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In modern conflicts such as the Gulf War, the Balkans,
Afghanistan and elsewhere, the Royal Air Force provides a powerful front-line
attacking force, capable of hitting targets with inch-perfect precision.
With incredible panache, fresh-faced and high-skilled young men and
women, immortalised in showpiece films like Top Gun, fly versatile aircraft
that have evolved into a single force known as the RAF Strike Command.
Their pilots storm across the skies at speeds in excess of 1,400 miles
an hour, hugging the terrain, darting through canyons or zooming vertically
into the sky, routinely making instant life or death decisions while
monitoring onboard computers and fighting the effects of G-force.
John Parker draws heavily on individual testimony
in this compelling account of the development of the Royal Air Force
from humble beginnings as an Army unit into its acclaimed state of readiness
for immediate action in the twenty-first century. His narrative travels
through the major conflicts, with dramatic personal recollections of
many classic operations, such as the Dambusters Raid, and fresh insight
into controversial bombing missions against German targets in World
War II. In the process, appalling casualties were recorded, and in the
RAF these were shared by the many thousands of volunteers from overseas,
notably from Australia, New Zealand, Canada and South Africa, who have
their own stories to tell.
Parker brings the Strike Command account right up
to date, through the colonial wars, the jet age and as first carrier
of the nuclear deterrent. Today, the air defence of the United Kingdom
is combined with Britain's commitment to NATO and to United Nations
peacekeeping activities in which it has become a lean and potent force,
with some of the finest operational fliers in the world.
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Published by Headline in hardback and paperback
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