Chris Chant – författare

Allied Fighters 1939–45 offers an highly-illustrated guide to Allied fighter aircraft that fought in Europe during World War II. Featuring all the main models flown by the Allied air forces from 1939 to 1945, the book offers a wealth of detail, including unit markings, organization, numbers of aircraft flown by campaign and exhaustive specifications for each model.The book is arranged first by country and then chronologically by campaign so that every aspect of the air war in Europe is covered. The guide features fighters from throughout World War II, including early models, such as the Morane Saulnier MS.406C.1, Hawker Hurricane Mk I and Fokker D XXI, and the most advanced fighters of the period, such as the Lavochkin La-7, P-51K Mustang and Gloster Meteor Mk I.The book also covers aircraft that were used for air-to-air combat (Supermarine Spitfire), ground attack (P-47 Thunderbolt), bomber escort (P-51B Mustang), night defence (Bristol Beaufighter) and photographic reconnaissance (P-38 Lightning).Packed with more than 200 profiles and dozens of archive photographs of every major Allied fighter aircraft, Allied Fighters 1939–45 is a core reference volume for modellers and World War II aviation enthusiasts.

The war fought between the United Kingdom and Argentina in 1982, for the possession of the Falkland Islands, was probably the last 'colonial' war that will ever be undertaken by the British.This book shows how the key to British success was the speed with which the British gained and then maintained air superiority over the islands and the waters around then with their small force of Sea Harrier STOVL warplanes, which operated from two aircraft carriers. Though subsonic, the Sea Harrier and its Sidewinder AAM were a combination altogether superior to Argentina's mix of supersonic and subsonic warplanes with older weapons, and this advantage was emphasised by the significantly greater tactical acuity of the British pilots.Alongside stunning illustrations, this book explains how, although the Argentine pilots fought with considerable piloting skill and enormous courage, and scored a number of stunning successes against British warships, ultimately they could not prevent the British landing and the following land campaign that resulted in complete Argentine defeat.

In August 1990 Saddam Hussein's Iraqi forces invaded and occupied the small Arab state of Kuwait.This book analyses the ensuing Gulf War (16 January - 28 February 1991) - a war fought to expel Iraq and restore Kuwaiti independence if not, as one British MP tartly observed, to defend democracy. The allies under General Schwarzkopf launched five weeks of air attacks, deploying 1,800 technologically highly advanced aircraft from the US, British, French and Saudi air forces.Many of these machines, including the British Tornadoes and US F-117A Stealth fighters, had never before engaged in combat, and their combined assault, watched by millions on TV, combined impressive accuracy with firepower to which the Iraqi forces had no answer.

Featuring illustrations throughout, a detailed exploration of the unlikely aces among the Austro-Hungarians.Starting the war with only 35 aircraft, Austro-Hungarian industry went on to produce only moderate numbers of poor quality aircraft. The fliers of the Austro-Hungarian Empire operating on the Serbian and Russian fronts were fortunate at first, finding themselves faced by small numbers of aircraft yet more obsolescent than their own. Serbia fell in 1915, but when Italy declared war the Austro-Hungarians were still faced with a two-front war – a static front against Italy, and a far more fluid one against Russia.As Christopher Chant explains in this compact volume, Austro-Hungarian fighter pilots performed bravely and often very effectively under extremely difficult geographic, climatic and operational conditions.