Air War South Atlantic

London: Sidgwick & Jackson Ltd, 1983. Presumed first edition/first printing. Hardcover. Very good ./good. 260 p. Maps. Illustrations. Index. DJ has wear, soiling, edge tears and chips. The Falklands War, also known as the Falklands Conflict, Falklands Crisis, was a ten-week war between Argentina and the United Kingdom over two British overseas territories in the South Atlantic: the Falkland Islands and South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands. It began on Friday, 2 April 1982, when Argentina invaded and occupied the Falkland Islands (and, the following day, South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands) in an attempt to establish the sovereignty it had claimed over them. On 5 April, the British government dispatched a naval task force to engage the Argentine Navy and Air Force before making an amphibious assault on the islands. The conflict lasted 74 days and ended with the Argentine surrender on 14 June 1982, returning the islands to British control. In total, 649 Argentine military personnel, 255 British military personnel, and three Falkland Islanders died during the hostilities. The British government regarded the action as an invasion of a territory that had been a Crown colony since 1841. Neither state, however, officially declared war and hostilities were almost exclusively limited to the territories under dispute and the area of the South Atlantic where they lie. Jeffrey Ethell (1947-1997) was an American aviation author and pilot who wrote extensively on aviation and military matters. He was killed on June 6, 1997, when the restored P-38 Lightning he was flying crashed at Tillamook, Oregon, while preparing for an airshow to honor his father.

Starting at a remarkably young age, Ethell, published an extensive series of technical studies of WWII-era aircraft and eventually authored 60 books and over 1,000 magazine articles covering all aspects of aviation. He soloed at 18 and logged over 4,800 hours in over 210 different types of aircraft, including most of the various warbirds of the allied and Axis sides from WWII. His works on color photography of the WWII era brought to life an era which too many thought had only been filmed in black and white.

While attending college in Tennessee in the 1960s, Ethell received several research grants from the National Air & Space Museum, Smithsonian Institution, and went on to guest lecture extensively at numerous colleges and academic institutes. His co-authored study of the first American daylight attack on Berlin has often been compared to the works of Cornelius Ryan and Stephen Ambrose in presenting a balanced account of one of the most pivotal events of WWII, the first daylight deep penetration raid against the capital of Nazi Germany. He was featured in the PBS Nova documentary "Top Gun Over Russia" about the military aircraft of the former Soviet Union, and appeared as an expert commentator on numerous documentaries.

His extensive collection of WWII color photographs was made available online after his death.

Dr Alfred Price served as an aircrew officer in the Royal Air Force, where he was a crewman on Vulcan bombers and specialized in electronic warfare and air fighting tactics. In a military flying career spanning fifteen years he logged over 4,000 flying hours. He left the service in 1974 and since then has been a full-time writer on aviation subjects. He is author of 46 books and more than 200 magazine articles. He holds a Ph.D. in history from Loughborough University and is a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society.