A tactical and technical history of the development of British, American, and Japanese naval air defense from the 1920s to the 1980s. This is an account of the evolution of naval fighters for fleet air defense and the parallel evolution of the ships operating and controlling them, concentrating on the three main exponents of carrier warfare: the British Royal Navy, the U.S. Navy, and the Imperial Japanese Navy. It describes the earliest efforts from the 1920s, but it was not until radar allowed the direction of fighters that organized air defense became possible. Thus, major naval-air battles of the Second World War like Midway, the Pedestal convoy, the Philippine Sea, and Okinawa are portrayed as tests of the new technology. This was ultimately found wanting by the Kamikaze campaigns, leading to postwar moves towards computer control and new kinds of fighters. After 1945 the threats of nuclear weapons and standoff missiles compounded the difficulties of naval air defense. The second half of the book covers R.N. and U.S.N. attempts to solve these problems, looking at the American experience in Vietnam and British operations in the Falklands War. It concludes with the ultimate U.S. development of techniques and technology to fight the Outer Air Battle in the 1980s, which in turn point to the current state of carrier fighters and the supporting technology. Based largely on documentary sources, some previously unused, this book will appeal to both the naval and aviation communities. “Fighters Over the Fleet provides more information about fleet air defense than any other work currently available. It is recommended for specialist as well aviation-minded readers.” —Naval Historical Foundation

Jessie Blackbourn is a research fellow at the Centre for Socio-Legal Studies at the University of Oxford, UK. Deniz Kayis is currently the Associate for Chief Justice Allsop AO of the Federal Court of Australia. Nicola McGarrity is a senior lecturer and the Director of the Terrorism Law Reform Project at the University of New South Wales, Australia.

In this exciting book Mike Spick shows how the Luftwaffe's leading fighter pilots were able to outscore their allied counterparts so effectively and completely during the Second World War. When the records of the Jagdflieger pilots became available after the war, they were initially greeted with incredulity _ the highest claim was for 352 kills, and more than 100 pilots had recorded more than 100 victories. However postwar research proved that these claims had in fact been made in good faith and confirmation had only been given after rigorous checking. To discover the secret of this success, aviation history expert Mike Spick examines the exploits of these aces and sets out the context in which it took place. Every major theater is covered in detail including the conditions peculiar to each: climate, relative numerical and qualitative strengths, the presence or absence of radar and other measures, and the relative merits of the planes being flown. He focuses on the methods and tactics used by individual aces and uses firsthand sources wherever possible to put the reader right alongside the pilot in the cockpit.

Dubbed the 'Eagles of Duxford', the 78th Fighter Group (FG) was unique in being the only fighter unit in the 'Mighty Eighth' to fly the P-38 Lightning, P-47 Thunderbolt and P-51 Mustang operationally. Arriving in the European Theatre of Operations (ETO) in November 1942, and eventually committed to combat five months later, the 78th, along with the 4th and 56th FGs, 'wrote the book' on long-range fighter escort by VIII Fighter Command in the ETO. This volume charts the group's highs and lows during its two years in action from Duxford, focusing on the exploits of the 51 pilots who achieved ace status with the 78th during World War 2. These men included Capt Charles London, the very first Eighth Air Force ace, and Maj Quince Brown, who was the 78th's most successful aerial ace prior to being murdered by the SS after he was shot down over Germany. By VE Day, the 'Eagles of Duxford' had downed 316 aircraft and destroyed a further 320 machines on the ground during strafing attacks on German airfields.

Day-by-day account of a German fighter squadron, one of only two Luftwaffe units to spend the entire war in the West Covers D-Day and the Normandy campaign, Operation Market Garden, the Battle of the Bulge, and more JG 26 was known as "The Abbeville Boys" and seen as an elite squadron Unit flew Messerschmitt Bf 109s and Focke-Wulf Fw 190s