Battle Stations II
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• HMS Belfast
HMS Belfast
http://hmsbelfast.iwm.org.uk/
Part of the website of the Imperial War Museum – which is
now in charge of HMS Belfast – this includes a virtual tour
of the ship and a history.
Cruiser 'Belfast' by Ross Watton (Conway Maritime, 1985) £20
Part of Conway's 'Anatomy of the Ship' series.
HMS 'Belfast' (Imperial War Museum, 1982) £1.25
Guidebook to the ship at anchor on the Thames.
• Radar
Radar History
www.windows.ucar.edu/tour/link=/earth/
Atmosphere/tornado/radar_history.html
Brief history from the University Corporation of Atmospheric Research
– part of the University of Michigan.
The Invention that Changed the World: The story of radar from war
to peace by Robert Buderi (Abacus, 1995) £8.99
Captures the urgency of the race to win World War II, the people behind
the magnetrons, screens and antennae, and the use of radar in the Cold
War.
A Radar History of World War II: Technical and military imperatives
by Louis Brown (Institute of Physics, 2000). US edition only; available
from online bookshops.
Traces radar's origins and development in the context of World War I.
Covers ground, air and sea operations in all theatres, and includes information
about the development and use of radar by Germany, Japan, Russia and Britain
and its dominions.
Britain's Shield: Radar and the defeat of the Luftwaffe by David
Zimmerman (Sutton, 2001) £25
Relates the development of radar to the diplomatic and air policy concerns
of the period, and shows how a small group of scientists, engineers, airmen
and politicians accomplished this technological miracle.
• The 'Duck'
WWII DUKW Restoration
http://my.voyager.net/~dukw/dukwpage.htm
Short description and some photographs.
Odd DUKW
www.smithsonianmag.si.edu/smithsonian/issues02/
aug02/dukw.html
Brief article in the online Smithsonian Magazine.
DUKW in Action by Timothy J Kutta (Squadron/Signal Publications,
1997) £6.99
Basic guide to the 'Duck'.
The Quack Corps: A Marine's war – Pearl Harbor to Okinawa by Arthur W Wells (DolArt, 2001). Out of print. May be available from libraries or second-hand bookshops.
• Mulberry harbours
The Mulberry Harbour
www.6june44.freeserve.co.uk/page50.html
Very full article on the artificial harbours, part of the D-Day website.
Mulberry Harbour
www.gnometech.freeserve.co.uk/html/
mulberry_harbour.html
Brief account of the harbours plus pictures of the remains of one
off the Essex coast.
A Harbour Goes to War: The story of Mulberry and the men who made
it happen by Elizabeth Palmer, Jane Evans and Roy Walter (Brook House,
2000) £19.95
An interesting history.
• Pacific aircraft carriers
The Carriers
www.chinfo.navy.mil/navpalib/ships/carriers/cv-hist1.html
A brief history of American aircraft carriers – part of the US Navy website.
USS Essex History
www.ussessexcv9.org/Essex_History.htm
A rundown of all the Essex-class carriers plus those of other classes.
The Fast Carriers: The forging of an air navy by Clark G Reynolds
(Airlife, 1992). US edition only; available from online bookshops.
Concentrates on the creation of the air navy during 1941-45, detailing
the change from the battleship navy to the fast carrier battle groups
of today.
The Aircraft Carrier Story: 1908-1945 by Guy Robbins (Cassell
Military, 2001) £35
An account of the most significant weapons platform to have emerged in
the mid-20th century.
• PBY Catalina flying boat
PBY Catalina Foundation
www.pbycat.org/mainp.htm
The foundation is a non-profit corporation whose purposes include
to collect, restore and operate PBY Catalina aircraft, educate and inform
the public of the origin, usage, history and importance of PBYs and establish
an aviation history museum with an emphasis on the PBY.
PBY: The Catalina Flying Boat by Roscoe Creed (Naval Institute
Press, 1986). US edition only; available from online bookshops.
Tells the PBY story from its design and production to its use in war and
peace.
Cats at War by Coral Gaunt and Robert Cleworth (2000). Out of
print; may be available from libraries and second-hand bookshops.
Documents PBY Catalina operations of the Royal Australian Air Force during
World War II in the Asia-Pacific theatre.
Blue Catalinas of World War II by James C Mills (Sunflower University
Press, 1995). Out of print; may be available from libraries and second-hand
bookshops.
The history of VP44, a US Navy PBY Catalina squadron.
• MiG-15
Lieutenant Kum Sok No
www.wpafb.af.mil/museum/air_power/ap42no.htm
The story of a MiG-15 on display at the US Air Force Museum –
and its pilot. It was acquired by the US when the pilot, Lieutenant Kum
Sok No of the North Korean Air Force, deserted to the UN cause during
the Korean War.
Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-15 'Fagot'/'Midget'
www.warbirdalley.com/mig15.htm
Concise history and description of the MiG-15.
Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-15 by Gordon Yefim (Midland Publishing, 2001)
£17.95
Comprehensive history of every evolution of the MiG's design and its service.
Researched and compiled from Russian sources that were inaccessible until
relatively recent times.
Legends of the Air: F-86 Sabre, MiG-15 and Hawker Hunter by Stewart
Wilson (Airlife, 1995) £14.99
The stories of three of the classic jet fighters of the 1950s: the North
American F-86 Sabre; the Soviet MiG-15; and the Hawker Hunter, Britain's
first transonic fighter aircraft.
• Bell UH-1 (Huey) Iroquois
Bell UH-1P 'Iroquois'
www.wpafb.af.mil/museum/modern_flight/mf54.htm
Concise article on the US Air Force Museum website.
Helicopter History Site
www.helis.com/60s/
There is a lot about Hueys on this site, but it does take a bit of
digging to find it.
Huey: A helicopter legend by Salvador Mafe Huertas (Osprey, 1993).
Out of print; may be available from libraries and second-hand bookshops.
One of the few books devoted to this helicopter.
• Lockheed SR-71 Blackbird
Lockheed Blackbird
www.blackbirds.net
Enthusiast's site that covers the history of the U-2 and SR-71, and
has current news of the U-2 and A-12 family of aircraft.
The Online Blackbird Museum
www.habu.org/
Website dedicated to preserving the heritage of 'possibly the most
advanced and certainly most unique' aircraft ever built.
SR-71 Blackbird: Stories, tales and legends by Richard H Graham
(MBI Publishing, 2002). US edition only; available from online bookshops.
From the early days of the A-12 program to the bitter end of the SR-71.
Lockheed SR-71 Blackbird by Paul Crickmore (Airlife, 2002) £9.99
Useful introductory source book for enthusiasts wanting detailed information
on the design and history of the Blackbird.
Blackbird Rising: Birth of an aviation legend by Donn A Byrnes
and Kenneth D Hurley (Sage Mesa, 2000). US edition only; available from
online bookshops.
The birth of the SR-71 from the US Air Force perspective.
• Boeing B-52 Stratofortress
B-52 Stratofortress
www.af.mil/factsheets/factsheet.asp?fsID=83
US Air Force factsheet.
B-52 50th Anniversary
www.boeing.com/defense-space/military/b52-strat/
b52_50th/flash.html
Lots of information from the Boeing company, which celebrated
the B-52's 50th anniversary in April 2002.
B-52 Stratofortress: Boeing's Cold War warrior by Robert F Dorr
(Osprey, 2000) £18.99
Details the full B-52 story, with squadron histories and full technical
specifications.
B-52 Stratofortress in Action by Larry Davis (Squadron/Signal
Publications, 1993) £6.99
Basic guide to this aircraft.
• Lockheed P-38 Lightning
P-38 Lightning Online - The Forktailed Devil
http://p-38online.com/
Contains just about everything you could want to know about this aircraft,
including design development, testing, pilot training and tactics and
strategy.
Lockheed P-38 Lightning
www.aviation-history.com/lockheed/p38.html
Information-packed section of the Aviation History On-Line Museum.
Lots of good pictures too.
Lockheed P-38 Lightning by Frederick A Johnsen (Airlife Publishing,
1996) £11.99
Special emphasis on the design and performance aspects of the aircraft,
plus detailed technical specifications.
• Vought F4U Corsair
Vought F4U Corsair
www.aviation-history.com/vought/f4u.html
Extensive history of the Corsair by Earl Swinhart, again from the
Aviation History On-Line Museum. Marvellous contemporary photographs.
F4U
www.vought.com/heritage/products/html/f4u.html
Extensive information on the Corsair on the ‘heritage’ site of its manufacturer.
Vought F4U Corsair by Martin W Bowman (Crowood, 2002) £25
Combines technical information and detailed development history with a
fascinating combat history - told, in many cases, by World War II pilots
themselves.
Vought F4U Corsair by Barrett Tillmen (Warbird Tech/Specialty
Press, 2001) £9.32. US edition only; available from online bookshops.
Special emphasis on the unique performance aspects of this aircraft.
• UH-60 Black Hawk
UH-60 Black Hawk - Military Aircraft
www.fas.org/man/dod-101/sys/ac/uh-60.htm
All you could possibly want to know about the Black Hawk and its variations.
This is part of the Federation of American Scientists website, an organisation
founded by the scientists involved in the Manhattan project.
Walk Around: UH-60 Black Hawk by Richard Dann (Squadron/Signal,
1999) £12.95
The Black Hawk viewed from every angle.
Friendly Fire: The accidental shootdown of US Black Hawks over northern
Iraq by Scott A Snook (Princeton University Press, 2002) £11.95
In 1994, two USAF F-15 fighters accidentally shot down two US Black Hawks
over northern Iraq, killing all 26 on board. After almost two years of
investigation with virtually unlimited resources, no culprit emerged and
no smoking gun was found. This book attempts to make sense of this tragedy.
• M1A1/M1A2 Abrams main battle tank
Army technology: M1A1/M1A2 Abrams – main battle tank
www.army-technology.com/projects/abrams
Very techie page about the Abrams, on a defence industry website.
There are a number of expandable pictures of the tank in action.
M1 Abrams Main Battle Tank
www.fas.org/man/dod-101/sys/land/m1.htm
Everything you could possibly want to know about all the variations
of this battle machine, plus lots of photos. On the FAS (Federation of
American Scientists) Military Analysis Network website.
For a fuller technical assessment of the M1A1 and M1A2, see the Technology section of Military International Review, June 2003.
