Wings: The Raf at War, 1912-2012 - Couverture rigide

Bishop, Patrick

Couverture rigide

ISBN 10 : 1848878923 ISBN 13 : 9781848878921

Editeur : Atlantic Books, 2012

A propos du livre

Présentation de l'éditeur

The Royal Air Force is synonymous with its heroic achievements in the summer of 1940, when Winston Churchill's 'famous few' - the Hurricane and Spitfire pilots of RAF Fighter Command - held Goering's Luftwaffe at bay in the Battle of Britain, thereby changing the course of the war. For much of the twentieth century, warplanes were fixed in the world's imagination, a symbol of the perils and excitements of the modern era.

But within the space of a hundred years, military aviation has morphed from the exotic to the mundane. An activity which was charged with danger - the domain of the daring - is now carried out by computers and pilotless drones. Aviators have always seemed different to soldiers and sailors - more adventurous, questing and imaginative. Their stories gripped the public and in both wars and air aces dominated each side's propaganda, capturing hearts and dreams.

Writing with the verve, passion and the sheer narrative aplomb familiar to many thousands of readers from his bestselling Second World War aerial histories, Fighter Boys and Bomber Boys, Patrick Bishop's Wings is a rich and compelling account of military flying from its heroic early days to the present.

'Mr Bishop leads us brilliantly through these violent skies, these men and women, their machines and their terrible quandaries.' Jonathan Glancey, Country Life
'Highly recommended.' - Military History Monthly
'For better or worse, we have needed wings and skilled, swift airmen and women to wear them. Mr Bishop leads us brilliantly through these violent skies.' - Country Life
'[A] brilliant, moving elegy to the great days of aerial warfare... In this superb, pacy, often moving portrait of brave young men and women maintaining their sang-froid against hopeless odds, Patrick Bishop has done full justice to his subject, and confirmed himself as one of our finest popular military historians.' - James Delingpole, Mail on Sunday
'If Patrick Bishop s two earlier bestsellers about the RAF in the Second World War, Fighter Boys and Bomber Boys, can be likened to symphonies for full orchestra, then Wings, which takes the reader from the foundation of the world's oldest independent air force during the First World War to its participation in the military campaign in Afghanistan, is like a series of chamber works... *****' - Christopher Silvester, Daily Express
'A lively, anecdotal overview for the general reader.' - Philip Sabin, BBC History

Revue de presse

A soaring, blazing sortie through a century of RAF aerial warfare told with the precision of a Spitfire turning into the attack, and etched with prose as clear as contrails in azure blue skies. --Jonathan Glancey

In this superb, pacy, often moving portrait of brave young men and women maintaining their sang-froid against hopeless odds, Patrick Bishop has done full justice to this subject, and confirmed himself as one of our finest popular military historians. --Mail on Sunday

Magisterial sweep and range are combined with succinct and lucid analysis, all in prose as crisp as fresh lettuce. --Daily Express

À propos de cette édition

• Éditeur: Atlantic Books
• Date d'édition: 2012
• ISBN 10: 1848878923
• ISBN 13: 9781848878921
• Reliure: Relié
• Nombre de pages: 416