The Western European and Mediterranean Theaters in World War II is a concise, comprehensive guide for students, teachers, and history buffs of the Second World War. With an emphasis on the American forces in these theaters, each entry is accompanied by a brief annotation that will allow researchers to navigate through the vast amount of literature on the campaigns fought in these regions with ease. Focusing on all aspects surrounding the U.S. involvement in the Western European and Mediterranean theaters, including politics, religion, biography, strategy, intelligence, and operations, this bibliography will be a welcome addition to the collection of any academic or research library. Routledge Research Guides to American Military Studies provide concise, annotated bibliographies to the major areas and events in American military history. With the inclusion of brief critical annotations after each entry, the student and researcher can easily assess the utility of each bibliographic source and evaluate the abundance of resources available with ease and efficiency. Comprehensive, concise, and current—Routledge Research Guides to American Military Studies are an essential research tool for any historian.

Frank Luke, Jr. was an unlikely pilot. In the Great War, when fliers were still "knights of the air," Luke was an ungallant loner—a kid from Arizona who collected tarantulas, shot buzzards, and boxed miners. But during two torrid weeks in September 1918, he was the deadliest man on the Western Front. In only ten missions, he destroyed fourteen heavily–defended German balloons and four airplanes, the second highest American tally in the entire war. Author Blaine Pardoe retraces and refreshes Frank Luke’s story through recently discovered correspondence. Frantic, short, and splendid, the life of Frank Luke, Jr. dramatizes the tragic intervention of an American spirit in the war that devastated Europe.

Seven decades after World War II, we now know that the margin between Allied victory and defeat was often narrower than many realized. The decisive actions of leaders, generals and war heroes have been well documented, but less well known are the technological developments that made victory possible and laid the groundwork for postwar progress. Based on more than ten years of research, this book describes how American airmen became the best-outfitted aviators of the war, tracing the development of virtually every piece of personal equipment used by United States air forces. Drawing on original sources including formerly classified documents, the author details the myriad types of respirator equipment, parachutes, body armor, pressure suits and other flying and survival gear that were instrumental in making U.S. pilots and air crews effective. Personal anecdotes bring to life the design and testing of combat flight equipment. More than 160 photographs are included, most published here for the first time.