Air forces & warfare

  • Rain of ruin

    £25.00

    In the closing months of the Second World War hundreds of thousands of Japanese, mostly civilians, died in a final outburst of violence from the air. American planes were beginning to run low on plausible targets when it was decided to use two atomic weapons in a final, terrible flourish to try to end the war. Richard Overy’s book rethinks how we should regard this last stage of the war and the role of the bombing. He explores the way in which the willingness to kill civilians and destroy cities became normalized in the course of a horrific war as moral concerns were blunted and scientists, airmen, and politicians followed a strategy of mass destruction they would never have endorsed before the war began.

  • The last para

    £20.00

    A captivating account of the Battle of Arnhem from one of the last survivors of our Greatest Generation – 101-year-old paratrooper veteran John Humphries.

  • Sky warriors

    £25.00

    From bestselling historian Saul David, a riveting new history of the British airborne experience across the Second World War.

  • Masters of the air

    £8.99

    Historian and World War II expert Donald Miller brings us the story of the bomber boys who brought the war to Hitler’s doorstep. Unlike ground soldiers they slept on clean beds, drank beer in local pubs, and danced to the swing music of the travelling Air Force bands. But they were also an elite group of fighters who put their lives on the line in the most dangerous role of all. Miller takes readers from the adrenaline filled battles in the sky, to the airbases across England, the German prison camps, and onto the ground to understand the devastation faced by civilians. Drawn from interviews, oral histories, and American, British, and German archives, ‘Masters of the Air’ is the authoritative, deeply moving and important account of the world’s first and only bomber war.

  • Speed, aggression, surprise

    £8.99

    ‘Speed, Aggression, Surprise’ is a fly-on-the-wall, character-driven story of how, from the wreckage of Dunkirk, emerged the idea of guerrilla Commando units who could inflict devastating ‘mosquito stings’ on larger, and better-armed opponents.

  • 1944-45

    £12.99

    Going into 1944, the Allies knew the tide was turning in their favour. But they still faced a monumental task to get to victory. From the beaches of Normandy on D-Day to those of the Pacific stormed by American marines, from the air drops at Arnhem and the Battle of the Bulge, to the final dropping of the atomic bomb on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, from the sacking of Berlin to the delicate peace that followed, this is a gripping and impeccably researched account of two years that forever changed the world.

  • The Red Arrows

    £10.99

    It’s now over 50 years since the Red Arrows first took to the skies, transfixing the British public with their astonishing displays of daredevil precision and aerial aerobatics. Manned by some of the best pilots in the world, their jaw-dropping displays are world-famous, and their incredible aerial feats have cemented their status as national treasures. The Red Arrows represent the very best speed, agility and precision of the Royal Air Force, and the pilots behind the planes are rigorously selected for their nerves of steel, lightning reflexes, and millisecond-perfect timing. Each one has years of distinguished service in the Royal Air Force under their belts, and plenty of stores to tell.

  • 1941

    £12.99

    One of the greatest and most terrible years in world history. ‘This war has now assumed the character’, wrote Benito Mussolini, before 1941 was six months old, ‘of a war between two worlds’, and the Italian dictator had rarely predicted more truly. Before the year had ended, following Hitler’s surprise assault on Russia and the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbour, thirty-seven nations were engaged in an all-out war reminiscent of Armageddon, ‘the battle of that great day of God Almighty’. Richard Collier’s narrative spans both this entire, devastating year, as well as the events that led up to it.

  • Speed, Aggression, Surprise

    £20.00

    ‘Speed, Aggression, Surprise’ is a fly-on-the-wall, character-driven story of how, from the wreckage of Dunkirk, emerged the idea of guerrilla Commando units who could inflict devastating ‘mosquito stings’ on larger, and better-armed opponents.

  • The Pathfinders

    £9.99

    The Pathfinders were the crack team that transformed the hit rate in the RAF’s Bomber Command from 24% in August 1942 to an incredible 96% hit rate by 1945. They transformed Bomber Command – the only part of the Allied war effort capable of attacking the heart of Nazi Germany – from an impotent division on the cusp of disintegration in 1942 to a force capable of razing whole German cities to the ground, inspiring fear in Hitler’s senior command and helping the Allies deliver decisive victory in World War II. With interviews with remaining survivors, personal diaries, previously classified records and never-before seen photographs, this book brings to life the characters of the airmen and women who took to the skies in iconic British aircraft such as the Lancaster and the Mosquito, facing almost unimaginable levels of violence from enemy fighter planes to strike the heart of the Nazi war machine.

  • Blitzkrieg!

    £12.99

    If Hitler had failed in his invasion of Western Europe in 1940 he could well have been assassinated by a group of his senior officers. But he decisively defeated the combined efforts of the British, French, Dutch and Belgian armies in a matter of days. The technique employed was known as Blitzkrieg or Lightning War. Nothing would be the same again. Although strands were clearly apparent by 1918, it was perfected through the interwar years before being deployed with terrifying effect by the Nazis at the outbreak of the Second World War. Eventually, other combatants would employ similar methods and the tide would turn. As well as discussing the developing nature of tactics, fighting vehicles and aircraft from 1918 onwards, the author examines the potent workings of Blitzkrieg in-depth, describing not only its obvious triumphs but also its fatal flaws.

  • The Red Arrows

    £20.00

    It’s now over 50 years since the Red Arrows first took to the skies, transfixing the British public with their astonishing displays of daredevil precision and aerial aerobatics. Manned by some of the best pilots in the world, their jaw-dropping displays are world-famous, and their incredible aerial feats have cemented their status as national treasures. The Red Arrows represent the very best speed, agility and precision of the Royal Air Force, and the pilots behind the planes are rigorously selected for their nerves of steel, lightning reflexes, and millisecond-perfect timing. Each one has years of distinguished service in the Royal Air Force under their belts, and plenty of stores to tell.

Nomad Books