Om det engelske Westland Lysander fly, der som prototype første gang fløj den 15 juni 1936. Om konstruktion, porduktion og operationer. Flytypen blev berømt under den 2. verdenskrig, hvor det bl.a blev benyttet som observationsfly samt forbindelsesfly, som fløj allierede agenter ind i tysk besatt områder.

Collected in book form for the first time – and also available as an ebook – are some of Gary Eason's acclaimed Flight Artworks: carefully researched and crafted photorealistic pictures of historical air combat. This first volume presents images of WWII scenes, selected from artworks created since 2011."From my point of view as a pilot for the last 43 years and an RAF fighter pilot for 30 years, the realism he captures is uncanny ...". - Squadron Leader Clive Rowley MBE RAF (Retd)Third edition, September 2015

“This superb account describes the exercises undertaken on Slapton Sands, backed up by first hand accounts from those who were there at the time.” —Military Machines International Preceded by a massive airborne assault, the largest amphibious operation ever undertaken began on June 6, 1944—D-Day. Over a fifty-mile stretch of heavily fortified French coastline, 160,000 Allied troops came ashore on the beaches of Normandy. Supported by more than 5,000 ships and 13,000 aircraft, they quickly gained a foothold in fortress Europe. To plan and execute such a massive military operation successfully required training—and beaches. The perfect place for the Americans was found in the sleepy South Hams area of South Devon. But this choice came at a price. Over 20,000 acres of prime agricultural land, along with villages and farms were requisitioned. The peace of the South Devon coast was soon shattered as the Slapton Sands Assault Training Centre came into being. The training, however, was not without risk. During one of the final major coordinated practices—Exercise Tiger—over 800 men were lost to enemy action whilst traveling by sea to land on the beaches at Slapton Sands. Often shrouded in intrigue, this disaster has been the subject of conspiracy theories for many years. “Using the latest information available about this secretive event, [D-Day Assault] features all aspects of the military exercises and first hand accounts of those who lived and trained there.” —Western Morning News

Between 1918 and 1986 the marine branch of the Royal Air Force provided rescue facilities, support and other services to this armed service. In its pre-1941 guise as the Air Sea Rescue service, the RAF had an inventory of over 200 motorboats, supported by float aircraft engaged in rescue, towing, refueling and servicing RAF aircraft. Amongst the many characters of this early period was none other than Lawrence of Arabia.

In Resistance and Liberation, Douglas Porch continues his epic history of France at war. Emerging from the debâcle of 1940, France faced the quandary of how to rebuild military power, protect the empire, and resuscitate its global influence. While Charles de Gaulle rejected the armistice and launched his offshore crusade to reclaim French honor within the Allied camp, defeatists at Vichy embraced cooperation with the victorious Axis. The book charts the emerging dynamics of la France libre and the Alliance, Vichy collaboration, and the swelling resistance to the Axis occupation. From the campaigns in Tunisia and Italy to Liberation, Douglas Porch traces how de Gaulle sought to forge a French army and prevent civil war. He captures the experiences of ordinary French men and women caught up in war and defeat, the choices they made, the trials they endured, and how this has shaped France's memory of those traumatic years.

While much has been written about the Battle of Britain, the air war over France and the Low Countries from September 1939 to June 1940 has been largely neglected – until now. As expert aviation author Jerry Murland reveals in this fascinating book, there may have been little ground action until May 1940 but the war in the air was far from ‘phoney’. In contrast to their adversaries, the Allied air forces on the mainland of Europe were poorly equipped, regardless of increased development from 1934 onwards. But in spite of this, when the German invasion began, the Low Countries of Holland and Belgium fought back tenaciously. While development of the Spitfire, Blenheim and Wellington was continuing at a pace, the RAF with only four squadrons of Hurricanes among a force of outdated bi-planes, was a little more prepared than the French, but still woefully outgunned by the Luftwaffe. While the Allied air forces of Britain, France and the Low Countries may have been inferior, the gallantry and tenacity of their pilots makes for inspiring reading. This is a work that will enthral and inform all those interested in the history of the Second World War, particularly aviation enthusiasts.

Volume II of this mammoth reference work covers the years in which the League of Nations failed because of the emerging dictatorships in Germany and Italy and the expansionist policies adopted by Japan. Britain was still reeling from the consequences of World War I and the RAF was sadly far behind the other major world powers in aircraft design, still relying on bi-planes that were direct descendants of World War I thinking. It gradually became apparent that, despite UK government dithering, the RAF needed to develop new aircraft, engines and increase production to confront the bully-boy tactics of the Axis powers. As the turn of the decade approached extraordinary measures were taken to enable RAF to defend Britain's skies and this her freedom. As with Volume 1, this book covers every conceivable part of the RAF's history through these pre-War days. It looks at the development and invention of new equipment such as radar, monoplane fighters, metal construction and the heavy bomber. This was an era when science in aviation was rushing ahead and fortunately for Britain's freedom, it laid the foundations of victory in 1.945