Mark Lardas Reihenfolge der Bücher (Chronologisch)

The first book to examine the battleship-led 1941 Pacific Fleet as it was intended to fight. Packed with illustrations, this study explains how the US Navy saw the approaching war unfolding. When the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor, the Pacific Fleet was the most powerful in the US Navy. It was still dominated by battleships, but since the late 1930s had been developing naval aviation and integrating them with its battleship-led doctrine. This book is the first to examine the Pacific Fleet as it was intended to fight, and how it had been training and preparing in the months leading up to December 7, 1941. Naval historian Mark Lardas explains how, contrary to modern assumptions, it was not wedded to the battleship, but was hedging its bets, building up both its carrier and battleship strength. Most crucially, it had also been building and honing a massive fleet train, enabling the Pacific Fleet to operate easily thousands of miles from home. It was this foundation that enabled the Pacific Fleet to adapt so rapidly to the new world of carrier-led naval warfare, and first check and then defeat the IJN. With artwork, photos and diagrams, this is a portrait of 1941 in the Pacific Fleet, the last time and place when battleship doctrine held sway. Pearl Harbor would shatter this, and herald the start of the carrier era. The blow fell heavily on the US Pacific Fleet, but it and its successors would emerge more powerful than ever.

The full history of how the United States targeted and destroyed the Japanese capital from the air, in a ten-month long campaign by the US Army Air Force and the US Navy. In November 1944, the US Army Air Force launched a 111-plane B-29 strike against Tokyo, the first raid since the morale-boosting Doolittle Raid of 1942. From then until August 13, 1945, the United States would attack Tokyo 25 times, 20 from B-29s based in the Marianas and five from US Navy carrier task forces. The campaign included the single deadliest air raid in human history, when around 100,000 people were killed by the firestorm created by the Operation Meetinghouse raid of March 10, 1945. This book, the first to examine the full history of the United States' air campaign against the greatest target in Japan, looks at the USAAF's and US Navy's efforts to use air power to eliminate Tokyo's strategic value to the Empire. It considers how the campaign developed from daylight bombing to firebombing and anti-ship mining, and finally how the target was handed over to the US Navy, whose carrier-based bombers and fighter-bombers continued to strike Tokyo during July and August 1945. Using specially commissioned battlescenes, strategic maps and diagrams, this volume presents a detailed picture of how Tokyo was vanquished from the air.

An absorbing study of the duels fought between the US Navy's escort warships and Hitler's U-boats between December 1941 and May 1945.Although the Battle of the Atlantic lasted several years, its most critical phase began once the United States entered World War II. By December 1941, the British had mastered the U-boat threat in the Eastern Atlantic, only to see the front abruptly expand to regions the US Navy would patrol, chiefly the Atlantic Seaboard. Unless the US Navy overcame the U-boat threat, the Allies would struggle to win.The Battle of the Atlantic was made up of thousands of individual aircraft against U-boats, aircraft against aircraft, aircraft against ships-but most crucially, ships against U-boats. The individual clashes between Germany's U-boats and the Allied warships escorting the vital convoys often comprised one-on-one actions. These stories provide the focus of this detailed work. The technical details of the U-boats, destroyers, and destroyer escorts involved are explored in stunning illustrations, including ship and submarine profiles and weaponry artworks, and key clashes are brought to life in dramatic battlescenes. Among the clashes covered are including USS Kearny vs. U-568, USS Roper (DD-147) vs U-85, USS Eugene E. Elmore (DE-686) vs U-549, and USS Atherton (DE-169) vs U-853.

A detailed and fascinating exploration of the 1945 US combined land, naval and air operation to retake Corregidor and the other Japanese-held islands in Manila Bay from a determined and well-entrenched enemy. The islands guarding the entrance to Manila Bay, Luzon, had been seized by the Japanese in May 1942. In February 1945, US forces were back, and closed in on Manila from the north and south against heavy Japanese resistance. A joint US parachute and amphibious assault was planned to capture the largest island Corregidor, using the much-reinforced 503rd PRCT and elements of the 24th Infantry Division and 2nd Engineer Special Brigade. Facing them were over 6,000 Japanese troops recently evacuated from Bataan, where they had been cut off by advancing US forces. General MacArthur desired the island, once a symbol of American defiance, to be liberated with a flourish. This superbly illustrated work examines the ambitious US assault on Corregidor, which witnessed the most dangerous and risky parachute drop in airborne history, and vicious, desperate fighting by the defenders as they sought to prevent American troops from taking the island. It also covers the recapture of other islands defending Manila Bay: El Fraile/Fort Drum, Caballo, and Carabao.

An illustrated examination of the role played by the Sunderland as an antisubmarine aircraft during the Battle of the Atlantic, focusing on the key battles of the Biscay campaign in 1943–44. The Sunderland is an iconic British aircraft of World War II, and the only RAF Coastal Command type to perform frontline service throughout the conflict. Its prime target – the German U-boat – was a deadly adversary to Allied warships and other oceangoing vessels, but proved vulnerable to detection and air attacks from the radar-equipped Sunderland. This book examines the respective advantages and drawbacks of these two maritime predators by providing a vivid analysis of their historic engagement during the Biscay campaign in 1943–44. Drawing upon first-hand accounts of this famous duel, Mark Lardas tells the story of how highly skilled Sunderland crews took the fight to an often elusive enemy and helped RAF Coastal Command defeat the U-boat threat. Maps, tactical diagrams, photographs and specially commissioned artwork bring the action to life as the Sunderland's losses – and eventual victory – in the Bay of Biscay play out in fascinating, insightful detail.

A new history of the most crucial few months of the Arctic Convoys, when Germany's air power forced the Allies to retreat to the cover of winter.Between spring and autumn 1942, Germany was winning the battle of the Arctic Convoys. Half of PQ-15 was sunk in May, PQ-17 was virtually obliterated in July, and in September 30 percent of PQ-18 was sunk. The Allies were forced to suspend the convoys until December, when the long Arctic nights would shield them.Mark Lardas argues that in 1942, it was Luftwaffe air power that made the difference. With convoys sailing in endless daylight, German strike aircraft now equipped and trained for torpedo attacks, and bases in northern Norway available, the Luftwaffe could wreak havoc. Three-quarters of the losses of PQ-18 were due to air attacks. But in November, the Luftwaffe was redeployed south to challenge the Allied landings in North Africa, and the advantage was lost. Despite that, the Allies never again sailed an Arctic convoy in the summer months.Fully illustrated with archive photos, striking new artwork, maps and diagrams, this is the remarkable history of the Luftwaffe's last strategic victory of World War II.

This illustrated history details Japan's development and execution of a new air campaign in late 1944, characterized by the kamikaze assaults against the advancing Allied fleets. As the war turned against Japan, the nation sought extraordinary measures to avoid surrender, leading to the formation of Special Attack Units, or kamikazes. The idea of organized suicide squadrons emerged on June 15, 1944, with training beginning by August. These units were first deployed during the October 1944 invasion of the Philippine Islands, achieving some tactical success. The campaign expanded throughout the Pacific War, peaking during the Battle of Okinawa in April-May 1945. This history explores not only the harrowing missions but also the strategic decisions that shaped the kamikaze campaign, which evolved from ad hoc attacks into a central component of Japanese military policy. By war's end, Japan was producing aircraft specifically for kamikaze missions, including a rocket-powered manned missile. A comprehensive plan for a large-scale kamikaze defense of the Home Islands was devised but was never implemented due to Japan's surrender in August 1945. The book is enriched with diagrams, maps, and 3D reconstructions, while also evaluating Allied countermeasures and their effectiveness.

U-505 was the first enemy warship captured at sea by the US Navy since 1812. This account details how Captain Gallery devised and executed a daring raid on his own initiative, a success that nearly jeopardized the war against U-boats. On June 4, 1944, a US Navy antisubmarine task group captured an enemy U-boat in the Atlantic. Unlike previous captures, the operation involved a risky strategy to seize scuttled U-boats. The book analyzes Gallery's bold approach, using contemporary sources to explain his belief that the potential rewards outweighed the risks. Instead of sinking the next surfaced U-boat, a destroyer escort would deploy its whaleboat while others provided suppressive fire to encourage the crew to abandon ship. Unbeknownst to Gallery, the Allies had already broken German codes, and capturing a U-boat could compromise this intelligence. His goal was to secure the vessel's codes and equipment to intercept U-boat communications. The operation culminated in the capture of U-505, which nearly exposed the Bletchley Park codebreaking efforts. Featuring contemporary photographs, commissioned artwork, and 3D maps, this narrative explores a controversial raid that could have altered the course of World War II.

A fully illustrated history of how the US Navy destroyed Truk, the greatest Japanese naval and air base in the Pacific, with Operation Hailstone, and how B-29 units and the carriers of the British Pacific Fleet kept the base suppressed until VJ-Day.

A superbly illustrated study of the major warships of Nazi Germany's Kriegsmarine. While the Kriegsmarine's capital ships became less important to Hitler following the outbreak of war, these vessels played a key role in projecting power in northern waters in the opening years of the war, disrupting Allied shipping and supporting operations. The opposing heavy cruisers of the German Kriegsmarine and the Royal Navy engaged in a global game of cat and mouse during the opening years of World War II. This was a period in which the heavy cruiser still reigned supreme in open waters, with the opposing sides reluctant to risk their battleships, and aircraft yet to dominate the seas. These swift vessels fought each other in the South Atlantic, North Atlantic, the frigid waters of the Denmark Strait and the Arctic approaches to Russia, capturing the public imagination in the process. This fascinating and beautifully illustrated book examines the design, development and technical performance of these opposing warships, and explores the clashes between them at the Battle of the River Plate in December 1939, the Christmas Day Battle 1940 and the Battle of the Denmark Strait in May 1941. The ships examined include the Deutschland-class Panzerschiffe and Admiral Hipper-class cruisers, and the Royal Navy County- and York-class heavy cruisers.

Ellington Field was one of 32 training airfields authorized by Congress in 1917. During World War I, it became one of the most highly regarded training fields in the United States, reaching a peak of 250 aircraft and 5,000 troops. From that peak, it experienced many ups and downs. Closed by 1940, it was reopened for World War II to conduct advanced aviation training. Closed again in 1946, it reopened for the Cold War as a combat and training air base. It then became NASA's airfield for Johnson Space Center. As the Cold War wound down, in 1984 Ellington became Houston's third municipal airport. From Jennies to jets, Ellington's story mirrors America's aviation history from 1917 to the 21st century.

"Between 1550-1605, Europe witnessed a rapid evolution in the art of ship design which enabled safer and more efficient transatlantic travel. This was the pinnacle of the Age of Discovery and Exploration for European powers, in which the galleon played a crucial role. Galleons were both the main vessels in maritime commerce and the principal warships used by opposing fleets throughout the Age of Exploration. This period also saw a large amount of naval combat, much of it between individual ships belonging to the competing powers of England and Spain as they sought to control and exploit the rich mineral, material, agricultural, and human resources of the New World. The conflict between the English Sea Dogs and the Spanish Adventurers has been a source of fascination for over four centuries. This exciting addition to the Duel series explores how the galleons used by Spain and England were built and armed, and examines the effectiveness of the cannon they used. It also compares how they were sailed and maneuvered, showing the strengths and weaknesses of each design, and explaining how these played out in several of their most prominent battles, including the Battle of San Juan de Ulúa, the fight between the Golden Hind and the Nuestra Señora de la Concepción, an action from the Spanish Armada, and the last fight of the Revenge."--Amazon.com

"--these ships did yeoman service during World War II, fighting in both the Atlantic and Pacific, taking on both U-boat and Japanese submarines and serving as the early warning pickets against kamikazes later in the war. They also participated in such dramatic actions as the Battle of Samar (where a group of destroyers and destroyer escorts fought Japanese battleships and cruisers to protect the escort carriers they were shielding) and the capture of the U-505 (the only major naval vessel captured at sea by the US Navy). The destroyer escorts soldiered on after World War II in both the United States Navy and a large number of navies throughout the world, with several serving into the twenty-first century. This book tells the full story of these plucky ships, from their design and development to their service around the world, complete with stunning illustrations and contemporary photographs."--Back cover

"Japan 1944-45 examines the only time in history that a major war was ended by the use of air power. It shows how the United States used a combination of industrial capability and geography to devastate Japan from the air, and why the Japanese, despite a promising start to their defense, proved unable to prevent the XXIst Air Force from destroying their country. Since the early 1930s air power advocates had claimed that aerial bombardment alone could defeat a nation. Yet by January 1945, while it had been the key to winning ground campaigns, from the German Blitzkrieg to the Allies' advance across the Pacific, air power had failed to demonstrate their most audacious claim: that strategic bombing, by itself, could win a war. The United States sought to prove it by reducing the Japanese Home Islands' military and industrial capability through bombing alone until they had to surrender"--Publisher description

Focusing on the USS Texas, this book chronicles its journey from being the world's most powerful battleship at its commissioning in 1914 to its significant role in both World Wars. After serving in the US Navy, it became a museum ship and war memorial in 1948, now facing the challenges of preservation against time. The narrative highlights its historical significance and the captivating stories that have emerged from its storied past, reflecting on its enduring legacy.

The Texas coastline is a graveyard for countless shipwrecks, shaped by extreme weather and a rich history of naval warfare. From Spanish treasure fleets to humble fishing boats, the diverse vessels that have sunk in these waters tell captivating stories, whether romantic, repellent, or simply unusual. This exploration delves into the intriguing narratives behind each wreck, revealing the complex maritime history of Texas and its offshore waters.

The transformation of Houston into a major industrial hub is a compelling narrative that intertwines technology, geography, and politics. The Port of Houston, despite its challenging 50-mile access route through various waterways, has become the second-largest port in the U.S. by tonnage. Covering over 25 miles with extensive docks and facilities, its evolution from a congested river port to a thriving landlocked port reflects a unique blend of hard work, Texas pride, and serendipity as it embarks on its second century in 2014.