Full Description
'Impressive... Glancey has written an engaging and affectionate account of the V-bombers, not least the figures who made it all possible.' Telegraph
THE THREE VERY DIFFERENT models of V class bomber comprising Britain's strategic nuclear strike force - Vickers Valiant, Avro Vulcan and Handley Page Victor - marked a radical change in post-war bomber design. From the time they first entered service between 1955 and 1957, these charismatic, high-flying jets stole the public imagination. Theirs, though, was a terrible beauty. In 1956, over the South Australian desert, Valiant WZ366 was the first British aircraft to drop an operational atomic bomb.
The V-bombers were Britain's premier Cold War aircraft. But frictions in Anglo-American relations alongside
developments in radar and surface-to-air missiles led to the Royal Navy taking over Britain's nuclear deterrent role in 1968. Despite this, the V-bombers enjoyed a second life in conventional roles, most notably when Vulcans undertook the longest bombing raids in history in the 1982 Falklands War.
V-Force sets these formidable, haunting aircraft in the story of the development of twentieth-century weapons of mass destruction, military rivalries and international politics. It is both an extraordinary ode to the V-bombers and a unique lens through which to view Britain's Cold War experience.
Contents
Map: V-bomber Dispersal Bases and Airfields Prologue: In balance with this life, this death Chapter 1: Weapons of Mass Destruction I: The bomber will always get through Chapter 2: Weapons of Mass Destruction II: All changed, changed utterly Chapter 3: Weapons of Mass Destruction III: Inception Chapter 4: QRA and Other Early Service Chapter 5: Missiles Chapter 6: Impact Chapter 7: Swords Into Ploughshares Chapter 8: Rivals - USSR/USA/France Chapter 9: What Might Have Been Chapter 10: Post-Polaris Chapter 11: Vulcan to the Sky Afterword: Afterword
