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F-8 Crusader vs MiG-17
by Jim Laurier Peter MerskyThis book covers the actions fought between two of the best known fighters of the Vietnam War, in action over the North during the early years of the conflict.Revered by Naval Aviators as the "last of the gunfighters" due to its quartet of Colt-Browning Mk 12 20 mm cannon (its great naval rival, the F-4 Phantom II, was exclusively armed with missiles), the F-8 Crusader enjoyed great success against VPAF MiG-17s during the Rolling Thunder campaign of 1966-68. The fighter was credited with 18 kills, 14 of which were MiG-17s. Things did not go all the Crusader's way, however, as VPAF pilots used the MiG-17's unequalled low-speed manoeuvrability, small size and powerful cannon armament to take the fight to their gun- and missile-equipped foes. The North Vietnamese pilots claimed ten F-8s and one unarmed photo-recce RF-8 shot down, although only four of these successes could be matched with known US Navy losses. Nevertheless, the duels fought between these two aircraft were some of the hardest of the war, as the Crusader pilots did their level best to defend vulnerable carrier-based attack aircraft striking at targets deep in North Vietnam.
F-86 Sabre Aces of the 4th Fighter Wing
by Mark Styling Warren ThompsonThe entry of the United State's premier jet interceptor into the Korean War was triggered by the ever-increasing presence of the Soviet-built MiG-15 south of the Yalu River. The possibility of the USAF losing air supremacy over the Korean Peninsula was unacceptable. The 4th Fighter Wing got the call for combat in Korea. They were made up of a combination of new pilots right out of jet training and the older combat veterans of World War II vintage. This combination of pilot types wrote and re-wrote the text books on jet warfare. Of the 40 jet aces that the war produced, the 4th Wing boasted 24 of them. They also were the dominating MiG killer outfit with the USAF.
F-86 Sabre Aces of the 51st Fighter Wing
by Mark Styling Warren ThompsonThe 51st Fighter Wing initially flew the F-80C in the Korean War, but in 1951, the 51st brought in high-scoring World War 2 ace Colonel Francis Gabreski to assume command when it converted from the F-80 over to the newly arrived F-86E. His recruits included his elite 4th Wing pilots, and by the end of the war, the 51st had two pilots who achieved the status of "Double Ace" as well as the highest scoring ace of the war, Joe McConnell. This book describes the 51st Wing's tenure with the Sabre that led to their high scoring sprees of 1953.
F-86 Sabre vs MiG-15
by Jim Laurier Doug DildyAs the routed North Korean People's Army (NKPA) withdrew into the mountainous reaches of their country and the People's Republic of China (PRC) funneled in its massive infantry formations in preparation for a momentous counter-offensive in the last months of 1950, both lacked adequate air power to challenge US and UN air supremacy over both the battlefields and the logistics channels from China into North Korea. Reluctantly, Josef Stalin agreed to provide the requisite air cover, introducing the superior swept-wing MiG-15 to counter the American's straight-wing F-80 jets and to repel the United States Air Force (USAF) B-29 bomber formations that were interdicting the PRC's flow of troops and supplies into North Korea. This in turn prompted the USAF, against its conventional wisdom of retaining its first-line air-defence fighters to face Soviet air forces across the 'Iron Curtain' in Europe, to deploy its very best - the F-86A Sabre - to counter this threat. Thus began a two-and-a-half-year struggle in the skies over a corner of North Korea known as "MiG Alley."In this period, the unrelenting campaign for aerial superiority witnessed the introduction of successive models of these two revolutionary jets - the MiG-15bis, the F-86E, and eventually the F-86F - into combat. It also saw the transition of operational leadership on the communist side from the Soviet "volunteers" to the newly formed Chinese PLAAF air divisions, and witnessed the re-introduction of the NKPAF, with its "just trained" MiG-15 units, into the air-combat arena. This meticulously researched study not only provides technical descriptions of the two types and their improved variants, complete with a "fighter pilot's assessment" of these aircraft, but also chronicles the entire scope of their aerial duel in "MiG Alley" by employing the recollections of the surviving combatants - including Russian, Chinese, and North Korean pilots - who participated.
F. A. Hayek and the Epistemology of Politics: The Curious Task of Economics (Routledge Studies in the History of Economics)
by Scott ScheallF. A. Hayek and the Epistemology of Politics is an exploration of an important problem that has largely been ignored heretofore: the problem of policymaker ignorance and the consequences of limited political knowledge. Scott Scheall explores the significance of the fact that the possibilities for effective political action are constrained by policymakers’ epistemic limitations. The book offers an explanation for why policymaking often fails and why constituents, whatever their political affiliations, are so often disappointed with political leaders. In this philosophical examination of his work, Hayek’s ideas are not merely discussed, analyzed, and contextualized, but extended; the book both draws and defends previously unrecognized implications from the Hayekian canon. The book will be of interest to scholars of the works of F. A. Hayek and his intellectual adversaries, to policymakers, and to those of all political, philosophical, and social-scientific persuasions.
F. A. Hayek: Economics, Political Economy and Social Philosophy (Great Thinkers in Economics)
by Peter J. BoettkeThis book explores the life and work of Austrian-British economist, political economist, and social philosopher, Friedrich Hayek. Set within a context of the recent financial crisis, alongside the renewed interest in Hayek and the Hayek-Keynes debate, the book introduces the main themes of Hayek’s thought. These include the division of knowledge, the importance of rules, the problems with planning and economic management, and the role of constitutional constraints in enabling the emergence of unplanned order in the market by limiting the perverse incentives and distortions in information often associated with political discretion. Key to understanding Hayek's development as a thinker is his emphasis on the knowledge problem that economic decision makers face and how alternative institutional arrangements either hinder or assist them in overcoming that epistemic dilemma. Hayek saw order emerging from individual action and responsibility under the appropriate institutional order that itself emerges from actors discovering new and better ways to coordinate their behavior. This book will be of interest to all those keen to gain a deeper understanding of this great 20th century thinker in economics.
F. I. A. S. C. O.: The Inside Story of a Wall Street Trader
by Frank PartnoyA former derivatives salesman takes readers onto the trading floor of a leading investment bank and in a tell-all, no-holds-barred expose, reveals for the first time the ugly truth about these complex financial products and the people who peddle them. Writing with the same eye for telling details as Michael Lewis in Liar's Poker, Frank Partnoy shows how the once genteel world of investment banking has now become a place where the rallying cry is "There's blood in the water. Let's go kill someone." Partnoy was in his late twenties when he landed the job of his dreams a position in Morgan Stanley's Derivatives Products Group, the single most profitable division of the venerable investment bank. With vivid character sketches and a wealth of funny-yet-disturbing anecdotes, Partnoy takes us inside the culture of Morgan Stanley's derivatives group. Encouraged by upper management and egged on by gun-toting senior salesmen, derivatives had become a business-as-war, take-no-prisoners operation where people pored over Soldier of Fortune and gloated when they sold a product that "ripped off" a client's face. As he leads us through the ups and downs of his fifteen months at Morgan Stanley, Partnoy explains in plain English what derivatives are and shows how he and the other "rocket scientists" at the bank custom-designed these arcane financial products to dodge government regulators, encourage foreign currency speculation by pension and mutual funds, disguise risky gambles with AAA Standard & Poor's ratings, and avoid capital gains taxes for wealthy individuals. He also details, for the first time, the deal that earned Morgan Stanley the fattest fee in Wall Street history a $74.5 million profit for devising a derivative that wiped hundreds of millions in losses off a Japanese company's balance sheet. But dreaming up ever more complicated derivatives products Dollarized Yield Curve Notes, Constant Maturity Treasury Floaters, Trigger Notes, and Total Return Swaps, to name a few was never enough. For the bank to earn its fee, they had to be sold usually, as Partnoy notes, either to "cheaters" (fund managers who wanted riskier investments than their regulators or charters normally allowed) or to "widows and orphans" (unsophisticated fund managers who couldn't understand the risks in fine print). Throughout the book, Partnoy gives us a trading-floor view of the disasters fueled by derivatives trading and provides the formula of greed, daring, and ingenuity that are the basic ingredients of all derivatives. Written with humor, insight, and a mounting sense of moral outrage, F.I.A.S.C.O. is both a brilliant insider's account of investment banking today and a blistering indictment of the largely unregulated market in derivatives a book that everyone who has a pension plan or invests in mutual funds needs to read.
F. Scott Fitzgerald (Literature and Life)
by Rose A. GalloF. SCOTT FITZGERALD captured for all time the feverish gaiety, the high expectations, the small disappointments of the Roaring Twenties--and in the process his own life became an American legend. Some critics have said that Fitzgerald’s writing declined after The Great Gatsby. Rose Gallo takes exception to that view. In this refreshing introduction to Fitzgerald’s work, she traces the development of all of the writer’s novels chronologically--from This Side of Paradise (1920) to The Last Tycoon (published posthumously, 1941)--and examines with a discerning eye some of his major short stories. Fitzgerald’s fiction, writes the author, was shaped not only by the 1920s but by the grander, more enduring mythologies of the past. Author Rose Adrienne Gallo is Associate Professor of English at Seton Hall University.
F.A. Hayek as a Political Economist: Economic Analysis and Values (Routledge Studies in the History of Economics)
by Thierry Aimar Jack Birner Pierre GarrousteWhilst some of Hayek's contributions to economics are purely analytical, others are inspired by a broader vision that could be characterized as political economy. In this authorative volume, some of the world's leading Hayek scholars examine the link between these two essential components of Hayek's thought, and consider them against a wider background of thought in the Austrian tradition.
F.B. Eyes
by William J. MaxwellFew institutions seem more opposed than African American literature and J. Edgar Hoover's white-bread Federal Bureau of Investigation. But behind the scenes the FBI's hostility to black protest was energized by fear of and respect for black writing. Drawing on nearly 14,000 pages of newly released FBI files, F.B. Eyes exposes the Bureau's intimate policing of five decades of African American poems, plays, essays, and novels. Starting in 1919, year one of Harlem's renaissance and Hoover's career at the Bureau, secretive FBI "ghostreaders" monitored the latest developments in African American letters. By the time of Hoover's death in 1972, these ghostreaders knew enough to simulate a sinister black literature of their own. The official aim behind the Bureau's close reading was to anticipate political unrest. Yet, as William J. Maxwell reveals, FBI surveillance came to influence the creation and public reception of African American literature in the heart of the twentieth century.Taking his title from Richard Wright's poem "The FB Eye Blues," Maxwell details how the FBI threatened the international travels of African American writers and prepared to jail dozens of them in times of national emergency. All the same, he shows that the Bureau's paranoid style could prompt insightful criticism from Hoover's ghostreaders and creative replies from their literary targets. For authors such as Claude McKay, James Baldwin, and Sonia Sanchez, the suspicion that government spy-critics tracked their every word inspired rewarding stylistic experiments as well as disabling self-censorship. Illuminating both the serious harms of state surveillance and the ways in which imaginative writing can withstand and exploit it, F.B. Eyes is a groundbreaking account of a long-hidden dimension of African American literature.
F.D. Ascoli: Early Revenue History of Bengal and The Fifth Report, 1812
by Ananda BhattacharyyaEarly Revenue History of Bengal and the Fifth Report, 1812 was the outcome of a series of four lectures delivered at the Dacca College by the distinguished Bengali civil servant, F.D. Ascoli. It embodies the text of the Fifth Report on the affairs of the East India Company by the Select Committee of the House of Commons, appointed with a view to form the charter of 1813, and also careful and detailed summary of the discussions that led up to Lord Cornwallis's Permanent Revenue Settlement of Bengal (including Behar). The condensed arguments of Mr. James Grant, Sir John Shore and Lord Cornwallis on the subject of the Permanent Settlement enable us to see the objectives desired for in the Permanent Revenue Settlement. The book also affords valuable glimpses on the methods adopted for carrying out the settlement and working it successfully in the early days when the zamindars themselves did not look upon it as a boon, and the sale of estates for arrears were frequent. Ascoli's excellent and dispassionate account of the Company’s difficulties and the unsuccessful remedies that were from time to time applied to meet them, disposes of pet theories that are sometimes advanced with regard to the Permanent Settlement. Mr. Ascoli's masterly analysis and partial text of the Fifth Report from the Select Committee, 1812, will be of material assistance to students of revenue history in Bengal and of Colonial India generally. Please note: Taylor & Francis does not sell or distribute the Hardback in India, Pakistan, Nepal, Bhutan, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka
F.D. Ascoli: From 1870 to 1920
by Ananda BhattacharyyaFrank David Ascoli’s Revenue History of Sundarbans during the Period 1870- 1920 looks at the area bounded on the north by the limits of Permanent Settlement in 24-Parganas, Khulna and Bakarganj districts and on the south by the sea face stretching from the Hughli estuary to the mouth of the Meghna River. A quarter of this large area consisted of water out of 19,501 sq. km. For administrative purposes the Division was grouped in three circles known as the Bagerhat, Khulna and Satkhira. Revenue stations were established at all the principal points of egress from the Sundarbans, and purchasers proceed to the forests and take their requirements from any locality they choose. The process of land formation appears to have been followed by the growth of different vegetation and plants which turned into forest it left uncleared. The entire Sundarban tract is managed by the Forest Department, which has operated a yearly auction for cutting rights for many decades. In this way the Sundarbans emerged between the Bay of Bengal and the fringes of the Bengal delta. The revenue history of the Sundarbans is distinct from that of the rest of the district that presents several peculiar features, so that a separate account of it is necessary. It is apparent that some of the most forbidding remnants of Sundarbans jungle were transformed into fertile rice fields, schools, dispensaries, post offices, markets and cooperative societies. Please note: Taylor & Francis does not sell or distribute the Hardback in India, Pakistan, Nepal, Bhutan, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka
F.D.R., My Boss
by Grace TullyFew people had the opportunity to know Franklin Delano Roosevelt as Grace Tully did. For nearly seventeen years, twelve of which were spent in the White House, she was his private secretary, and she saw him not only in his office but also in his home, during working hours and during moments of relaxation, coping with momentous issues and enjoying the company of his friends and family. It was a rare and rewarding opportunity, for F.D.R. was a fascinating and tremendously important person.First published in 1949, Miss Tully has written a unique account of what it was like to be in daily association with him, so that through the pages of her book you may come to know F.D.R. as she did. Which means that you will know him not only as a historic figure but also as an individual human being, a man with likes and dislikes, with moods and whims, with hopes and anxieties such as all men have—and with courage, determination, an faith that all men do not have.Here are first-hand, behind-the-scenes stories of campaign tours, of tense election nights, of processions and inaugurations and vital meetings. Here are accurate, intimate impressions of the many famous and colorful personalities who were relatives, friends, associates, opponents, advisers—Eleanor Roosevelt, Harry Hopkins, Wendell Millkie, Ed Starling, Dwight Eisenhower, Harry Truman, to name but a few. And here are revealing and entertaining anecdotes about the members of royalty, the prime ministers, the diplomats who made Tully’s office seem indeed a crossroads of the globe.With affection and respect, Miss Tully has drawn a picture of a man of integrity, warmth, vitality, humor, generosity, and courage—and a man, also, of great religious faith. She has not taken it upon herself to make historic judgments, for this is after all a personal narrative. Her book is humble, human, and gracious. It is also vital, distinguished and unforgettable.
F.H. Varley
by Katerina AtanassovaFrederick Horsman Varley was unique among the members of the Group of Seven. One of the greatest Canadian portraitists of the twentieth century, he is an intriguing example of an artist who, despite his fame as a portrait painter, remains better known for his landscapes. This is due mainly to his position as one of the founding members of the Group of Seven and their deliberate attempt to raise awareness of our national identity by depicting the Canadian landscape. Even though many public collections across the country, including the National Gallery of Canada, the Art Gallery of Ontario, and the Vancouver Art Gallery, display some of Varley’s best-known portraits, these works do not easily fit into the conventional mould of the Group of Seven. Nearly four decades after his death, Varley’s portraits are still not fully acknowledged. The release of this beautifully illustrated bilingual volume coincides with the opening of an unprecedented exhibition of his portraiture.
F.M.: Founder of the Alexander Technique
by Michael BlochThe Alexander Technique is a method of muscular re-education, which has become standard training for actors, dancers and singers, and is practised for health reasons all over the world. Its founder, Frederick Matthias Alexander (1869-1955), was an Australian actor who stumbled upon it in the 1890s after studying himself in mirrors to discover why he had lost his voice. He realised that most people suffered from the same postural defects he had noticed in himself, and that this explained much of what went wrong with them. F.M. (as he was known) came to London in 1904 and became enormously successful. During the First World War he practised in America with equal success, converting the American philosopher John Dewey to his cause. He wrote four books (all still in print), and his supporters included Aldous Huxley, George Bernard Shaw and Stafford Cripps. He was, however, a difficult and argumentative man who made enemies. Towards the end of his life he embarked on a libel action against the South African government, which had accused him of charlatanism. He won, and went on practising and propagating his technique until his death aged 86.
F1 Racing Confidential: Inside Stories from the World of Formula One
by Giles RichardsUnlock an all-access look inside the thrilling world of Formula One. Formula One is one of the most intense, complex and secretive sports on the planet. Recent documentaries such as Netflix&’s Drive to Survive series have given a glimpse of life inside the paddock, but there are so many more stories from this high-stakes, globetrotting world that remain untold. In F1 Racing Confidential, Guardian journalist Giles Richards draws on more than a decade of experience working at the heart of Formula One to reveal the inner workings of the world&’s most glamorous motorsport. Featuring exclusive interviews with men and women working at every level of F1 Teams including Mercedes, Red Bull, Ferrari, McLaren, Alfa Romeo, and Aston Martin, this is an unprecedented, behind-the-scenes look at the complete workings of a modern Formula One team. With contributions from high-profile insiders, including Christian Horner, Lando Norris, and Toto Wolff, each with their own fascinating stories, insights and revelations, F1 Racing Confidential pulls back the curtain on the world of Formula One like never before.
F4F Wildcat and F6F Hellcat Aces of VF-2
by Jim Laurier Thomas Mckelvey CleaverThe first VF-2 was a prewar unit that had been dubbed the 'hottest outfit afloat' due to the skill of their non-commissioned pilots. This first unit only saw combat at the Battle of the Coral Sea, but VF-2 pilots flying Grumman F4F Wildcats were able to rack up 17 claims there during the bitter 48-hour period of fighting. The second 'Fighting Two' was armed with the new Grumman F6F-3 Hellcat fighter. Arriving in Hawaii in October 1943, the squadron so impressed Cdr Edward H 'Butch' O'Hare, the Medal of Honor winning first US Navy ace of World War 2, that he requested the squadron replace VF-6 in his Carrier Air Group 6 aboard USS Enterprise. No other US Navy unit created as many aces as VF-2, whose pilots went into action over the Carolines, Marianas, Guam, Iwo Jima and the Battle of the Philippines Sea. Using exquisite photographs and first-hand accounts from the elite fliers themselves, this volume tells the story of the ace pilots who comprised the original VF-2 and the second.
F4F Wildcat vs A6M Zero-sen
by Jim Laurier Edward YoungFrom Coral Sea to Midway to Guadalcanal and Santa Cruz, these fighters battled for air supremacy over the Pacific in World War II. The Grumman F4F Wildcat and the Mitsubishi A6M Zero-sen were contemporaries, although designed to very different requirements. Ruggedly built so as to survive the rigors of carrier operations, the Wildcat was the best carrier fighter the US Navy had available when the USA entered World War II, and it remained the principal fighter for the US Navy and the US Marine Corps until the more capable F6F Hellcat and F4U Corsair entered service in 1942-43. Designed to meet a seemingly impossible requirement from the Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN) for an aeroplane with a speed greater than 300mph, exceptional maneuverability, long range, and an impressive armament - for the time - of two 7.7mm machine guns and two 20mm cannon, the Zero-sen could out-perform any Allied fighter in 1941-42.In one-on-one combat the Zero-sen was clearly superior to the rugged Grumman F4F Wildcat in speed, climb, maneuverability, and service ceiling. The Wildcat, in turn, had better firepower and structural strength but was some 2,600lb heavier than its Japanese opponent, with only 250 additional horsepower; even so, the Wildcat pilots had no alternative but to take on their more capable Japanese opponents until superior American aircraft could be put into production. The battles between the Wildcat and the Zero-sen during 1942 represent a classic duel in which pilots flying a nominally inferior fighter successfully developed air combat tactics that negated the strengths of their opponent.
F4U Corsair Units of the Korean War
by Mark Styling Warren ThompsonThe definitive account of F-4 Corsair Units deployed in the Korean War (1950-1953), this book tells the story of the 26 US Navy Squadrons, most of which were carrier based, and the 6 Marine Corps F-4 squadrons that flew combat missions against the North Koreans.Drawing from a vast repository of personal interviews with F-4 pilots, the author paints a harrowing picture of the deadly combat of this often forgotten air war. Included in this volume is the story of Lt Guy Bordelon, the US Navy's sole ace of the Korean War, who flew an F4U-5N night-fighter against the night raiders sent up by the Korean Air force. Backing up the text is a vast number of previously unpublished private photographs that bring the stories of these pilots to life. Finally the book contains extensive appendices that detail every unit deployment by carrier, air group, Corsair model and tail code. Also included is a detailed list noting every Corsair lost in the war, with tail number, pilot, date of loss and the unit.
F6F Hellcat Aces of VF-9
by Jim Laurier Edward YoungAfter Pearl Harbor, the US Navy's VF-9 carrier fighter group formed, seeing action in North Africa, The Marshalls, Kwajelein, Truk, the Marianas Turkey Shoot and on to Tokyo and Okinawa.VF-9 was activated in March 1942 as part of Carrier Air Group (CAG) 9, one of the many air groups the US Navy was hurriedly forming in the aftermath of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. Equipped with Grumman F4F Wildcats, VF-9 first saw combat during the Allied invasion of North Africa in November 1942, where the squadron engaged Vichy French fighters over Morocco. Returning to the United States, VF-9 became one of the first squadrons to receive the Grumman F6F Hellcat and to deploy on the USS Essex, the first of its class of fleet carriers that would form the backbone of the US Navy's Fast Carrier Task Force. VF-9, the Hellcat, and the Essex all entered combat in the fall of 1943. In the hands of the squadron's pilots, and with other Navy fighter squadrons, the Hellcat proved superior to the Imperial Japanese Navy's A6M Zero, which had heretofore been the world's premier carrier fighter plane. During its second combat tour, beginning in August 1943, VF-9 participated in the initial stages of the US Navy's successful island-hopping campaign across the Pacific. Flying strikes against Marcus Island, Wake Island, Rabaul, the invasions of Tarawa and Kwajalein, and the attack on Truk, VF-9 helped prove the Hellcat as a fighter and supported CAG-9 in its relentless attacks on Japanese forces, helping to validate the concept of the multi-carrier task force and the new carrier doctrine that led to the US Navy's complete defeat of the Imperial Japanese Navy. During its second combat tour VF-9 claimed 120 Japanese aircraft and produced the first Hellcat ace in Lt(jg) Hamilton McWhorter and nine additional aces. VF-9 began its third combat tour in February 1945 aboard the USS Lexington, shifting to the USS Yorktown a month later. The squadron participated in the February strikes against Tokyo and played a significant role in the Okinawa Campaign from March to June 1945. Now equipped with the F6F-5 Hellcat, the squadron claimed 130 Japanese aircraft shot down. Ten VF-9 pilots became aces during the campaign, most notably Lt Eugene Valencia, who ended the war as the second highest scoring Hellcat ace and tied with Lt Cecil Harris as the US Navy's second highest scoring ace overall with 23 victories. Valencia's division became famous as the most successful fighter team in the US Navy during World War 2, claiming a combined total of 43 Japanese aircraft. In addition VF-9 had one of the US Navy's few nightfighter aces in Lt(jg) John Orth, who flew an F6F-5N Hellcat.
F6F Hellcat at War (The At War Series)
by Cory GraffThis guide traces the history of the US Navy’s premier WWII fighter plane with archival photos, tech specs and illustrations.F6F Hellcat at War follows the story of this iconic aircraft from its early development to its distinguished combat career in the Pacific. While the F6F was not the fastest or most maneuverable fighter, aviators loved their trusty Hellcats because they were incredibly tough, marvelously powerful, and easy to fly. In the last two years of war, the Hellcat dominated the skies over the Pacific, stopping Japan’s once-vaunted A6M Zero and tallying a victory-to-loss ratio of over 19 to 1. Through compelling accounts, never-before-seen photographs, and detailed drawings, F6F Hellcat at War tells the story of one of the war’s most successful yet underappreciated fighter aircraft.
F6F Hellcat vs A6M Zero-sen
by Jim Laurier Edward YoungIn the key Pacific War battles of the Marianas Turkey Shoot, Leyte Gulf, and in and around Japan itself (from late 1943 through to VJ-Day) the principal fighters involved were the F6F Hellcat and the A6M5/7 Zero-sen. The former was Grumman's successor to the pugnacious Wildcat, and its creation was shaped by the combat experiences of Naval Aviators flying the F4F against the A6M2/3 Zero-sen from late 1941. Blooded in combat against the Japanese in August 1943, the Hellcat went on to serve as the principal US Navy fighter on board carrier decks until war's end. Despite its lethality in the air when ranged against the best Japanese fighters, the Hellcat still retained docile handling qualities around the carrier deck. Naval Aviators flying the Hellcat claimed in excess of 5,000 kills in the Pacific, and more than 300 pilots achieved ace status on the type. The majority of these victories took the form of A6M5 Zero-sens, the most-produced model of the final Mitsubishi fighter - some 6000 were built from late 1943 through to war's end. The A6M5 reached front-line units just as the Hellcat was making its combat debut, the new version of the Zero-sen being based on the previous A6M3 model but with modified flaps and ailerons and thickened wing skinning. It was only meant to be an interim design pending the arrival of the A7M Reppu and J2M Raiden. However, terminal development problems with the former and technical issues with the latter meant that the A6M5, and re-engined limited run A6M7 (150 built), had to hold the line through to September 1945. By now badly outclassed by the Hellcat, literally thousands of Zero-sens fell victim to US Navy fighter squadrons in the final years of the war.
F9F Panther Units of the Korean War
by Mark Styling Warren ThompsonIn 1948 the USAF, Marine Corps and US Navy were concentrating on converting over to an all-jet force. When the Korean War started in June 1950, the USAF had built up a sizable jet force in the Far East, while the US Navy was in the early stages of getting F9F Panthers operational as replacements for its piston-engined F8F Bearcats. At about this time, the Marine Corps had also begun using the Panthers in limited numbers. Operating from aircraft carriers off the Korean coast, F9Fs helped stop the North Korean invasion within two weeks of the communists crossing the 38th Parallel. The Panthers, escorting carrier-based AD Skyraiders and F4U Corsairs, penetrated as far north as Pyongyang, where they bombed and strafed targets that the North Koreans thought were out of range. The Panthers also took the battle all the way to the Yalu River, long before the MiG-15s became a threat. The F9F's basic tasking was aerial supremacy and combat air patrols, but they also excelled in bombing and strafing attacks. The Marine Corps, with its two Panther squadrons, was also involved in close air support and interdiction near the frontlines. There were a total of 32 Panther squadron deployments during the war, along with several special detachments that operated the F9F-2/5P unarmed photo-reconnaissance versions.
FBI Case Files Michigan: Tales of a G-Man (True Crime)
by Greg StejskalA retired Michigan FBI special agent recounts some of his biggest cases, including Jimmy Hoffa, the Detroit mob, and numerous grisly homicides. Across the Mitten and through the Upper Peninsula, the Wolverine State has witnessed some thrilling and historic federal cases. In Detroit, FBI agents took point investigating the kidnapping (and safe return) of a GM executive&’s son and in a manhunt for an armed killer in the north woods near Escanaba. The Bureau was called in to discover who poisoned patients at the Ann Arbor Veterans Hospital and for a grisly double homicide solved by a persistent and determined fingerprint examiner. Michigan agents spearheaded the first-ever investigation and prosecution of an Internet threat, and legendary football coach Bo Schembechler inspired an epic international undercover operation targeting the illegal distribution of steroids. Retired Special Agent Greg Stejskal recalls these stories and others from more than thirty years as a G-man in Michigan.
FBI Files: Agent Kathy Puckett and the Hunt for a Serial Bomber (FBI Files #1)
by Bryan DensonThe Unabomber is the story of the FBI's investigation of Ted Kaczynski, engineer of the most notorious bombing spree in U.S. history, and the agent who helped bring him to justice.The Unabomber was a lone-wolf terrorist who carried out fourteen bombings that left three people dead and another twenty-three injured. A cunning genius, he dodged his FBI pursuers for nearly two decades, terrifying Americans from coast to coast. Agent Kathy Puckett, a spy hunter and highly trained psychologist, served as the turning point in the FBI's efforts to understand the mind of the faceless killer. Her insights helped send more than a hundred agents to a remote cabin in the mountains of western Montana on April 3, 1996. Go behind the scences of some of the FBI's most interesting cases in award-winning journalist Bryan Denson's FBI Files series, featuring the investigations of Russian spy Rick Ames, al-Qaeda member Mohamed Mohamud, and Michael Young's diamong theft ring. Each book includes photographs, a glossary, a note from the author, and other detailed backmatter on the subject of the investigation.