Tag: RAF

Free Download Dave Forster, Chris Gibson – Listening In: RAF Electronic Intelligence Gathering Since 1945
Hikoki Publications | 2014 | ISBN: 1902109384 | English | 200 pages | PDF | 163.39 MB
As WWII closed, the Air Staff decided to preserve the UK’s electronic intelligence (ELINT) expertise, resulting in the formation of the Radio Warfare Establishment and later the Central Signals Establishment. A tentative ELINT program was commissioned in 1946 using a small number of Lancaster and Mosquito aircraft specially modified for the task and as relations with the Soviet Union deteriorated, interest focused on the growing Soviet air defense system, with the 1948 Berlin crisis resulting in the first major ELINT program against the Soviet Union’s air defenses.

Free Download Chas Hall, Julian Elfer (Narrator), "Facing Armageddon: With the RAF on Christmas Island 1961-1962"
English | ASIN: B0CTPKWMJ6 | 2024 | MP3@64 kbps | ~06:58:00 | 199 MB
After being called up for National Service in July 1960, twenty-year-old Chas Hall joined the RAF and signed on to extend his time for an extra three years becoming a regular serviceman.
Following initial training, he became a wireless operator and served at RAF Mildenhall. It was shortly after this that he got his first foreign posting in late 1961 to Christmas Island. It was on this island, that Chas encountered the horrors of nuclear testing. In an operation codenamed "Brigadoon" by the British government and "Dominic" by the Americans, Chas experienced twenty-five atmospheric nuclear tests. This he describes as his "twelve-month sentence" alongside over 300 British and 10,000 American servicemen who were posted to one corner of a remote coral island.

Free Download Michael Armitage – Classic RAF Battles from World War One to the Present
Brockhampton Press | 2002 | ISBN: 186019897X | English | 180 pages | PDF | 112.43 MB
The Royal Air Force has earned its celebrated reputation for excellence and courage over seven decades of service to Britain, through two World Wars and many small incidents, events and flash-points the world over. In compiling this superb visual testament to the RAF, the general aim has been to capture the very reason for the RAF’s existence – the combat actions which have given it such an historic tradition of defence to the nation. Some scenes are of general campaigns or aspects of the RAF’s history; most, however, are of specific raids, operations or incidents; but they all demonstrate the variety of locations, task’s and aircraft types that feature in the RAF’s reputation.

Free Download Norman Franks – Veteran Lancs: A Photographic Record of the 35 RAF Lancasters that Each Completed One Hundred Sorties
Pen & Sword | 2016 | ISBN: 1473847265 | English | 180 pages | PDF | 129.21 MB
Aviation historians will know that the Avro Lancaster bomber is the most famous aircraft to have fought with RAF Bomber Command during World War Two. They will know too that, of the 7,366 that were built, over 3,400 were lost on operations and a further 200 plus were destroyed and written-off in crashes. Operational sorties flown totalled more than 156,000, carrying over 600,000 tons of bombs to targets all over Europe. But this came at a terrible cost. With extensive losses on some night operations, occurring when bombers were pitted against a dedicated German night-fighter arm (as well as anti-aircraft fire) it is not surprising, or even incredible, that just 35 Lancasters managed to complete 100 or more sorties during the course of the war. A number of them actually achieved well over one hundred sorties, and a few were tragically lost after reaching this amazing figure. This book covers the history of these 35 incredible Lancasters, featuring many photographs of both aircraft and crew members drawn together in an effort to create a photographic record of these veterans.In addition, there is a section dedicated to many Lancasters that, whilst not achieving this almost magic total, either through eventual loss or the ending of the war, did achieve a large number of operations. Pictures of these have been added so that their achievements, as well as the achievements of the crews who flew in them, can be viewed together.

Free Download Leonard James, "Heroes of the RAF: No.43 Squadron"
English | 2012 | pages: 64 | ISBN: 190779137X | EPUB | 3,2 mb
This title looks at the heroic men (and more recently women) who have fought with the squadron over the years. It details their exploits in battle, their life with the squadron and in many cases their subsequent careers in the RAF.

Free Download Battle Under the Moon: The Disastrous RAF Raid on Mailly-Le-Camp, 1944 by Jack Currie
English | February 21, 2022 | ISBN: 1910809802 | 184 pages | PDF | 19 Mb
This is a gripping account of the ill-fated RAF raid, on 3 May 1944, on the Panzer tank depot and military barracks at Mailly-le-Camp south of Rheims in northern France, part of the softening up process on German military targets, in preparation for the D-Day landings. Raids like this over occupied France were considered relatively low risk affairs and only counted for one third of a mission for the crews concerned. In total, 362 RAF bombers, Lancasters, Mosquitoes and Halifax, from bases in England took part in a raid and although no-one involved anticipated disaster, forty-two Lancasters never returned home. Almost incredibly, those who planned the attack were apparently unaware that four German night fighter bases were located nearby. Luftwaffe fighters wreaked havoc on the bombers as they circled a marker in bright moonlight awaiting the order to attack their targetThis is the story of that battle, bitterly contested and ever-remembered by those who were engaged, one among hundreds that were fought in the skies over Europe between the RAF’s bombers and the Luftwaffe’s night-fighters in the course of World War Two. It lasted less than sixty minutes but cost two hundred and fifty-five lives.

Free Download Ian Black – RAF Tornado: 1974 onwards (all marks and models)
Haynes Publishing | 2014 | ISBN: 0857332473 | English | 264 pages | PDF | 123.73 MB
Owners’ Workshop Manual

Free Download Hawker Typhoon: The RAF’s Ground-Breaking Fighter-Bomber by Tony Buttler
English | February 28th, 2022 | ISBN: 1913870901 | 128 pages | True EPUB | 3.83 MB
Although first designed as a fighter, during the fighting in and over Europe during 1944 and 1945 the Hawker Typhoon gained a tremendous reputation and true fame as a ground-attack aircraft and tank-buster. This was a remarkable achievement because, during its development and early career, the Typhoon had experienced severe problems with its Napier Sabre engine and catastrophic failures of its airframe. The Typhoon’s offensive ground-attack work is well known, but that tends to overshadow the type’s successes operating from 1942 as a true fighter based in the UK.

Free Download Tim McLelland – Vulcan: RAF’S Atomic Avenger (Aeroplane Icons)
Kelsey Publishing | 2014 | ISBN: 1907426787 | English | 132 pages | PDF | 102.75 MB
It is perhaps surprising that the "Swinging Sixties" are now half a century away. Five decades ago, Britain was a country full of optimism and opportunity, freed from years of austerity created by the long, dark years of the Second World War. It was an era when permissiveness and prosperity seemed to be the nation’s future, but it was also a time when Britain faced the possibility of no future at all. During one fearful weekend early in the 1960s, it seemed likely that the United Kingdom was about to face utter destruction, and preparations were made to initiate what would have been the Third World War, even though most of Britain’s people went about their daily lives almost oblivious to the horror that was unfolding inside the military and political corridors of power. The Cuban Missile Crisis was a critical event when the prospect of nuclear war seemed to be almost inevitable, but history records that even though the unthinkable briefly became almost a certainty, the prospect of an all-out nuclear exchange between the East and West was a step that neither of the protagonists were ultimately prepared to take.

Free Download Ian Black – The Last of the Lightnings: A Nostalgic Farewell to the Raf’s Favourite Supersonic Fighter
Patrick Stephens Ltd | 1996 | ISBN: 1852605413 | English | 172 pages | PDF | 139.96 MB
A celebration of the Lightning aircraft from those who have worked with the classic fighter. The book contains a description of the rigorous training syllabus taught by the Lightning Training flight to newly arrived pilots on frontline squadrons. Details of "Saturn" intercepts, the most demanding of all sorties flown by Lightning pilots in mock combat are included, and pilots of number 5 and XI squadrons reveal how the Lightning compared with its NATO "foes". "From the cockpit" text, as told by veteran interceptor pilots, includes a dramatic ejection from a blazing aircraft, and the appandices detail the disposals and ultimate fates of all aircraft utilized by the units at Binbrook, the last Lightning base.