V Bombers
eBook - ePub

V Bombers

Britain's Nuclear Frontline

  1. 352 pages
  2. English
  3. ePUB (mobile friendly)
  4. Available on iOS & Android
eBook - ePub

V Bombers

Britain's Nuclear Frontline

About this book

A sobering and necessary read for all those interested in Cold War history. Much has been written about the V-bombers – the Valiant, Victor and Vulcan – but virtually nothing has been said about their strategic nuclear strike role. How would Britain's small force of subsonic bombers have retaliated following a Soviet attack? Would they have succeeded in visiting thermonuclear catastrophe on their Soviet targets? V-Bombers: Britain's Nuclear Frontline is the first detailed account of the operational capability and credibility of Britain's airborne nuclear deterrent during the peak years of the Cold War. This book is the product of six years of research by the author, Dr Tony Redding. It includes a great deal of fresh material on V-force weapons, war mission, targeting, vulnerabilities and tactics for attacking targets within Soviet Russia. Over 70 V-force aircrew and ground crew were interviewed and over 300 operational research reports and other official documents were reviewed. This book demonstrates how the V-bombers retained a unilateral capacity to destroy the largest cities in the Soviet Union until the handover of the strategic nuclear deterrent to the Polaris submarines in 1969. It concludes that a small force of surviving V-bombers could have unleashed the explosive power of all Allied bombs dropped on Germany in six years of war, but in the space of the first two hours of World War 3. A sobering thought and a fascinating and necessary read for all those interested in this period of history.

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Yes, you can access V Bombers by Tony Redding in PDF and/or ePUB format, as well as other popular books in History & Military & Maritime History. We have over one million books available in our catalogue for you to explore.

Table of contents

  1. COVER
  2. TITLE
  3. COPYRIGHT
  4. CONTENTS
  5. AUTHOR’S NOTE
  6. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
  7. INTRODUCTION
  8. 1. BRITAIN’S AIRBORNE DETERRENT
  9. 2. SPECIAL WEAPONS
  10. 3. POWERED BOMBS AND LAYDOWN BOMBS
  11. 4. THE V-FORCE MISSION
  12. 5. DELIVERING THE MISSION
  13. 6. V-FORCE PILOTS
  14. 7. NAVIGATORS, AEOS AND GROUND CREW
  15. 8. ON THE NUCLEAR FRONTLINE
  16. 9. DESTROYING THE TARGETS
  17. 10. THE THREAT TO THE AIRFIELDS
  18. 11. QUICK REACTION ALERT
  19. 12. CUBA AND LIFE ON QRA
  20. 13. REDUCING EXPOSURE ON THE GROUND
  21. 14. GENERATING WEAPON SYSTEMS
  22. 15. SURVIVING A WAR SCRAMBLE
  23. 16. LIVING ON YOUR NERVES
  24. 17. SOVIET AIR DEFENCES
  25. 18. PENETRATING THE DEFENCES
  26. 19. ECM AND OTHER COUNTERMEASURES
  27. 20. ATTACKING TARGETS
  28. 21. TRAINING FOR A ONE-STRIKE WAR
  29. 22. SHOULD DETERRENCE FAIL…
  30. SELECTED RESEARCH SOURCES AND BIBLIOGRAPHY
  31. NOTES TO CHAPTERS