About this Book

Aircraft carriers were used in many of the crucial naval engagements of the Second World War, ranging front the Royal Navy's hunt for the Bismarck and the protection of Convoy PQ18 in the Arctic, to the US Navy's victories against the Japanese in the Coral Sea and at Midway in the Pacific theatre. It was superior American sea power that finally drove the Japanese into bloody retreat and towards ultimate defeat. In the years that followed the Second World War, aircraft carriers played a vital role as capital ships in the projection of power across the globe. This was particularly so in the opening conflicts of the Cold War period when carrier air power was used to effect in Korea and at Suez during the 1950s. The US made extensive use of carrier-based aircraft during the Vietnam war as did Britain in the later Falklands conflict. In 1991, US Navy carriers were instrumental in the successful prosecution of Operation Desert Storm. Combining the author's own narrative with vivid first-hand accounts by those who served aboard the ships, or with the carrier-borne naval and marine air squadrons, Carrier Combat is the dramatic story of the aircraft carrier at war. Fully illustrated with archive photographs in colour and black and white, it will appeal to all with an interest in naval air power.