Beskrivning
World War II saw a giant leapin aircraft technology. In 1930 many of the belligerent nations were still flying biplanes. Less than five years later, Germany had operational jet bombers and fighters like the Me 262, while Britain had just introduced the Gloster Meteor. Fortunately many colour photographs remain to remind us of this unparalleled aviation revolution.
The Battle of Britain pitted the Luftwaffe’s excellent Messerschmitt Bf 109 fighter against the RAF’s Hawker Hurricane and, later, the legendary Supermarine Spitfire The piston-engined fighter was to reach its peak later in the war with such types as the agile Japanese A6M Zero, the P-51D Mustang and the Focke-Wulf Fw 190.
After the Battle, the German bombing of British cities by Dornier and Heinkel medium bombers was repaid a hundredfold by the Halifax and Lancaster four-engined ’heavies’ of RAF Bomber Command By 1945, giant USB-29 Superfortresses were pulverizing the Japanese homeland-a process that culminated in the destruction of Hiroshima and Nagasaki by atomic bombs
