The British Fleet Air Arm in World War II (Elite)
by Mark Barber
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Book Summary Information
Author: Mark BarberIllustrator: Stephen Walsh
Edition: Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2008-06-17
ISBN: 1846032830
Number of pages: 64
Publisher: Osprey Publishing
Book Reviews of The British Fleet Air Arm in World War II (Elite)
Book Review: A Light Introduction
Summary: 3 Stars
Osprey's Elite No. 165, The British Fleet Air Arm in World War II, is written by Mark Barber - a currently serving Royal Navy pilot. This volume covers the origins of the Fleet Air Arm (FAA), recruiting and training of personnel, major campaigns in the Second World War and tactics. The actual aircraft used by the FAA are discussed at length, although this is not a technical history and it does not provide extensive details on each aircraft. Overall, this volume serves as a good introduction to this subject and offers a bibliography that points the way toward additional resources. The author is comfortable with this subject and is knowledgable, but the information he conveys is not always what the reader may be looking for in a volume like this (e.g. too much on training, no info on order of battle).
In the introductory section, the author outlines how the British Royal Navy created an air arm just before the First World War and how this force grew from a handful of aircraft to over 2,500 in just a few years. However, the creation of the Royal Air Force in 1918 resulted in the transfer of all naval aircraft to the new RAF, which had a grave impact upon the development of Britain's naval aviation capabilities. During the interwar years, the RAF provided only the skimpiest resources to naval aviation and Britain's aircraft carriers were given RAF personnel for their air crew. In May 1939, the Fleet Air Arm was re-created and put back under naval control, but the damage was done. Although the author never compares the FAA to either its American or Japanese counterparts, it is clear that Britain went to war with inadequate numbers of obsolete naval aircraft. These sections that discuss the lead-up to the Second World War are interesting and should fill readers in on why the FAA was so weak at the beginning of the war. The section that follows, on training and recruitment, is a bit tedious, but it does offer an interesting tidbit: by 1945, one quarter of all FAA aircrew were from New Zealand.
The heart of this volume is essentially the 28 page section on campaigns, beginning with operations in the Western Approaches off England in 1939 and going all the way to the Pacific operations in 1945. There is no doubt that the FAA had its moments - torpedoing the Bismarck, trying to stop the Channel Dash and Operation Pedestal - each of which is covered here. However, the FAA was plagued for much of the war by inadequate aircraft such as the Swordfish, Skua, Fulmar, which couldn't operate against modern fighters like the Bf 109. Even when the FAA adapted the better Spitfire for naval service as the Seafire, it proved to be very fragile; operating off Salerno in 1943, the author describes how 40 Seafires were lost in a single day to landing accidents. Even when provided US-built F4U Corsairs and TBM Avengers in 1944, the FAA still suffered a shocking 93 percent aircraft loss rate in just a few weeks of operations in the Pacific in 1945. The volume concludes with several pages that discuss aerial tactics. This volume has four color plates on uniforms worn by FAA aircrew and two battlescenes: a Swordfish attack during the 1942 Channel Dash and Seafires intercepting German Ju-88 bombers during Operation Pedestal.
Summary of The British Fleet Air Arm in World War II (Elite)
This is a concise history of the Royal Navy's air arm during World War II (1939-1945), from the Arctic convoys, to the battle for Malta, to the last raids on Japan. The contribution of British Naval aviation to the ultimate Allied victory cannot be underestimated. Amazingly the Admiralty only had 406 operational pilots and 8 carriers when war broke out, but a mere 6 years later there were over 3,000 operational pilots and 53 aircraft carriers patrolling the seas in every theater of the war. The author charts the rapid evolution of the Fleet Air Arm during the war years as air power took over the cutting edge of naval warfare from surface battleships. The carriers were in action from the first with actions by HMS Ark Royal and Courageous in September 1939 to the major actions of the carrier force off Japan in the closing days of the war. This book offers a complete overview from recruitment and training to the thrilling accounts of operational successes and failures. Discover some of the most dramatic actions of the war as Royal Navy aces battled against Axis forces scoring both the first and last kills of the war.England Books
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