Free Downloads Wings Of War: Airborne Warfare 1918-1945
The first drop of a body of troops was carried out by the Italians in 1927. The first active engagement of an airborne force, against a bandit army in Central Asia - just fifteen Russian troops dropped from three aircraft - took place in 1929.Yet only eleven years later airborne forces were to change, radically and completely, the way that war on the ground was conducted. Once again a new technology had pushed forward man's ability to conduct war with ever increasing effectiveness. This book tells the complete story, to a detail never previously accomplished. It covers all aspects of airborne forces, including the aircraft, specialist equipment and systems developed for the safe delivery of airborne troops, vehicles, weapons and other equipment, right to the present day.
Hardcover: 432 pages
Publisher: George Weidenfeld & Nicholson (September 2005)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0297846825
ISBN-13: 978-0297846826
Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6.4 x 2.4 inches
Shipping Weight: 2.5 pounds
Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
Best Sellers Rank: #688,856 in Books (See Top 100 in Books) #1047 in Books > Engineering & Transportation > Engineering > Aerospace #1086 in Books > History > Military > World War I #1367 in Books > History > Military > Aviation
Peter Harclerode's "Wings of War: Airborne Warefare 1918-1945" is a tour de force treatise on the development and employment of airborne forces from the First World War through the Second. Unfortunately, Harclerode's prose simply does not match the quality of his research. To say that "Wings of War" is difficult to read might be overstating things but it isn't a 'page-turner' either. The biggest problem with Harclerode's prose is an off-balance feel from chapter to chapter; some chapters are quite well written with equilibrium between 'dry facts' (certainly the most important component of an academically sound treatise that will stand the test of time) and readability (the most tangible component to get the casual students of history to engage the book), while other chapters are merely dry recitations that are quite arduous to get through. An example of the former is Chapter 12 (Arnhem, September 1944), a subject the author has considerable expertise in and has devoted previous writings to. Contrast Chapter 12 to others such as Chapter 3 (Crete) and Chapters 4/5 (Soviet Operations 1941-42 and 1942-45, respectively) and one can see the inconsistency in Harclerode's writing style. Of course one can easily make excuses for the dryness of Chapters 4 and 5 given the dearth of information on which to draw, but the same cannot be said for Chapter 3. In fact with Chapter 3 it is a bit surprising that Harclerode apparently (given his bibliography) chose not to draw upon one of the best books written on the topic, Daedalus Returned (Hardcover) by Friedrich August Freiherr von der Heydte (commander of the 1st Battalion/3rd Fallschirmjaeger Regiment).
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