Description: Air Power dominated World War II. For the first time in war, aircraft played the decisive role, revolutionizing the way in which wars have been waged since then.
Aircraft were responsible for the destruction of whole cities - Dresden and Hamburg were burned to the ground - and it was air power that delivered the ultimate weapon, the atomic bomb, which hastened Japan's surrender.
On land, armies depended upon air power; the German Stukas spectacularly demonstrated this during the early Blitzkrieg campaign. At sea, all kinds of warships, from battleships downwards, were destroyed from the air, and the aircraft carrier became the principal capital ship of warring navies. This edition of Jane's Fighting Aircraft presents photographs, line drawings and data tables for all of the many aircraft types that took part in World War II, including those of Germany, Italy and Japan. Based on the best contemporary edition of this world-famous reference book, it provides the reader with a uniquely authoritative single-volume encyclopaedia.
The information and data are presented throughout in the exciting and graphic style that has made Jane's the ultimate military reference. For this new edition, the book has been completely redesigned in a larger and easier-to-handle format, and the addenda and amendments of the original editions have been integrated into the text at the appropriate places. The basis of this volume was the first uncensored edition of Jane's to be published after the close of World War II. Therefore represents the best single reference coverage of aircraft during the war years.