Fighter Operations: The Tactics and Techniques of Air Combat from WW1 to the Gulf War

Fighter planes have always had a glamorous image, their pilots popularized as fearless aces, risking their own lives as latter-day knights to protect their bigger brethren, be these other, less agile, aircraft, ground forces or naval fleets. Aviation author Jerry Scutts tells the real story, chronicling the role they have played worldwide over nearly 80 years, not as gung-ho freelance warriors, but as part of finely-honed fighting units. A range of different fighter operations are analyzed, starting with the Royal Flying Corps squadron on the Western Front in World War I and including campaigns such as the USAAF Mustang bomber escort mission to Japan from Iwo Jima, operations in Korea, Vietnam and the Falkland Islands and ending with the low-level ground-attack operations performed by RAF Tornadoes in the Middle East, and their role in liberating Kuwait from Saddam Hussein.