Military History

From the April 2010 issue of Air Force Magazine: MiG Alley American F-86 Sabres versus MiG-15s with Soviet pilots.

Reviewed by Charles C. Kolb, PhD The sinking of HMT Lancastria on June 17, 1940, is an intriguing chapter of naval history in World War II primarily because of the tragic loss of life and how much information pertaining to the event was—and still is—classified. The numbers of passengers aboard, survivors, and casualties are unreported or vary wildly. Stephen Wynn, a retired police constable with 30 years’ service in Essex, began writing prior to his retirement. Wynn has previously authored and co-authored books for the “Your Towns & Cities in the Great War” series published by Pen & Sword in addition to half a dozen non-fiction books and “crime thrillers.”…

By Capt. P.T. Deutermann USN (Ret.) St. Martins Press (2022) Reviewed by Capt. C. Herbert Gilliland, USN (Ret.) In his latest novel, P. T. Deutermann continues his successful mining of World War II themes. This time we follow the spectacular fortunes of USS Holland, a destroyer escort sent from convoy duty in the North Atlantic to an uncertain assignment in the western Pacific. In Deutermann’s braided narrative, alternate chapters are told by ship’s CO, Mariano deTomasi, and his XO, Ephraim Edmond “Eeep” Enright. This structure allows each to observe and comment on the other while working well as a team despite great differences in background and makeup. Lieute…

Fixed US radars: http://www.radomes.org/museum/ Mobile US radars: http://www.mobileradar.org/radar_descptn_1.html http://www.mobileradar.org/radar_descptn_2.html http://www.mobileradar.org/radar_descptn_3.html

How to no shoot-down a F6F Hellcat drone (By F-89 Scorpion): http://www.bbc.com/future/story/20160811-the-runaway-drone-that-caused-a-cold-war-air-battle

Reviewed by Jeff Schultz Leo Marriott’s Naval Battles of the Second World War: The Atlantic and Mediterranean offers a brief glimpse of select naval engagements involving the Royal Navy engaged against their major European foes, the Italian and German fleets. Marriott is an established author with multiple books about a range of military, naval, and aviation topics covering mostly World War II and the Cold War. This 160-page book consists of nineteen brief sections divided into two larger segments as “Part I” which focuses on the Atlantic Ocean and NW Europe beginning with the Battle of the River Plate and “Part II,” which focuses on the Mediterranean ending wit…

Very interesting images of rare missiles and prototypes in a pair of museums, including Bat, Corvus Condor, Oriole, Tacit Rainbow, an Advanced Cruise Missile with counter-rotating prop-fan, Regulus I&II, Petrel, Loon, cluster bombs and others ,interesting aviation photos taked by a one-man museum! :China Lake: http://www.air-and-space.com/20020624%20Ch...gy%20Museum.htm Point Mugu: http://www.air-and-space.com/Pt_Mugu_Comma...ge_Facility.htm Point Mugu Missile Park: http://www.air-and-space.com/Pt%20Mugu%20Missile%20Park.htm

A topic often discussed on our IRC channel. The Battlecarrier Was Part Battleship, Part Aircraft Carrier (War is Boring blog) And one of the handful of 'hypotheticals' to appear in the HCDB database.

Probably very useful, about the Soviet/Russian designations debate, here a inverse table on Russian Wikipedia between Russian and NATO designations, on inverse direction of the usual: https://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/Кодовые_обозначения_НАТО Also, USSR torpedoes: https://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D0%9A%D0%B0%D1%82%D0%B5%D0%B3%D0%BE%D1%80%D0%B8%D1%8F:%D0%A2%D0%BE%D1%80%D0%BF%D0%B5%D0%B4%D1%8B_%D0%A1%D0%A1%D0%A1%D0%A0

Top 5 Naval Battles of the Asia-Pacific (The Diplomat, The Naval Diplomat blog)

It always saddens me a little to see something like this: http://www.upi.com/Top_News/US/2014/02/05/USS-Forrestal-leaves-Philadelphia-for-Texas-scrapyard/UPI-60651391582400/ I served aboard USS Midway, and at least here in SD I can go see my old ship, and show my grown daughter where I lived and worked when I met and married her mother. Too bad something similar couldn't be arranged in this case.

At Fleet Sevastopol Info (in Russian, but the automatic translators are a miracle): http://flot.sevastopol.info/arms/

Reviewed by Ingo Heidbrink, Ph.D. Crude oil tankers are not only some of the largest ships that have ever sailed the oceans but are the backbone of international energy trade. At the same time they normally gain little public attention, unless they are at the center of an ecological disaster. Therefore, it should be lauded that Ray Solly brings attention to this unique type of ships with his new book. Having not only worked as an officer in the merchant marine, but on supertankers, he has a unique background for an author on this subject. The structure of the book basically follows a chronological sequence by being divided into four sections (Early Crude Oil and P…

Some links finded recently: http://www.sa-transport.co.za/aircraft/aircraft_index.html http://www.sa-transport.co.za/aircraft/mir...af_service.html http://www.freeworldpublications.co.za/CAN...a%20Service.htm And never forget the great site: http://www.saairforce.co.za

Reviewed by Charles H. Bogart If small boat action is of any interest to you, this book is a must read. While thousands of books have been written about the fight to the death between the Royal Navy and the Kriegsmarine during World War II, almost all of these books have concentrated on the convoy battles in the waters of the North Atlantic. There was, however, another series of convoy battles fought between the Royal Navy and the Kriegsmarine. In these battles, it was the Royal Navy who was the attacker and the Kriegsmarine the defender. These battles were fought in the coastal waters of Europe. It is noted in the book’s preface that Royal Navy motor torpedo boats fi…

A curious and detailed site about scarce known campaings (in Portuguese language): http://www.guerracolonial.org/index.php?content=360

A lot of information, but I think it will be difficult to separate concrete data from too much information ... http://www.rnmuseumradarandcommunications2006.org.uk/HOME_PAGE.html http://www.rnmuseumradarandcommunications2006.org.uk/PAGE%2019.htm

Very detailed site, worth of a visit about this rare type, also details in some SAR operations in Vietnam: http://www.h43-huskie.info/framesetrotortips.htm

Reviewed by Major Chris Ketcherside, USMC (Ret.) Thomas McKelvey Cleaver’s Holding the Line focuses on carrier-based U.S. naval aviation operations during the Korean conflict. He also touches on related subjects including events on the ground, U.S. Air Force operations and British naval aviation operations. His primary argument seems to be that naval aviation excelled at tactical operations and ground support but was ill suited to the mission of strategic interdiction for which it was often employed. Holding the Line is divided into 19 relatively short chapters which are organized primarily chronologically but also by subject. For example, Cleaver mentions night f…

From CBC News [excerpt]