› › Against Hitler S Luftwaffe In The Balkans

Against Hitler's Luftwaffe in the Balkans

Author : Djordje I Nikoli?

Publisher : Air World

Page : 234 pages

File Size : 10,25 MB

Release : 2023-11-30

Category : History

ISBN : 1399089005

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Book Description

Immediately following the end of the First World War, the air force of the newly-formed Southern Slav State, the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes, was forced to rely mainly on war-time Serbian Air Service aircraft and material left after the withdrawal of the French Armée de l’Air from the Balkans in 1919/1920. This equipment was supported by the addition of French war surplus stocks which started arriving in 1921. In 1929 the monarchy changed its name to the Kingdom of Yugoslavia. Then, from 1930, the official name of the air service branch its military was changed to what is commonly known in the West as the Royal Yugoslav Air Force (RYAF). The obsolete First World War aircraft were replaced from 1925 onwards by stop-gap solutions purchased mainly from France, some from the Czechoslovakian Republic as well as from the first domestic factories. From 1936, the RYAF again began to reorganize and modernize, with the purchase of the most modern aircraft available at that time. These aircraft were imported from the UK, Germany and Italy, some being built under license in domestic factories. During this period the Kingdom of Yugoslavia succeeded, as much as conditions allowed, to equip its air force with the most advanced fighter and bomber types of the period. For the Kingdom of Yugoslavia, the Second World War started on 6 April 1941. The military coup d’etat of 27 March 1941 and anti-German demonstrations in Belgrade clearly aligned the kingdom with the Allies. That same day, Hitler ordered the implementation of Unternehmen 25 (Operation 25) – the attack against Kingdom of Yugoslavia. Hitler had also secured Mussolini’s support for this campaign, while Hungary, Romania and Bulgaria gave active or passive backing in exchange for territorial claims in Yugoslavia. Despite all the odds, the airmen of the RYAF fought gallantly in the defense of their homeland, with fighters taking on the German and Italian bombers and their escort fighters – including the Axis types in service with the RYAF. Eventually, due to the deteriorating situation on the front and the ever-increasing risk of the king and his government being captured, the decision was taken to evacuate by air to Greece. In the summer of the 1941 some 220 Yugoslav aviators gathered in Egypt and continued the fight against Axis, this time in the colors of the RAF. This is the full story of their service and combats in the early months of that year.





Strategy For Defeat: The Luftwaffe, 1933-1945 [Illustrated Edition]

Author : Williamson Murray

Publisher : Pickle Partners Publishing

Page : 883 pages

File Size : 27,16 MB

Release : 2015-11-06

Category : History

ISBN : 178625770X

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Book Description

Includes the Aerial Warfare In Europe During World War II illustrations pack with over 200 maps, plans, and photos. This book is a comprehensive analysis of an air force, the Luftwaffe, in World War II. It follows the Germans from their prewar preparations to their final defeat. There are many disturbing parallels with our current situation. I urge every student of military science to read it carefully. The lessons of the nature of warfare and the application of airpower can provide the guidance to develop our fighting forces and employment concepts to meet the significant challenges we are certain to face in the future.





Germany and the Axis Powers from Coalition to Collapse

Author : R. L. DiNardo

Publisher :

Page : 304 pages

File Size : 27,31 MB

Release : 2005

Category : History

ISBN :

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Book Description

It seemed that whenever Mussolini acted on his own, it was bad news for Hitler. Indeed, the Fuhrer's relations with his Axis partners were fraught with an almost total lack of coordination. Compared to the Allies, the coalition was hardly an alliance at all. Focusing on Germany's military relations with Italy, Romania, Hungary, and Finland, Richard DiNardo unearths a wealth of information that reveals how the Axis coalition largely undermined Hitler's objectives from the Eastern Front to the Balkans, Mediterranean, and North Africa. DiNardo argues that the Axis military alliance was doomed from the beginning by a lack of common war aims, the absence of a unified command structure, and each nation's fundamental mistrust of the others. Germany was disinclined to make the kinds of compromises that successful wartime partnerships demanded and, because Hitler insisted on separate pacts with each nation, Italy and Finland often found themselves conducting counterproductive parallel wars on their own. DiNardo's detailed assessments of ground, naval, and air operations reveal precisely why the Axis allies were so dysfunctional as a collective force, sometimes for seemingly mundane but vital reasons-a shortage of interpreters, for example. His analysis covers coalition warfare at every level, demonstrating that some military services were better at working with their allies than others, while also pointing to rare successes, such as Rommel's effective coordination with Italian forces in North Africa. In the end, while some individual Axis units fought with distinction—if not on a par with the vaunted Wehrmacht—and helped Germany achieve some of its military aims, the coalition's overall military performance was riddled with disappointments. Breaking new ground, DiNardo's work enlarges our understanding of Germany's defeat while at the same time offering a timely reminder of the challenges presented by coalition warfare.



Fortress Ploesti

Author : Jay A. Stout

Publisher : Casemate

Page : 413 pages

File Size : 41,31 MB

Release : 2003-11-19

Category : History

ISBN : 161200041X

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Book Description

A comprehensive account of the World War II Allied bombing campaign to destroy pivotal Romanian oil refineries—by the retired Marine Corps fighter pilot. Unlike previous books on Ploesti, Jay Stout goes well beyond the famous big and bloody raid of August 1943 and depicts the entire 1944 strategic campaign of twenty-plus missions that all but knocked Ploesti out of the war and denied the German war machine the fuel and lubricants it so desperately needed. Stout’s account is also a launching point for the author’s inquiries into many aspects of the American strategic bombing effort in World War II. It delivers across the board. Stout, who served as a Marine F/A-18 pilot in the First Gulf War, asks questions about aviation combat history and technique that any modern combat pilot would be dying to ask. He carries the ball far beyond the goal post set by all other Ploesti historians. He has gone out of his way to describe the defenses throughout the campaign, and he brings in the voices of Ploesti’s defenders to complement the tales of Allied airmen who brought Ploesti to ruin. He describes the role of the bombers, as well as that of the fighters, the antiaircraft defenses, even the technique of obscuring the Ploesti complex with smoke. Stout’s lucid presentation of complex issues at the tactical and strategic levels makes his narrative “a must for those with a special interest in the attacks on Ploesti” (World War II History Magazine).



Malta 1940–42

Author : Ryan K. Noppen

Publisher : Bloomsbury Publishing

Page : 92 pages

File Size : 49,38 MB

Release : 2018-02-22

Category : History

ISBN : 1472820614

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Book Description

In 1940, the strategically vital island of Malta was Britain's last toehold in the central Mediterranean, wreaking havoc among Axis shipping. Launching an air campaign to knock Malta out of the war, first Italy and then Germany sought to force a surrender or reduce the defences enough to allow an invasion. Drawing on original documents, multilingual aviation analyst Ryan Noppen explains how technical and tactical problems caused the original Italian air campaign of 1940–41 to fail, and then how the German intervention came close to knocking Malta out of the war. Using stunning full colour artwork, this fascinating book explains why the attempt by the Axis powers to take the British colony of Malta ultimately failed.



The Second World War in the Air

Author : Merfyn Bourne

Publisher : Troubador Publishing Ltd

Page : 425 pages

File Size : 22,41 MB

Release : 2013

Category : History

ISBN : 1780884419

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Book Description

This book is a complete narrative history of the Second World War in the air which starts by describing the early days of flight in order to put military air power in context when World War Two began. It then moves on to a step-by-step coverage of the air combat in each theatre of war. Offering a comprehensive history – that includes the lesser known campaigns such as the fighting in Burma, Italy and East Africa as well as the air offensive in Western Europe and the struggle in the Pacific – it also re-examines the RAF bombing of German cities and the moral issues raised. This is the first history of the air war to give full and proportionate coverage to the war in Russia, which until now has been largely ignored. The Second World War in the Air is a comprehensive review of the air war. It’s meticulously researched, readable and remains in touch with what the fighting meant for individuals in the various combatant nations.





Britain, Turkey and the Soviet Union, 1940–45

Author : N. Tamkin

Publisher : Springer

Page : 278 pages

File Size : 32,65 MB

Release : 2009-07-23

Category : History

ISBN : 0230244505

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Book Description

This book draws on the latest archival releases – including those from the secret world of British intelligence – to offer the first comprehensive analysis of Anglo-Turkish relations during the Second World War, with a particular emphasis on Turkey's place in the changing relationship between Britain and the Soviet Union.