Air Power and the Arab World 1909-1955: Volume 6 - The World Crisis 1939 - March 1941

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Volume 6 of the 'Air Power and the Arab World, 1909-1955' mini-series continues the story of the men and machines of the first half century of military aviation in the Arab World. These years saw the Arab countries and their military forces already caught up in the events of the Second World War. For those Arab nations which had some degree of independence, the resulting political, cultural and economic strains had a profound impact upon their military forces. In Egypt the Army generally remained quiet, continuing with its generally unglamorous and little appreciated duties. Within the Royal Egyptian Air Force (REAF), however, there were a significant number of men who wanted to take action in expectation of what they, and many around the world, expected to be the defeat of the British Empire. The result was division, widespread mistrust, humiliation, and for a while the grounding of the entire REAF. In Iraq the strains of the early war years led to a political coup, military conflict with the British Empire, and the virtual destruction of the Royal Iraqi Air Force (RirqAF). Volume 6 of Air Power and the Arab World then looks at the first efforts to revive both the REAF and the RIrqAF, along with events in the air and on the ground elsewhere in the Arab World until the end of 1942. AUTHORS: David Nicolle is a leading expert on the history of medieval warfare, in particular the Crusades and Middle Eastern warfare, and he is a prolific writer of books on these subjects as well as articles and magazine articles. Late Air Vice Marshal Gabr Ali Gabr PhD (EAF, ret.) served as the pilot of a De Havilland Vampire fighter jet during the Suez War, 1956. 118 b/w photos, 21 colour profiles, 1 map

Reviews

"Helions relatively large format allows this series to pack in plenty of information along with a generous selection of photographs." * The Journal of the Air Force Historical Foundation *
"This is a neat book on the aircraft types used by Iraq in early years and up to today." * AMPS Indianapolis *
"The research of the authors is first rate, and much is learned from the log books of several Egyptian pilots of the day as well as first hand accounts." * ModelingMadness.Com *
The lavishly illustrated effort sports dozens of rare photos, one color map, and one B&W map. And twenty-one color aircraft profiles proffer plenty of intriguing project possibilities. * Cybermodeler *

Author Bio

Dr. David C Nicolle is a British historian specializing in the military history of the Middle Ages, with special interest in the Middle East and Arab countries. After working for BBC Arabic Service, he obtained his MA at SOAS, University of London, followed by a PhD at the University of Edinburgh. He then lectured in art history at Yarmouk University in Irbid, Jordan. Dr. Nicolle has published over 100 books about warfare ranging from Roman times to the twentieth century, mostly as sole author. He also co-authored the Arab MiGs series of books which covered the history of the Arab air forces at war with Israel from 1955 to 1973. Furthermore, he has appeared in several TV-documentaries, and has published numerous articles in the specialized press. The late Air Vice Marshal Gabr Ali Gabr, PhD (EAF), served as a pilot in a De Havilland Vampire fighter jet during the Suez War of 1956. After concluding his higher military education at the Air Warfare Institute in 1960, he served as Instructor in Air Tactics at the Air Warfare Institute from 1962-1964 and 1966-1967, as Staff Officer during the June 1967 Arab-Israeli War, Chief of Operational Training Branch in the period 1968-1973, and as Chief of Operations Group during the October 1973 Arab-Israeli War. Following a tour as Instructor in the Art of Operations and Chief of the Air Force, the Chair at High War College from 1977 until 1982, and receiving his PhD at the Nasser High Academy in 1989, he moved into writing and published several books and dozens of articles on the history of air warfare in Egypt and abroad. Tom Cooper is an Austrian aerial warfare analyst and historian. Following a career in worldwide transportation business during which he established a network of contacts in the Middle East and Africa he moved into narrow-focus analysis and writing on small, little-known air forces and conflicts, about which he has collected extensive archives. This has resulted in specialization in such Middle Eastern air forces as of those of Egypt, Iran, Iraq, and Syria, plus various African and Asian air forces. Except for authoring and co-authoring more than 30 books - including about a dozen of titles for Helions @War series - and over 1000 articles, Cooper is a regular correspondent for multiple defense-related publications.