From the flight deck : an anthology of the best writing on carrier warfare / edited and introduced by Peter B. Mersky.

Format:

Book

Contributor:

Mersky, Peter B., 1945-

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Aircraft carriers.

Naval aviation.

Air warfare.

Physical Description:

xxi, 341 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm

Edition:

First edition.

Place of Publication:

Washington, D.C. : Brassey's, Inc., [2003]

Summary:

"Prepare to launch aircraft!" You can almost hear the order booming from the island's loudspeaker. From the Flight Deck covers the exhilarating and always dangerous world of aircraft carrier aviation in thirty-four excerpts of the best fiction and nonfiction writing on the subject, each individually introduced and placed in its proper historical context by respected naval aviation historian Peter B. Mersky. Beginning with the first success in 1910 by American aviator Eugene Ely, the anthology then follows British operations during World War I and the unique contributions to carrier warfare made by the U.S. and British navies during the 1920s and 1930s. World War II and the Korean War are also well represented -- with excerpts from such American classics as Walter Lord's Day of Infamy, Ted Lawson's Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo, and James A. Michener's The Bridges of Toko Ri -- as the period that matured carriers and their crews into the indispensable weapon systems we take for granted today.

Experiments with larger and more capable aircraft, as well as advances in a vast array of carrier-related technology, bring the reader to the present day, with selections by such noted authors as Norman Polmar (Aircraft Carriers) and George Wilson (Supercarrier). The diverse experiences of U.S. and foreign naval aviators in the Suez Operation in 1956, the French and American wars in Vietnam, the Falklands War, the Persian Gulf War, and the recent Allied air campaign in Bosnia are all covered, often through eyewitness accounts. From its primitive start during the earliest years of flight, through its numerous tests in the crucible of war, to the high-tech operations of recent missions, all the thrills and risks of nearly a century of carrier aviation are captured in From the Flight Deck.

Contents:

Chapter 1 The Early Years, 1910-1938

Taking the First Chance: Eugene Ely, the First Carrier Aviator from Wings for the Fleet / Rear Admiral George van Deurs 3

The Aircraft Carrier Goes to War from Aircraft Carriers: A Graphic History / Norman Polmar 10

The U.S. Navy's First Aircraft Carrier, USS Langley from The Golden Age Remembered: U.S. Naval Aviation 1919-1941 / edited by E. T. Wooldridge 21

Chapter 2 Carrier Aviation Comes of Age, 1939-1945

Fighting the Germans in the North Atlantic from Wings on My Sleeve / Commander Eric Brown, Royal Navy 35

"The Famous Victory": Swordfish at Taranto from With Naval Wings: The Autobiography of a Fleet Air Arm Pilot in World War II / John Wellham 42

Japan Attacks Pearl Harbor from Day of Infamy / Walter Lord 53

Payback Time: The Doolittle Raiders Bomb Tokyo from Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo / Captain Ted Lawson, Bob Considine 60

Something for the Home Folks: Taking Liberties with the Facts from "Battle Descending," by Richard Sale in Teenage Aviation Stories / edited by Don Samson 67

The Battle of Midway 77

The Midway Admiral: Raymond A. Spruance from Admiral Raymond A. Spruance / Vice Admiral E. P. Forrestel 79

A Lost Aviator Disappears from The Last Flight of Ensign C. Martin Kelly, Jr. / Bowen P. Weisheit 85

From the Japanese Viewpoint from Midway: the Battle That Doomed Japan / Mitsuo Fuchida, Masatake Okumiya 93

Fighting for the Solomons: The Carrier Navy Joins the Marines from Carrier Warfare in the Pacific: An Oral History / edited by E. T. Wooldridge 100

There Were Heroes on Both Sides from The Last Tallyho / Richard Newhafer 111

So Young to Command from Bring Back My Stringbag / John Kilbracken 121

Chapter 3 The Early Cold War, 1946-1953

The Navy Wants a Piece of the Action: Nuclear Bombers Aboard Carriers from Aircraft Carriers: A Graphic History / Norman Polmar 141

Marines on Carriers in Korea from "The Black Sheep in Korea," by Admiral John S. Thach in Into the Jet Age: Conflict and Change in Naval Aviation 1945-1975 / edited by E. T. Wooldridge 147

A Whitehat's Viewpoint from Sailors in the Sky: Memoirs of a Navy Aircrewman in the Korean War / Jack Sauter 153

Fiction As True As Fact from The Bridges at Toko-Ri / James Michener 158

Royal Navy Carriers in Korea from With the Carriers in Korea / John R. P. Lansdown 168

Chapter 4 Times of Development and Transition, 1954-1963

The Rubber Deck from The Wrong Stuff: Flying on the Edge of Disaster / Commander John Moore, USN (Ret) 181

Young Pups and Old ADs from Gold Wings, Blue Sea: A Naval Aviator's Story / Captain Rosario Rausa, USNR (Ret) 189

Carriers in the Middle East: The Suez Campaign from Wings Over Suez / Brian Cull, David Nicolle, Shlomo Aloni 198

French Hellcats in Vietnam from Au-Dela du Pont d'Envol [Beyond the Flight Deck] / Vice Admiral Roger Vercken, FN (Ret) 217

Chapter 5 The Vietnam Crucible, 1964-1975

The Skyhawk's War from Dark Sky Black Sea: Aircraft Carrier Night and All-Weather Operations / Charles H. Brown 229

Paying the Price: Frank Elkins of VA-164 from The Heart of a Man / Frank Elkins 236

Fire on the Oriskany from RF-8 Crusader Units Over Cuba and Vietnam / Peter Mersky 248

America and Liberty: Passing Ships from Wings and Warriors: My Life As a Naval Aviator / Donald D. Engen 256

Chapter 6 A New Age, 1976-Present

War in an Unknown Place from Sea Harrier Over the Falklands: A Maverick at War / Commander Sharkey Ward, RN 265

Managing the Store: What It Takes to Run an Aircraft Carrier from Supercarrier: An Inside Account of Life Aboard the World's Most Powerful Ship, the USS John F. Kennedy / George C. Wilson 275

A Helo Crew's War from Weapons Free: The Story of a Gulf War Helicopter Pilot / Richard Boswell 284

Prowlers in the Gulf from Ironclaw: A Navy Carrier Pilot's Gulf War Experience / Sherman Baldwin 293

Bailout in the Balkans from No Escape Zone / Nick Richardson 314

Recce Over Kosovo from Le Porte-Avions Foch / Alexandre Paringaux 323

Women in the Cockpits from She's Just Another Navy Pilot: An Aviator's Sea Journal / Loree Draude Hirschman, Dave Hirschman 328.

Notes:

Includes index.

ISBN:

1574884336

1574886126

OCLC:

51984959