Since the publication of the first edition of Why Air Forces Fail, the debate over airpower’s role in military operations has only intensified. Here, eminent historians Robin Higham and Stephen J. Harris assemble a team of experts to add essential new details to their cautionary tale for current practitioners of aerial warfare. Together, the contributors examine the complex, often deep-seated, reasons for the catastrophic failures of the Russian, Polish, French, British, Italian, German, Argentine, and American air services. Complemented by reading lists and suggestions for further research, this seminal study with two new chapters provides an essential and detailed analysis of defeat.
Inhoudsopgave
Acknowledgments
Introduction
1. Poland’s Military Aviation, September 1939: It Never Had a Chance
2. L’Armée de l’Air, 1933–1940: Drifting toward Defeat
3. The Arab Air Forces
4. Defeat of the German and Austro-Hungarian Air Forces in the Great War, 1909-1918
5. Downfall of the Regia Aeronautica, 1933-1943
6. The Imperial Japanese Air Forces
7. Defeat of the Luftwaffe, 1935-1945
8. The Argentine Air Force versus Britain in the Falkland Islands, 1982
9. From Disaster to Recovery: Russia’s Air Forces in the Two World Wars
10. The United States in the Pacific
11. Defeats of the Royal Air Force: Norway, France, Greece, and Malaya, 1940-1942
12. RAF Bomber Command as Phoenix
13. American Airpower in Vietnam: Doomed to Failure?
Conclusion
List of Contributors
Index
Over de auteur
Stephen J. Harris is the chief historian for the Directorate of History and Heritage at the National Defence Headquarters in Ottawa, Canada. He coauthored The Crucible of War: The Official History of the Royal Canadian Air Force.