Airforce Blunders

A fascinating and highly informative look at some of the less glorious moments in the history of aerial warfare. Military history expert Geoffrey Regan takes us on a grand tour de force from the early abortive attempts at manned flight in the Renaissance period through the first faltering attempts to harness balloons for military purposes in the 18th and 19th centuries, to two World Wars, the Falklands and beyond, From the Austrian unmanned bombing balloons that blew back over Austrian lines when the wind changed and discharged their cargo and the tale of the mis-design of the British BE9, a First World War plane whose gunner risked decapitation every time he swung around to fire at the enemy, to the tragedy of the Anglo-American invasion of Sicily in 1943, Airforce Blunders offers a wealth of absorbing thought-provoking and entertaining anecdotes.