very readable. It is also quite objective and measured.
  1548. Find this resource:
  1549. Orange, Vincent. Coningham: A Biography of Air Marshal Sir Arthur Coningham. Washington, DC: Center for Air Force History, 1992.
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  1551. Orange provides a lively and comprehensive account of the career of the British tactical air commander who devised the most effective joint air-ground system of World War II. This biography provides a clear portrayal of Coningham and his contributions to both British and American air doctrines.
  1552. Find this resource:
  1553. Reshetnikov, Vasily. Bomber Pilot on the Eastern Front: 307 Missions Behind Enemy Lines. Barnsley, UK: Pen and Sword, 2008.
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  1555. This is a rare example of a Soviet bomber pilot’s memoir translated into English. It provides interesting insights into the motivations, training, and operations these airmen experienced on the Eastern Front. Reshetnikov continued in the service after the war and rose to be the deputy commander-in-chief of the Air Force of the Soviet Union from 1980 until his retirement in 1986. His service in the “Great Patriotic War” was often held up as an example of what young Soviet airmen could accomplish in defending the nation.
  1556. Find this resource:
  1557. Rudel, Hans-Ulrich. Stuka Pilot. Maidstone, UK: George Mann, 1973.
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  1559. This is a memoir of the man generally regarded as the most successful German dive-bomber pilot of World War II. In addition to describing individual missions in detail, Rudel provides an interesting view of the changing fortunes of the Luftwaffe on the Eastern Front from the perspective of a German aviator.
  1560. Find this resource:
  1561. Timofeeva-Egorova, Anna. Over Fields of Fire: Flying the Sturmovik in Action on the Eastern Front 1942–45. Solihull, UK: Helion, 2010.
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  1563. This is a memoir by one of the more successful woman pilots of the famous Sturmovik ground attack aircraft used by the Soviet Air Force. The mere fact that she survived as long as she did is impressive. These aircraft were highly respected by the Germans, but the casualty rate among their pilots was quite high. Timofeeva-Egorova’s account of flying these aircraft for virtually the entire war is interesting and insightful.
  1564. Find this resource:
  1565. Toliver, Raymond E., and Trevor J. Constable. Fighter General: The Life of Adolf Galland. Zephyr Cove, NV: AmPress, 1990.
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  1567. This is a detailed and largely sympathetic biography of Adolf Galland by two American authors who have written extensively on air operations in World War II. It can be read in combination with Galland 1990.
  1568. Find this resource:
  1569. The Cold War
  1570.  
  1571. Once again, this is a massive topic regarding air power. The selections in this section provide an introduction to a variety of topics and issues. Virtually all have extensive bibliographies that will assist any student wishing to delve deeper into these subjects. The best military history of the period, Cowley 2006, is a general work that includes a number of excellent essays dealing with air power. Arnold 1949 provides an interesting perspective on how a leading American airman saw air power at the end of World War II and the beginning of the Cold War. Wolk 1997 details the creation of an independent United States Air Force, while Worden 1998 specifically addresses the United States Air Force during the Cold War—looking at the evolution of perspectives associated with the backgrounds of the officers in the top leadership positions. See also Call 2009, a work on air power and popular culture, cited under Aviation and Culture.
  1572.  
  1573. Arnold, H. H. Global Mission. New York: Harper, 1949.
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  1575. Like his earlier works coauthored with Ira Eaker (Arnold and Eaker 1941 and Arnold and Eaker 1942, both cited under American Theories, 1918–1942), this work is based on Arnold’s experiences in what had just become the US Air Force—with Arnold as its first chief of staff. Also, like his earlier works, this volume was designed to promote American air power, now based in large measure on his description of American air power in World War II.
  1576. Find this resource:
  1577. Cowley, Robert, ed. The Cold War: A Military History. New York: Random House, 2006.
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  1579. This work is actually an anthology of articles by some of the top American military and diplomatic historians available, including Stephen Ambrose, Caleb Carr, Thomas Fleming, Victor Davis Hanson, David McCullough, and Simon Winchester. The articles on air power include works on the first jet combat in Korea, the evolution of reconnaissance capabilities, and the role of air power in the assorted “hot wars” of this period.
  1580. Find this resource:
  1581. Wolk, Herman S. The Struggle for Air Force Independence: 1943–1947. Washington, DC: Air Force History and Museums Program, 1997.
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  1583. This is a detailed and well-researched narrative of the events and debates that led to the creation of an independent United States Air Force in 1947.
  1584. Find this resource:
  1585. Worden, R. Michael. Rise of the Fighter Generals: The Problem of Air Force Leadership, 1945–1982. Maxwell AFB, AL: Air University Press, 1998.
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  1587. Worden, who retired as Major General Worden, is a fighter pilot with a PhD in military history. His study of US Air Force leadership deals with the role played by the operational backgrounds of Air Force pilots in shaping the basic doctrines of the Air Force. This work combines solid scholarship and extensive oral history interviews, made all the more incisive by the author’s personal familiarity with the subject.
  1588. Find this resource:
  1589. The Nuclear Balance
  1590.  
  1591. One cannot do justice to this complex subject here, but the following are some vital works. Everyone approaching the topic should be aware of Brodie 1959 and Kahn 1960, as well as Kaplan 1983 (cited under Western Nuclear Forces) and Freedman 2003. While Kahn 1960 is a primary source regarding the strategic concepts, Kaplan 1983 and Freedman 2003 provide fine overviews of the ideas and their authors. In a similar vein, Rhodes 2007 examines the role of the evolving technologies in driving the strategies, and vice versa. Ball and Richelson 1986 explains the significance of nuclear targeting doctrines.
  1592.  
  1593. Ball, Desmond, and Jeffrey Richelson, eds. Strategic Nuclear Targeting. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1986.
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  1595. Ball describes the development of nuclear targeting processes and doctrines during the Cold War. Little has been written on this sensitive subject, and Ball’s work is notable for its use of formerly sensitive sources and his clear explanation of the importance of the subject.
  1596. Find this resource:
  1597. Brodie, Bernard. Strategy in the Missile Age. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1959.
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  1599. Many regard Brodie’s work to be one of the first scholarly works to adequately explain the nature of nuclear deterrence in regard to its importance, its complexity, and its historical context.
  1600. Find this resource:
  1601. Freedman, Lawrence. The Evolution of Nuclear Strategy. 3d rev. ed. Basingstoke, UK, and New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2003.
  1602. DOI: 10.1057/9780230379435Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  1603. The best work explaining the origins and evolution of the concept of deterrence and its application to the nuclear balance. The concepts and specialized terminology of the nuclear balance are clearly defined. This work is dry, but objective.
  1604. Find this resource:
  1605. Kahn, Herman. On Thermonuclear War. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1960.
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  1607. This is the classic conceptualization of nuclear strategy by the man many say served as the inspiration for “Dr. Strangelove.” Kahn studies the dynamics of deterrence and the possible strategies one could follow if deterrence fails. Many critics call it highly unrealistic, but it is a basic work that stimulated other ideas.
  1608. Find this resource:
  1609. Rhodes, Richard. Arsenals of Folly: The Making of the Nuclear Arms Race. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2007.
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  1611. Rhodes, who also wrote The Making of the Atomic Bomb (1986) and Dark Sun: The Making of the Hydrogen Bomb (1995), explores the evolution of strategies and weapons systems that shaped the nuclear balance. He provides detailed descriptions of the doctrines and the thinking that led to their adoption.
  1612. Find this resource:
  1613. Western Nuclear Forces
  1614.  
  1615. Borgiasz 1996, Borowski 1982, and Moody 1996 examine the creation of the Strategic Air Command. Kaplan 1983 reviews the people who developed the basic strategic concepts and how they influenced the development of both the organizations and the doctrines that shaped the nuclear balance. Mets and Head 2003 evaluates the doctrines that emerged, while Ross 1988 provides an overview of the actual nuclear war plans. In regard to the technology, Neufeld 1990 describes the early development of ballistic missiles in the US Air Force. Brookes 1982 provides a general survey of the development of the British nuclear forces.
  1616.  
  1617. Borgiasz, William S. The Strategic Air Command: Evolution and Consolidation of Nuclear Forces, 1945–1955. Westport, CT: Praeger, 1996.
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  1619. This is a fine narrative that explains the evolution of the Command. It is comprehensive and measured.
  1620. Find this resource:
  1621. Borowski, Harry R. The Hollow Threat: Strategic Air Power and Containment Before Korea. Westport, CT: Greenwood, 1982.
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  1623. Borowski describes the strategic bombing doctrine that emerged after World War II, and how the US Air Force conceived strategic bombing to be both a tool for deterrence and a component of containment.
  1624. Find this resource:
  1625. Brookes, Andrew. V-Force: The History of Britain’s Airborne Deterrent. London: Jane’s, 1982.
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  1627. A solid description of the British development of a nuclear bomber force as a part of Western deterrence. The term “V-Force” referred to the names of the British nuclear bomber types: Valiants, Vulcans, and Victors.
  1628. Find this resource:
  1629. Kaplan, Fred M. The Wizards of Armageddon. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1983.
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  1631. Kaplan examines the roles of the leading strategic thinkers who shaped American nuclear strategies. He discusses the personalities, the organizations, and the ideas that emerged. The result is an interesting and enlightening narrative.
  1632. Find this resource:
  1633. Mets, David R., and William P. Head, eds. Plotting a True Course: Reflections on USAF Strategic Attack Theory and Doctrine: The Post–World War II Experience. Westport, CT: Praeger, 2003.
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  1635. This is a collection of essays dealing with the factors that shaped the nuclear doctrines, with descriptions of the strategies that emerged in that process.
  1636. Find this resource:
  1637. Moody, Walton S. Building a Strategic Air Force. Washington, DC: Air Force History and Museums Program, 1996.
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  1639. Moody describes the problems inherent to the development of what was named the “Strategic Air Command” in 1946—even before there was an independent US Air Force. All of this occurred in the aftermath of World War II, complicated by the issues of demobilization, new technologies, and a reorganized defense structure. This work covers the developments in this command through the end of the Korean War in 1953.
  1640. Find this resource:
  1641. Neufeld, Jacob. The Development of Ballistic Missiles in the United States Air Force, 1945–1960. Washington, DC: Office of Air Force History, 1990.
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  1643. Neufeld covers the evolution of the new ballistic missile technologies as after World War II as the US Air Force found itself competing with the US Army and US Navy, as well as the Soviet Union, in this development. This work deals with the first generation of US Air Force missiles, the intermediate range Thor and the intercontinental Atlas and Titan.
  1644. Find this resource:
  1645. Ross, Steven T. American War Plans, 1945–1950. New York: Garland, 1988.
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  1647. This fascinating work describes the early American nuclear war plans and how they fit into the larger strategies of containment and deterrence.
  1648. Find this resource:
  1649. Soviet Nuclear Forces
  1650.  
  1651. For most of the Cold War it was difficult to get accurate information about Soviet nuclear capabilities or doctrines. The Soviets were obviously reluctant to divulge such information, and much of the data released in the West about the Soviets was also quite questionable. Since the end of the Cold War it has become possible to gain access to some sources, but problems remain. This section is not comprehensive by any means, but it provides some good sources to begin the process. Smith 1981 provides excellent bibliographic data through 1980. Whiting 1979, Lee 1959, and Lee 1962 are outdated, but they present interesting views from the midst of the Cold War. Both Lee and Whiting were leading Western authorities on the subject of Soviet air power in this period. Gordon 2009 is a recent and valuable survey of the evolution of Soviet strategic bomber forces, while Zaloga 2002 provides an insightful narrative of Soviet bomber, missile, and nuclear programs. See also Lambeth 2000, cited in The Post–Cold War Period section.
  1652.  
  1653. Gordon, Yefim. Soviet Strategic Aviation in the Cold War. Manchester, UK: Hikoki, 2009.
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  1655. A solid descriptive narrative of the Soviet strategic bomber forces. This series is noted for its illustrations, but the text is well informed and comprehensive.
  1656. Find this resource:
  1657. Lee, Asher. The Soviet Air Force. New York: John Day, 1962.
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  1659. Clearly dated at this point, Lee nonetheless provides a Cold War perspective on Soviet air power from the time of the Cuban Missile Crisis.
  1660. Find this resource:
  1661. Lee, Asher, ed. The Soviet Air and Rocket Forces. New York: Praeger, 1959.
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  1663. This is a fascinating collection of essays by American, British, German, and Russian experts on Soviet air power. It is probably the first unclassified overview of the subject to appear after the Sputnik surprise of 1957.
  1664. Find this resource:
  1665. Smith, Myron J., Jr. The Soviet Air and Strategic Rocket Forces, 1939–1980: A Guide to Sources in English. Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-Clio, 1981.
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  1667. The best bibliography on this subject up to 1981. Smith has also compiled broad bibliographies covering World War II.
  1668. Find this resource:
  1669. Whiting, Kenneth R. Soviet Air Power, 1917–1978. Maxwell AFB, AL: Air University Library, 1979.
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  1671. This is a broad survey sponsored by the US Air Force, and written by one of the leading American authorities on the subject. It was written in the late 1970s and provides an interesting complement to Lee 1959 and Lee 1962.
  1672. Find this resource:
  1673. Zaloga, Steven J. The Kremlin’s Nuclear Sword: The Rise and Fall of Russia’s Nuclear Forces, 1945–2000. Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution Press, 2002.
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  1675. An interesting work based on interviews of Soviet officials, engineers, and others who provided Zaloga with enough information for him to create a comprehensive overview of the development of Soviet nuclear weapons, bombers, and missiles.
  1676. Find this resource:
  1677. Aerial Combat after 1945
  1678.  
  1679. There are numerous works of the “Top Gun” variety, but the best survey to date is Rendall 1997.
  1680.  
  1681. Rendall, Ivan. Rolling Thunder: Jet Combat from World War II to the Gulf War. New York: Free Press, 1997.
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  1683. Rendall, a former British Royal Air Force officer, describes the evolution of air combat neatly and clearly. He explains the relevant technologies and how they influenced the changing tactics and operations. His scope is global and his narrative is a pleasure to read.
  1684. Find this resource:
  1685. Tactical Air Support
  1686.  
  1687. Again, this is a field with a number of works available, but two of the most interesting and useful are Jacobs, et al. 2009 and Winnefeld and Johnson 1993. Schlight 2003 is focused specifically on the close air support in the USAF from World War II through the end of American involvement in Vietnam. Campbell 2003 is especially useful in exploring the debates that have emerged within and among the American armed forces regarding this topic, with a focus on the A-10 close air support aircraft, developed in the United States in the 1970s.
  1688.  
  1689. Campbell, Douglas N. The Warthog and the Close Air Support Debate. Annapolis, MD: Naval Institute Press, 2003.
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  1691. Campbell describes the development of the A-10 “Warthog” attack aircraft, and explains its place in the doctrinal debate that has raged since World War II over tactical air support priorities, command structures, and equipment.
  1692. Find this resource:
  1693. Jacobs, Jody, David E. Johnson, Katherine Comanor, Lewis Jamison, Lelang Joe, and David Vaughn. Enhancing Fires and Maneuver Capability Through Greater Air-Ground Joint Interdependence. Santa Monica, CA: RAND, 2009.
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  1695. A well-informed survey of the international security problems that require effective air-ground cooperation, with a number of cogent recommendations as to how to improve that cooperation.
  1696. Find this resource:
  1697. Schlight, John. Help from Above: Air Force Close Air Support of the Army, 1946–1973. Washington, DC: Air Force History and Museums Program, 2003.
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  1699. Schlight examines the development of the tactical air mission given the lowest order of priority in air force doctrine from FM 100-20 in 1943 through the Cold War. Schlight notes the efforts made by the US Air Force in terms of equipment, doctrine, and operations despite the low priority. He also notes the differences in perspective held by the US Army.
  1700. Find this resource:
  1701. Winnefeld, James A., and Dana J. Johnson. Joint Air Operations: Pursuit of Unity in Command and Control, 1942–1991. Annapolis, MD: Naval Institute Press, 1993.
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  1703. The authors trace the US Air Force command and control doctrines relating to joint operations from World War II through the Gulf War of 1991. They note the operational lessons learned and not learned in Korea, Vietnam, and other operations in this period. Originally a RAND study written in 1991.
  1704. Find this resource:
  1705. Reconnaissance
  1706.  
  1707. Brugioni 2010 describes the creation of the American photographic community in the 1950s. Burrows 2001 provides an interesting survey of the covert reconnaissance missions flown by the United States during the Cold War, with a particular focus on those missions that were intercepted. Beschloss 1988 and Powers and Gentry 2004 deal with the infamous U-2 crisis of 1960, but from different perspectives. Temple 2004 deals with the evolution of strategic reconnaissance into the use of satellite systems. On a slightly different level, Gordon 2006 addresses aerial tactical reconnaissance systems.
  1708.  
  1709. Beschloss, Michael R. Mayday: Eisenhower, Khrushchev, and the U-2 Affair. New York: Harper & Row, 1988.
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  1711. This is an attempt to place the loss of an American U-2 reconnaissance aircraft in 1960 into the broader strategic and political perspective. It is well written and well informed.
  1712. Find this resource:
  1713. Brugioni, Dino A. Eyes in the Sky: Eisenhower, the CIA, and Cold War Aerial Espionage. Annapolis, MD: Naval Institute Press, 2010.
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  1715. This work, written by one of the most famous photo interpreters of the Cold War, covers the development of strategic reconnaissance in the 1950s and the creation of the photographic intelligence community. Brugioni was the photo interpreter who presented and explained the photographs taken of Soviet missiles in Cuba to President Kennedy in 1962.
  1716. Find this resource:
  1717. Burrows, William E. By Any Means Necessary: America’s Heroes Flying Secret Missions in a Hostile World. New York: Plume, 2001.
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  1719. This is a detailed account of the Cold War reconnaissance missions that attempted to probe the defense of the Soviet Union and China to obtain vital photographic and signals intelligence.
  1720. Find this resource:
  1721. Gordon, Doug. Tactical Reconnaissance in the Cold War: 1945 to Korea, Cuba, Vietnam, and the Iron Curtain. Barnsley, UK: Pen and Sword, 2006.
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  1723. This is the only overview of tactical reconnaissance from 1945 through the 1980s. The author focuses on tactical reconnaissance aircraft and systems—in point of fact, many of the missions had strategic significance (e.g., Cuba).
  1724. Find this resource:
  1725. Powers, Francis Gary, and Curt Gentry. Operation Overflight: A Memoir of the U-2 Incident. Dulles, VA: Brassey’s, 2004.
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  1727. The shooting down of an American U-2 reconnaissance aircraft over the Soviet Union on 1 May 1960 was a major event of the Cold War—and an embarrassment to the United States. First published in 1970, this is a basic account of what happened, told by the man who experienced it firsthand.
  1728. Find this resource:
  1729. Temple, L. Parker, III. Shades of Gray: National Security and the Evolution of Space Reconnaissance. Reston, VA: American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, 2004.
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  1731. Temple has been involved in the strategic reconnaissance “business” both in and out of government. This work is a well-informed survey of the transition of reconnaissance capabilities from aircraft to space-based systems. It is a clear overview of the development of space-based systems and is well organized and clearly presented.
  1732. Find this resource:
  1733. Naval Air Power
  1734.  
  1735. This is another broad subject, but two important works are Hoyt 1989, an overview of naval air operations from 1945 through the 1980s, and Holloway 2007, an account of US naval air power throughout the Cold War.
  1736.  
  1737. Holloway, James L., III. Aircraft Carriers at War: A Personal Retrospective of Korea, Vietnam, and the Soviet Confrontation. Annapolis, MD: Naval Institute Press, 2007.
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  1739. This is a personal memoir and a general survey written by a former Chief of Naval Operations of the United States Navy. It is well informed and insightful. Holloway had personal experience in naval operations from aerial combat in World War II through the development of the nuclear program of the US Navy. He describes the technology, the personnel, the operations, and the tactics of naval air power with great clarity.
  1740. Find this resource:
  1741. Hoyt, Edwin P. Carrier Wars: Naval Aviation from World War II to the Persian Gulf. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1989.
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  1743. This is a solid and comprehensive overview of the US Navy development and use of naval air power from 1945 through 1991.
  1744. Find this resource:
  1745. The Korean War
  1746.  
  1747. The so-called “Forgotten War” has not been forgotten by aviation historians. The official USAF history of the war, Futrell 1983, is quite good, but Crane 2000, a more recent survey, is recommended if one wants to examine the doctrinal debates that emerged. Y’Blood 2002 specifically deals with the controversial close air support efforts of the US Air Force. Stratemeyer 1999 is an insider’s view of the issues that affected the air campaigns and other missions. Hallion 1986 is scholarly and comprehensive in its treatment of the naval air war, as is Zhang 2002 in its treatment of Soviet and Chinese involvement in the conflict.
  1748.  
  1749. Crane, Conrad C. American Air Power Strategy in Korea, 1950–1953. Lawrence: University Press of Kansas, 2000.
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  1751. A former US Army officer, Crane evaluates US Air Force doctrines, capabilities, and results in the war. He also looks at the role of the other services and examines the debates that arose out of this war in terms of tactical air support. Crane’s conclusions are logical and well supported.
  1752. Find this resource:
  1753. Futrell, Robert Frank. The United States Air Force in Korea, 1950–1953. Washington, DC: Office of Air Force History, 1983.
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  1755. This is the definitive official history of the US Air Force in Korea. The research is excellent and the scope is comprehensive.
  1756. Find this resource:
  1757. Hallion, Richard P. The Naval Air War in Korea. Baltimore: Nautical & Aviation, 1986.
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  1759. An interesting and detailed work describing the capabilities and contributions of US Navy and Marine Corps aviators in the Korean War, 1950–1953. This work is comprehensive and well supported.
  1760. Find this resource:
  1761. Stratemeyer, George E. The Three Wars of Lt. Gen. George E. Stratemeyer: His Korean War Diary. Edited by William T. Y’Blood. Washington, DC: Air Force History and Museums Program, 1999.
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  1763. While this work could be placed in a biography section, it is located here because of the importance of Stratemeyer’s account to an understanding of the USAF effort in the Korean War.
  1764. Find this resource:
  1765. Y’Blood, Willaim T. Down in the Weeds: Close Air Support in Korea. Washington, DC: Air Force History and Museums Program, 2002.
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  1767. This is an insightful and well-informed evaluation of the USAF effort to provide close air support to ground forces in Korea. This effort was quite controversial and Y’Blood attempts to provide a balanced and objective overview.
  1768. Find this resource:
  1769. Zhang, Xiaoming. Red Wings over the Yalu: China, the Soviet Union, and the Air War in Korea. College Station: Texas A&M University Press, 2002.
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  1771. This is the best work to date on the Chinese and Soviet air forces’ involvement in the Korean War. Using an array of Western, Chinese, and Russian sources, Zhang provides a comprehensive view of this involvement.
  1772. Find this resource:
  1773. The Vietnam War
  1774.  
  1775. Any student addressing this subject should visit the online Vietnam War Bibliography compiled by Edwin Moïse at Clemson University. They should also know Berger 1984, the official USAF history; Frankum 2005, a survey; and Mersky and Polmar 1982, on the naval air operations. It is important to note, however, that the role and performance of air power in this war was and remains controversial. This is discussed in Horwood 2006. Broughton 1969, a personal memoir, set the tone for future discussions by noting the problems encountered by the pilots flying jet fighter-bombers into the teeth of the North Vietnamese air defenses. Michel 2001 continues the critical analysis into the last bombing campaign of the war in 1972. Nalty 2001 focuses on the tactical campaigns in South Vietnam, and Horwood 2006 tackles the thorny issue of interservice rivalries regarding the doctrines and command and control of air power. Clodfelter 1989 and Tilford 1993, both by retired US Air Force officers, provide the best critiques of the air doctrines and operations. Both should be read by anyone studying this conflict.
  1776.  
  1777. Berger, Carl, ed. The United States Air Force in Southeast Asia, 1961–1973. Rev. ed. Washington, DC: Office of Air Force History, 1984.
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  1779. The official USAF narrative of the Vietnam War. It is extremely well documented.
  1780. Find this resource:
  1781. Broughton, Jack. Thud Ridge: F-105 Thunderchief Missions over Vietnam. Philadelphia: Lippincott, 1969.
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  1783. First published in 1969 and republished through 2006, this is the classic pilot’s account of the “Rolling Thunder” air campaign over North Vietnam. Broughton details the problems the pilots faced regarding equipment, enemy air defenses, and the rules of engagement. Broughton is extremely clear in his criticism of the limits imposed on the air campaigns. This is continued in a 1990 sequel, Going Downtown: The War against Hanoi and Washington.
  1784. Find this resource:
  1785. Clodfelter, Mark. The Limits of Airpower: The American Bombing of Vietnam. New York: Free Press, 1989.
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  1787. Written by a US Air Force officer as his PhD dissertation, this is a superb analysis of the problems inherent to the American use of air power in Southeast Asia, especially regarding assumptions about what could be accomplished by bombing.
  1788. Find this resource:
  1789. Frankum, Ronald B. Like Rolling Thunder: The Air War in Vietnam, 1964–1975. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield, 2005.
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  1791. Frankum’s account is a solid narrative of the evolution of the American air campaigns in the Vietnam War.
  1792. Find this resource:
  1793. Horwood, Ian. Interservice Rivalry and Airpower in the Vietnam War. Fort Leavenworth, KS: Combat Studies Institute Press, 2006.
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  1795. Horwood examines the conflicting doctrines and interests of the American armed forces in Vietnam with a focus on the Army, the Air Force, and the Marines regarding the debate over centralized command and control.
  1796. Find this resource:
  1797. Mersky, Peter B., and Norman Polmar. The Naval Air War in Vietnam. Annapolis, MD: Nautical & Aviation, 1982.
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  1799. Mersky and Polmar provide a solid narrative and a measured evaluation of the successes and failures of the naval air contributions to the American effort in the war in Vietnam. It is detailed and clearly organized.
  1800. Find this resource:
  1801. Michel, Marshall L., III. The Eleven Days of Christmas: America’s Last Vietnam Battle. San Francisco: Encounter, 2001.
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  1803. This is a narrative of “Linebacker II,” or the “Christmas Bombings,” of 1972. Michel describes the political objectives, the operational assumptions, and the tactical realities of this campaign. It is both interesting and illuminating. Readers will find a remarkably objective treatment of a subject that often generates more heat than light.
  1804. Find this resource:
  1805. Nalty, Bernard C. Air War over South Vietnam, 1968–1975. Washington, DC: Air Force History and Museums Program, 2001.
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  1807. Nalty’s volume focuses on the use of tactical air power in South Vietnam, as distinct from the strategic air campaigns waged against North Vietnam. It is comprehensive and objective, even if it is told from a US Air Force perspective.
  1808. Find this resource:
  1809. Tilford, Earl H., Jr. Crosswinds: The Air Force’s Setup in Vietnam. College Station: Texas A&M University Press, 1993.
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  1811. Tilford, currently at the Strategic Studies Institute of the United States Army War College, is a retired US Air Force intelligence officer who served in the War in Southeast Asia. He examines the doctrines, assumptions, and capabilities developed by the US Air Force before and during the war in Southeast Asia. He doubts claims that the primary problem was external political restraint. He is also critical of the view that the Linebacker II raids of 1972 were a success. Reprinted in 2009.
  1812. Find this resource:
  1813. Vietnam War Bibliography: The Air War. Compiled by Edwin E. Moïse.
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  1815. This is the best bibliography available regarding air operations in this war. It is part of Moïse’s larger set of bibliographies dealing with the wars in Southeast Asia.
  1816. Find this resource:
  1817. Aerial Weapons
  1818.  
  1819. Chant 1988 and Gunston 1988 are two basic reference works that date to the end of the Cold War. For treatment of even more recent developments, see the section on Modern Aerial Weapons.
  1820.  
  1821. Chant, Christopher. World Encyclopedia of Modern Air Weapons. Willingborough, UK: Patrick Stephens, 1988.
  1822. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  1823. Basic reference work describing air-delivered ordnance, by an acknowledged expert on military technology.
  1824. Find this resource:
  1825. Gunston, Bill. The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Aircraft Armament: A Major Directory of Guns, Rockets, Missiles, Bombs, Torpedoes, and Mines. New York: Orion, 1988.
  1826. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  1827. A work similar to Chant 1988. Gunston is well known for his work on aircraft, aerial warfare, and military operations.
  1828. Find this resource:
  1829. Biographies, Autobiographies, and Memoirs
  1830.  
  1831. There are other biographies of note, but it is interesting to contrast the life of the American officer John Boyd, the subject of Corum 2002, with Mikoyan 1999, the autobiography of the Russian pilot Stephan Mikoyan.
  1832.  
  1833. Coram, Robert. Boyd: The Fighter Pilot Who Changed the Art of War. Boston: Little, Brown, 2002.
  1834. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  1835. This is a more than sympathetic biography of Colonel John Boyd. A fighter pilot, Boyd examined the doctrinal assumptions of the US Air Force and the Department of Defense and found a number of problems with them and the resultant doctrines. He made a variety of proposals, and the debates that he began are continuing. Corum’s work is a good introduction to the dialectics.
  1836. Find this resource:
  1837. Mikoyan, Stepan Anastasovich. Stepan Anastasovich Mikoyan: An Autobiography. Shrewsbury, UK: Airlife, 1999.
  1838. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  1839. This is not an autobiography of the noted Soviet aeronautical engineer and designer, Artem Mikoyan. Rather, it is about and by his nephew, a top Soviet test pilot who rose to become the deputy director of the Research Flight-Test Institute of the Soviet Air Force. Mikoyan writes about the aircraft he tested, his reflections on the Soviet aerospace industries, and life in the upper echelons of the Soviet leadership.
  1840. Find this resource:
  1841. Other Wars, 1945–1990
  1842.  
  1843. While there are books and articles on many individual conflicts in the developing world, the Air Combat Information Group website is an excellent place to examine the basic facts and discover links to other sources on a variety of these conflicts.
  1844.  
  1845. Air Combat Information Group.
  1846. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  1847. This website includes a variety of entries on the use of air power in conflicts in what is often referred to as “the developing world.” This includes images of aircraft, narratives of campaigns, analysis of policy shifts, procurement decisions, and current events.
  1848. Find this resource:
  1849. The Post–Cold War Period
  1850.  
  1851. American air doctrine in the post–Cold War era is described in Lambeth 2000, which in turn examines the role of Colonel Warden’s treatise in shaping those doctrines (Warden 1988). Lambeth 1999, an examination of Russian air power, and Gordon and Komisarrov 2010, which looks at Chinese air capabilities, are important and well-informed works.
  1852.  
  1853. Gordon, Yefim, and Dmitri Komisarrov. Chinese Air Power: Current Organisation and Aircraft of All Chinese Air Forces. Hinckley, UK: Midland, 2010.
  1854. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  1855. This is a well-informed and measured treatment of current Chinese capabilities.
  1856. Find this resource:
  1857. Lambeth, Benjamin S. Russia’s Air Power in Crisis. Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1999.
  1858. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  1859. Lambeth, a Rand Corporation analyst and noted authority regarding post-Vietnam air power, examines the missions, capabilities, and problems of the Russian Air Force in the aftermath of the Cold War.
  1860. Find this resource:
  1861. Lambeth, Benjamin S. The Transformation of American Air Power. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2000.
  1862. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  1863. This is Lambeth’s most comprehensive survey. As an analyst at the Rand Corporation, Lambeth has worked on a variety of air power issues. This work looks at the changes in American air power after Vietnam, up to the Kosovo campaign of 1999.
  1864. Find this resource:
  1865. Warden, Colonel John A., III. The Air Campaign: Planning for Combat. Washington, DC: National Defense University Press, 1988.
  1866. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  1867. Written at the end of the Cold War, this study examined and questioned assumptions behind American air doctrine through the Vietnam War. Warden promoted the idea that air power was the dominant factor in determining land campaigns, and that this, in itself, was a strategic factor. This study is seen by many as the key factor in the success of Operation Desert Storm. Others disagree.
  1868. Find this resource:
  1869. The Gulf War of 1991
  1870.  
  1871. The most important source documents are to be found in the Gulf War Air Power Survey (US Department of Defense 1993), which is now available online. Keaney and Cohen 1995 offers a summary of the survey and places the air campaign into a broader historical context. Davis 2002, Putney 2004, Jamieson 2001, and Hallion 1992 are surveys by US Air Force historians. These authors have been accused of overstating the role of air power in this conflict, but they also have their defenders. These works are definitely very useful and quite interesting. Winnefeld, et al. 1994 may also be accused of bias, but both the strengths and limitations of air power in this conflict are identified. Olsen 2003 has the somewhat more removed perspective of an instructor at the Royal Norwegian Air Force Academy, and it provides a broad overview of the preparations and conduct of the air campaign of 1991. Finally, from an entirely different viewpoint, Stanek 2006 is a personal account by a veteran of the war who flew electronic warfare missions.
  1872.  
  1873. Davis, Richard G. On Target: Organizing and Executing the Strategic Air Campaign against Iraq. Washington, DC: Air Force History and Museums Program, 2002.
  1874. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  1875. An official history of the preparation, deployment, and employment of air power against Iraqi targets in the Gulf War. It is one of a series that includes Putney 2004 and Jamieson 2001.
  1876. Find this resource:
  1877. Hallion, Richard P. Storm over Iraq: Air Power and the Gulf War. Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1992.
  1878. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  1879. Hallion’s narrative describes the use of air power to defend Saudi Arabia during “Desert Shield,” the preparations for the Coalition offensive, and the subsequent air campaign that began “Desert Storm.” The narrative is comprehensive and well written. It leaves one with the impression that air power resolved the crisis even before the ground campaign began.
  1880. Find this resource:
  1881. Jamieson, Perry D. Lucrative Targets: The U.S. Air Force in the Kuwaiti Theater of Operations. Washington, DC: Air Force History and Museums Program, 2001.
  1882. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  1883. This is one of a series of works on USAF operations in Operation Desert Shield and Operation Desert Storm in 1990–1991. This is the volume that deals with the operational employment of the air units in these two operations, one defensive and one offensive.
  1884. Find this resource:
  1885. Keaney, Thomas A., and Eliot A. Cohen. Revolution in Warfare? Air Power in the Persian Gulf. Annapolis, MD: Naval Institute Press, 1995.
  1886. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  1887. This work comes in part out of the Gulf War Air Power Survey (US Department of Defense 1993), and it attempts both to provide a comprehensive summary of the air war and to place the operations in the broader context of evolving military capabilities—especially air power capabilities. The authors describe both the advantages and the limitations of air power in this war.
  1888. Find this resource:
  1889. Olsen, John Andreas. Strategic Airpower in Desert Storm. London: Frank Cass, 2003.
  1890. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  1891. Olsen is on the faculty of the Royal Norwegian Air Force Academy and has done extensive research on the Gulf War. This work is broad in scope and covers both the conceptualization and the implementation of the air campaign. Olsen makes excellent use of official documentation and interviews of participants.
  1892. Find this resource:
  1893. Putney, Diane T. Airpower Advantage: Planning the Gulf War Air Campaign, 1989–1991. Washington, DC: Air Force History and Museums Program, 2004.
  1894. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  1895. Like Davis 2002 and Jamieson 2001, this is a USAF historical study. Putney focuses on the planning of the air campaign and the assumptions, methods, and objectives that shaped the process.
  1896. Find this resource:
  1897. Stanek, Robert. Stormjammers: The Extraordinary Story of Electronic Warfare Operations in the Gulf War. East Olympia, WA: Reagent, 2006.
  1898. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  1899. This is a firsthand account by a crewmember of an EC-130 electronic warfare aircraft. It is a somewhat focused and specialized account, but it provides a rare description of what such operations entail.
  1900. Find this resource:
  1901. US Department of Defense. The Gulf War Air Power Survey (GWAPS). Washington, DC: US Department of Defense, 1993.
  1902. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  1903. This official evaluation of the air war in the Gulf War of 1991 was produced under the direction of Eliot Cohen. It is a detailed and objective assessment of the air component of Operation Desert Shield and, more specifically, Operation Desert Storm. Five volumes and summary report available online.
  1904. Find this resource:
  1905. Winnefeld, James A., Preston Niblock, and Dana J. Johnson. A League of Airmen: U.S. Airpower in the Gulf War. Santa Monica, CA: RAND, 1994.
  1906. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  1907. This RAND study is designed to identify the strengths and limitations of the air campaign in the Gulf War of 1991. The authors conclude that air power made contributions that were at least equal to those of the land and naval forces—arguably for the first time in warfare.
  1908. Find this resource:
  1909. Kosovo
  1910.  
  1911. As with the Gulf War, there is a debate about the effectiveness of air power in the Kosovo campaign of 1999. Cordesman 2001 and Lambeth 2001 are both well-researched and clearly organized accounts.
  1912.  
  1913. Cordesman, Anthony. The Lessons and Non-Lessons of the Air and Missile Campaign in Kosovo. Westport, CT: Praeger, 2001.
  1914. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  1915. This is an interesting examination of what actually happened in the Kosovo air campaign, in comparison with what some people claimed happened.
  1916. Find this resource:
  1917. Lambeth, Benjamin S. NATO’s Air War for Kosovo: A Strategic and Operational Assessment. Santa Monica, CA: RAND, 2001.
  1918. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  1919. This is an evaluation of the results of the air campaign commissioned for the US Air force.
  1920. Find this resource:
  1921. Counterinsurgency and Counterterrorism
  1922.  
  1923. Corum and Johnson 2003 is an interesting overview of the use of air power in what have been called “small wars.” Lambeth 2005 specifically addresses the issue of using air power against terrorists.
  1924.  
  1925. Corum, James S., and Wray Johnson. Air Power in Small Wars: Fighting Insurgents and Terrorists. Lawrence: University Press of Kansas, 2003.
  1926. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  1927. Corum and Johnson evaluate the use of air power in “small wars” dating back to the early 20th century. By providing a historical context, they demonstrate that the strengths and limitations of air power should be well understood.
  1928. Find this resource:
  1929. Lambeth, Benjamin S. Air Power against Terror: America’s Conduct of Operation Enduring Freedom. Santa Monica, CA: RAND, 2005.
  1930. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  1931. This is an interesting and well-informed evaluation of the utility of air power in attacking terrorist organizations. Lambeth includes an extensive and useful bibliography—the best available on this subject.
  1932. Find this resource:
  1933. Modern Aerial Weapons
  1934.  
  1935. Dougherty 2010 is the most up-to-date reference work on current air-launched weapons. Newdicks 2011 provides a detailed description of the evolution of the weapons and the doctrines behind them. Werrell 2003 focuses specifically on the developments in the US Air Force and, like Newdicks 2011, examines the correlations between doctrine and technology.
  1936.  
  1937. Dougherty, Martin J. Modern Air-Launched Weapons. New York: Metro, 2010.
  1938. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  1939. This is a solid reference work for anyone wishing to understand the variety of aerial weapons used by air forces around the world.
  1940. Find this resource:
  1941. Newdicks, Thomas. Postwar Air Weapons, 1945–Present. London: Amber, 2011.
  1942. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  1943. This work is similar to Dougherty 2010, but it is organized to show the historical evolution.
  1944. Find this resource:
  1945. Werrell, Kenneth P. Chasing the Silver Bullet: U.S. Air Force Weapons Development from Vietnam to Desert Storm. Washington, DC: Smithsonian Books, 2003.
  1946. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  1947. Werrell describes the evolution of weapons systems in the USAF and correlates the assumptions, objectives, and technologies that emerged. He is especially interested in how the doctrines shaped the technologies, and he puts the utility of precision-guided weapons into a measured perspective.
  1948. Find this resource:
  1949. Unmanned Aerial Vehicles
  1950.  
  1951. The new world of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) may not be as new as some people believe. Zaloga 2008 is an interesting history of the development of UAVs since World War I. Mets 2009 examines the current and future applications, and Martin and Sasser 2010 describe recent operational experiences in Iraq and Afghanistan.
  1952.  
  1953. Martin, Matt J., and Charles W. Sasser. Predator: The Remote-Control Air War over Iraq and Afghanistan: A Pilot’s Story. Minneapolis: Zenith, 2010.
  1954. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  1955. Martin provides a firsthand account of controlling UAVs over Iraq and Afghanistan. Within the bounds of operational security, he describes the capabilities and issues that affect the use of these systems. This is the first detailed account made available of UAV operations in these wars.
  1956. Find this resource:
  1957. Mets, David R. Airpower and Technology: Smart and Unmanned Weapons. Westport, CT: Praeger, 2009.
  1958. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  1959. Written by a retired US Air Force officer noted for his knowledge of aerial weapons, this is an interesting overview of current technologies and future possibilities.
  1960. Find this resource:
  1961. Zaloga, Steven J. Unmanned Aerial Vehicles: Robotic Air Warfare, 1917–2007. Botley, UK: Osprey, 2008.
  1962. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  1963. A concise volume that describes the evolution of UAVs, with a special emphasis on the period from the Cold War to the present. Zaloga provides an excellent introduction to the subject.
  1964. Find this resource:
  1965. Commercial Aviation, 1945–2000
  1966.  
  1967. The development of the commercial airlines industry since World War II has been a story of rapid growth and expansion followed by stagnation, reorganization, and uneven growth. Proctor, et al. 2010 is focused on the transition to jet aircraft in the West, especially the United States, in the 1950s and early 1960s. Davies 2011 is a comprehensive history of the airlines from the 1960s into the 21st century. McGee 2012 is a critical evaluation of a number of problems that have emerged in recent years regarding costs, outsourcing, safety, and passenger satisfaction.
  1968.  
  1969. Davies, R. E. G. Airlines of the Jet Age: A History. Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution Scholarly Press, 2011.
  1970. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  1971. Davies is the retired curator of Air Transport at the National Air and Space Museum of the Smithsonian Institution. This work begins with an overview of the history of the airlines industry, but deals primarily with the evolution of the airlines from the 1960s to the present.
  1972. Find this resource:
  1973. McGee, William J. Attention All Passengers: The Airlines’ Dangerous Descent—And How to Reclaim Our Skies. New York: Harper, 2012.
  1974. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  1975. The author is a prolific journalist who served on the US Secretary of Transportation’s Future of Aviation Advisory Committee. This work is a critical review of changes in American commercial aviation since 9/11. McGee is especially concerned about the outsourcing of maintenance, administrative personnel, and even aircrew responsibilities. He argues that these have caused a decline in safety standards. He concludes by making suggestions as to how these problems can be solved.
  1976. Find this resource:
  1977. Proctor, Jon, Mike Machat, and Craig Kodera. From Props to Jets: Commercial Aviation’s Transition to the Jet Age 1952–1962. North Branch, MN: Specialty Press, 2010.
  1978. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  1979. This is a survey of the transition of airliners from propeller aircraft to the early Boeing, Douglas, and Convair jetliners. The emphasis is on the aircraft, but there is also coverage of the changes in service and advertising associated with this shift.
  1980. Find this resource:
  1981. Rockets, Missiles, and Space
  1982.  
  1983. This field deserves bibliography in its own right. However, because of the importance of the following works, this section has been included in this bibliography. Dickson 2001, a work on the impact of Sputnik, is an interesting volume on several levels. McDougall 1985 deals with the reaction to Sputnik and places the resultant “space race” into a broader context. Launius 1998 and Westwick 2011 provide overviews of the American space programs in particular.
  1984.  
  1985. Dickson, Paul. Sputnik: The Shock of the Century. New York: Walker, 2001.
  1986. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  1987. A well-written and insightful examination of the development of rocket and missile technology, the Russian program that put Sputnik into orbit, and the international response to this feat.
  1988. Find this resource:
  1989. Launius, Roger. The U.S. Space Program and American Society. Auburndale, MA: History Compass, 1998.
  1990. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  1991. Written by the chief historian of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), this is an interesting and well-supported overview of the American space program through the shuttle program and various unmanned missions. While a good portion of the narrative deals with the effort to reach the moon, it is not limited to this by any means.
  1992. Find this resource:
  1993. McDougall, Walter A. The Heavens and the Earth: A Political History of the Space Age. New York: Basic Books, 1985.
  1994. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  1995. McDougall evaluates the scientific, political, psychological, military, and economic factors that drove the competition between the Soviet Union and the United States to put people and things into space. It is well researched and organized. The author’s conclusions are based on explicit and sound logic. It remains the best work to explain the motivations behind this competition.
  1996. Find this resource:
  1997. Westwick, Peter J. Into the Black: JPL and the American Space Program, 1976–2004. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2011.
  1998. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  1999. This is a critical overview of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) and its role in the American space program since the 1970s. Westwick focuses on the unmanned exploratory programs that emerged in this period, describes their development, and examines the various factors that influenced policies. First published 2007.
  2000. Find this resource:
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