Most Popular Books by David Hobbs

“If you only read one book on the development of the Fleet Air Arm and Naval air warfare in the Mediterranean during World War 2 then this should be it.” —Military Historical Society After the Italian declaration of war in June 1940, the Royal Navy found itself facing a larger and better-equipped Italian surface fleet, large Italian and German air forces equipped with modern aircraft and both Italian and German submarines. Its own aircraft were a critical element of an unprecedented fight on, over and under the sea surface. The best-known action was the crippling of the Italian fleet at Taranto, which demonstrated how aircraft carriers and their aircraft had replaced the dominance of battleships, but every subsequent operation is covered from the perspective of naval aviation. Some of these, like Matapan or the defense of the “Pedestal” convoy to Malta, are famous but others in support of land campaigns and in the Aegean after the Italian surrender are less well recorded. In all these, the ingenuity and innovation of the Fleet Air Arm shines through—Taranto pointed the way to what the Japanese would achieve at Pearl Harbor, while air cover for the Salerno landings demonstrated the effectiveness of carrier-borne fighters in amphibious operations, a tactic adopted by the US Navy. The author’s years of archival research together with his experience as a carrier pilot allow him to describe and analyze the operations of naval aircraft in the Mediterranean with unprecedented authority. This provides the book with novel insights into many familiar facets of the Mediterranean war while for the first time doing full justice to the Fleet Air Arm’s lesser known achievements. “A full and fascinating story.” —Clash of Steel

“This superb book . . . will undoubtedly become the definitive volume on British Aircraft carriers and naval aviation . . . magnificent.”—Marine News This book is a meticulously detailed history of British aircraft-carrying ships from the earliest experimental vessels to the Queen Elizabeth class, currently under construction and the largest ships ever built for the Royal Navy. Individual chapters cover the design and construction of each class, with full technical details, and there are extensive summaries of every ship’s career. Apart from the obvious large-deck carriers, the book also includes seaplane carriers, escort carriers and MAC ships, the maintenance ships built on carrier hulls, unbuilt projects, and the modern LPH. It concludes with a look at the future of naval aviation, while numerous appendices summarize related subjects like naval aircraft, recognition markings and the circumstances surrounding the loss of every British carrier. As befits such an important reference work, it is heavily illustrated with a magnificent gallery of photos and plans, including the first publication of original plans in full color, one on a magnificent gatefold. Written by the leading historian of British carrier aviation, himself a retired Fleet Air Arm pilot, it displays the authority of a lifetime’s research combined with a practical understanding of the issues surrounding the design and operation of aircraft carriers. As such British Aircraft Carriers is certain to become the standard work on the subject. “An outstanding highly informative reference work. It is a masterpiece which should be on every naval person’s bookshelf. It is a pleasure to read and a pleasure to own.”—Australian Naval Institute

In August 1944 the British Pacific Fleet did not exist. Six months later it was strong enough to launch air attacks on Japanese territory, and by the end of the war it constituted the most powerful force in the history of the Royal Navy, fighting as professional equals alongside the US Navy in the thick of the action. How this was achieved by a nation nearing exhaustion after five years of conflict is a story of epic proportions in which ingenuity, diplomacy and dogged persistence all played a part. As much a political as a technical triumph, the BPF was uniquely complex in its make-up: its C-in-C was responsible to the Admiralty for the general direction of his Fleet; took operational orders from the American Admiral Nimitz; answered to the Government of Australia for the construction and maintenance of a vast base infrastructure, and to other Commonwealth Governments for the ships and men that formed his fully-integrated multi-national fleet. This ground-breaking new work by David Hobbs describes the background, creation and expansion of the BPF from its first tentative strikes, through operations off the coast of Japan to its impact on the immediate post-war period, including the opinions of USN liaison officers attached to the British flagships. The book is the first to demonstrate the real scope and scale of the BPFu0092s impressive achievement.

The National Maritime Museum in Greenwich houses the largest collection of scale ship models in the world, many of which are official, contemporary artefacts made by the craftsmen of the navy or the shipbuilders themselves, and ranging from the mid seventeenth century to the present day. As such they represent a three-dimensional archive of unique importance and authority. Treated as historical evidence, they offer more detail than even the best plans, and demonstrate exactly what the ships looked like in a way that even the finest marine painter could not achieve. ??This book is one of a series that takes a selection of the best models to tell the story of specific ship types _ in this case, the various classes of warship that fought in the First World War, from dreadnoughts to coastal motor boats. It reproduces a large number of model photos, all in full colour, and including many close-up and detail views. These are captioned in depth, but many are also annotated to focus attention on interesting or unusual features. Although pictorial in emphasis, the book weaves the pictures into an authoritative text, producing an unusual and attractive form of technical history.

In a few short years after 1914 the Royal Navy practically invented naval air warfare, not only producing the first effective aircraft carriers, but also pioneering most of the techniques and tactics that made naval air power a reality. By 1918 the RN was so far ahead of other navies that a US Navy observer sent to study the British use of aircraft at sea concluded that any discussion of the subject must first consider their methods. Indeed, by the time the war ended the RN was training for a carrier-borne attack by torpedo-bombers on the German fleet in its bases over two decades before the first successful employment of this tactic, against the Italians at Taranto.Following two previously well-received histories of British naval aviation, David Hobbs here turns his attention to the operational and technical achievements of the Royal Naval Air Service, both at sea and ashore, from 1914 to 1918. Detailed explanations of operations, the technology that underpinned them and the people who carried them out bring into sharp focus a revolutionary period of development that changed naval warfare forever. Controversially, the RNAS was subsumed into the newly created Royal Air Force in 1918, so as the centenary of its extinction approaches, this book is a timely reminder of its true significance.

This is a comprehensive study of every aircraft type ordered for the Royal Navy since 1908. It includes fixed and rotary-wing aircraft, rigid and non-rigid airships, unmanned aircraft and pilotless target aircraft together with many designs that were ordered but not built so that the importance placed on them by the Naval Staff or their potential technological impact on carrier design and operations can be explained. Every type – even unsuccessful single prototypes – is described; the majority are illustrated by photographs, many of which come from the author’s own collection, and the fifty most significant aircraft have detailed drawings. The Australian and Canadian Fleet Air Arms operated RN aircraft types for many years after their formation and these are included together with other types they have operated subsequently to give a more complete overview. The book describes over 400 different types of aircraft built by over 100 different manufacturers to offer the most detailed coverage of RN aircraft ever produced. Research for the book took over forty years and reference material included Admiralty Archives and an array of material in the public domain including manufacturers’ data, individual aircraft pilot’s notes and a wealth of published sources. David Hobbs is uniquely well placed to write this book having served in the RN for thirty-three years and retired with the rank of Commander. He flew both fixed and rotary-wing aircraft and his log book contains 2300 flying hours with 807 day and night deck landings. He served in seven British aircraft carriers and spent four years within RN Director General (Aircraft) Department where he was closely involved with Sea Harrier carrier trials and introduced new visual landing aids for night recoveries and liaised with the USN on carrier operating techniques. This is his eleventh book for Seaforth Publishing.

A comprehensive history of the Royal Navy’s naval aviation component’s campaigns during World War II. For the first time, this book tells the story of how naval air operations evolved into a vital element of the Royal Navy’s ability to fight a three-dimensional war against both the Kriegsmarine and Luftwaffe. An integral part of RN, the Fleet Air Arm was not a large organization, with only 406 pilots and 232 front-line aircraft available for operations in September 1939. Nevertheless, its impact far outweighed its numbers—it was an RN fighter that shot down the first enemy aircraft of the war, and an RN pilot was the first British fighter “ace” with 5 or more kills. The Fleet Air Arm’s rollcall of achievements in northern waters went on to include the Norwegian Campaign, the crippling of Bismarck, the gallant sortie against Scharnhorst and Gneisenau as they passed through the Channel, air attacks on enemy E-boats in the narrow seas, air cover for the Russian convoys, air attacks that disabled Tirpitz, and strikes and minelaying operations against German shipping in the Norwegian littoral that continued until May 1945. By the end of the war in Europe the FAA had grown to 3243 pilots and 1336 aircraft. This book sets all these varied actions within their proper naval context and both technical and tactical aspects are explained with “thumbnail” descriptions of aircraft, their weapons and avionics. Cross reference with the Fleet Air Arm Roll of Honour has been made for the first time to put names to those aircrew killed in action wherever possible as a mark of respect for their determination against enemy forces on, above and below the sea surface which more often than not outnumbered them. The Fleet Air Arm and the War in Europe completes David Hobbs’s much-praised six-volume series chronicling the operational history of British naval aviation from the earliest days to the present. Praise for The Fleet Air Arm and the War in Europe “In this masterly addition to his series on the Fleet Air Arm at war, David Hobbs addresses naval air operations in the Atlantic, the North Sea, the Arctic, and the English Channel.” —Professor Andrew Lambert, Warship 2023 “With lots of action it rattles along and is a very good read.” —The Armourer Magazine, May 2022

It is now almost exactly a hundred years since a heavier-than-air craft first took off and landed on a warship, and from the very beginning flying at sea made unique demands on men and machines. As warplanes grew larger, faster and heavier, air operations from ships were only possible at all through constant development in technology, techniques and tactics. This book charts the progress and growing effectiveness of naval air power, concentrating on the advances and inventions - most of them British - that allowed shipborne aircraft to match their land-based counterparts, and looking at their contribution to 20th century warfare. Written by a retired Fleet Air Arm pilot and and award-winning historian of naval flying, this is a masterly overview of the history of aviation in the world''s navies down to the present day. Heavily illustrated from the author''s comprehensive collection of photographs, the book will be essential reading to anyone with an interest in navies or air power.

“A comprehensive study of the bittersweet post WWII history of British naval aviation . . . will become a standard reference for its subject.”—Firetrench In 1945 the most powerful fleet in the Royal Navy’s history was centered on nine aircraft carriers. This book charts the post-war fortunes of this potent strike force; its decline in the face of diminishing resources, its final fall at the hands of uncomprehending politicians, and its recent resurrection in the form of the Queen Elizabeth class carriers, the largest ships ever built for the Royal Navy. After 1945 “experts” prophesied that nuclear weapons would make conventional forces obsolete, but British carrier-borne aircraft were almost continuously employed in numerous conflicts as far apart as Korea, Egypt, the Persian Gulf, the South Atlantic, East Africa and the Far East, often giving successive British Governments options when no others were available. In the process the Royal Navy invented many of the techniques and devices crucial to modern carrier operations angled decks, steam catapults and deck-landing aids while also pioneering novel forms of warfare like helicopter-borne assault, and tactics for countering such modern plagues as insurgency and terrorism. This book combines narratives of these poorly understood operations with a clear analysis of the strategic and political background, benefiting from the author''s personal experience of both carrier flying and the workings of Whitehall. It is an important but largely untold story, of renewed significance as Britain once again embraces carrier aviation. “Makes a timely and welcome appearance . . . will make compelling reading for those with serious concern for our naval affairs.”—St. Andrews in Focus

Fortæller om forhistorien og tankegangen bag stjernekrigsprojekterne, herunder om den nuværende og den forventede teknologiske udvikling.

A biography of a British pilot set against the backdrop of the Royal Navy’s fight to regain control of its aviation after the First World War. The establishment of the RAF came at a cost—and it was the Royal Navy that paid the price. In 1918 it had been pre-eminent in the technology and tactics of employing aircraft at sea, but once it lost control of its own air power, it struggled to make the RAF prioritize naval interests, in the process losing ground to the rival naval air forces of Japan and the United States. This book documents that struggle through the cash-strapped 1920s and ’30s, culminating in the Navy regaining control of its aviation in 1937, but too late to properly prepare for the impending war. However, despite the lack of resources, British naval flying had made progress, especially in the advancement of carrier strike doctrine. These developments are neatly illustrated by the experiences of Lieutenant William Lucy, who was to become Britain’s first accredited air ‘ace’ of the war and to lead the world’s first successful dive-bombing of a major warship. Making extensive use of the family archive, this book also reproduces many previously unseen photographs from Lucy’s album, showing many aspects of life in the Fleet Air Arm up to the end of the Norway campaign. The inter-war concentration on carrier strike would be spectacularly vindicated during World War II—and it was the Royal Navy that had led the way.

This book adopts a new and accessible approach to helping readers understand how management accounting contributes to decisions in a variety of organisational contexts. It sets out clear explanations of practical management accounting techniques in the context of the application of these techniques to decisions. It recognizes practice through case studies and summarises published research. Uniquely, it examines the analytical and critical issues that often influence decision makers operating within private and public sector organisations. Key features include: - Case studies of varying complexity that will allow students to work at their own level - Summaries of important research articles - Key learning objectives and end of chapter questions.

After Young David Hobbs leaves his Midwestern hometown for college, he spends eight summers fighting wildfires for the U.S. Forest Service. He finds, as his life begins to go up in flames, a powerful and spiritual awakening. Along with a personal philosophy of get-it-while-you-can, David''s goals in life were all too familiar: fame, fortune and true love. Out of the Fire follows the events, from the ranks of an elite fire crew on the Klamath National Forest, to a summer of love in Berkeley, California, as they lead him, eventually, to call upon the God he once rejected.

Thus says the LORD: "...Come out of her my people that you be not partakers of her sins and that you recieve not of her plagues. For her sins have reached unto heaven and God hath remembered her iniquities. Reward her even as she has rewarded you and double unto her double according to her works: in the cup which she hath filled fill to her double. How much she hath glorified herself and lived deliciously, so much torment and sorrow give her: For she saith in her heart, I sit a queen, and am no widow, and shall see no sorrow. Therefore shall her plagues come in one day, death, and mourning, and famine; and she shall be utterly burned with fire: For strong is the LORD God who judgeth her..." (Revelation 18:4-8)

The technical details of British warships were recorded in a set of plans produced by the builders on completion of every ship. Known as the as fitted general arrangements, these drawings represented the exact appearance and fitting of the ship as it entered service. Intended to provide a permanent reference for the Admiralty and the dockyards, these highly detailed plans were drawn with exquisite skill in multi-coloured inks and washes that represent the acme of the draughtsmans art.Today they form part of the incomparable collection of the National Maritime Museum at Greenwich, which is using the latest scanning technology to make digital copies of the highest quality. This book is one of a series based entirely on these draughts which depict famous warships in an unprecedented degree of detail complete sets in full colour, with many close-ups and enlargements that make every aspect clear and comprehensible. Extensive captions point the reader to important features to be found in the plans, and an introduction covers the background to the design.HMS Victorious was a ship with two almost separate incarnations as built in 1941 she was one of a new type of armoured carrier which saw strenuous wartime service; post-war the ship underwent a massive reconstruction lasting nearly eight years that saw her recommission in1958 as one of the best equipped carriers in the world, ready for another decade of duty. Both these phases of the ships life are fully documented, which allows this novel form of anatomy to cover two generations of carrier design.

NATO has traditionally relied on its technological superiority to offset the Warsaw Pact''s numerical advantage. This equation, however, is becoming increasingly difficult to sustain. Despite NATO''s considerably greater outlays for defense, the numerical balance continues to favor the Warsaw Pact and the technological "gap" between East and West is narrowing. To rectify this situation NATO has two courses of actionóembrace a spectrum of new technologies which offer the prospect of dramatic improvements in capability, or extract better value for the money from its defense allocations. These two possibilities need not be mutually exclusive, although historically they have been. Clearly, NATO must reform its approach to weapons procurement if it is to exploit new technology as effectively as possible in periods of budgetary stringency. The need for reform is evident: The Warsaw Pact spends less than NATO on defense but outproduces NATO in virtually every weapons category. This volume examines these problems and shows that in order to exploit available technologies at an affordable cost, NATO clearly must organize its defense procurement more efficiently. Co-published with the Atlantic Council of the United States.

En tidligere engelsk marineflyver gør her rede for mobil logistik i den store og strategiske stil gældende for Royal Navy. Der beskrives her især de såkaldte MONABs, hvilket stod for Mobile Operational Naval Air Base og hvoraf der oprettedes ikke mindre end ti. Dette basesystem satte den engelske flåde i stand til at udføre længerevarende operationer over hele kloden under den anden verdenskrig og tillige Koreakrigen. Deployeringen af specialiserede fly og såkaldte komponent-vedligeholdelsesskibe sammen med de her anførte mobile flyvestationer var forudsætninger for, at R.N. kunde kæmpe ved siden af den amerikanske flåde i Stillehavet og i det Indiske Ocean under disse krige. Bogen omfatter originalt kilde- og billedmateriale, der aldrig tidligere er publiceret.

This book for teachers suggests projects which cater for a wide range of concepts and skills, and links with other curriculum subjects.

Does God still interact with humans today? Do miracles still happen? Can Christians tap into the supernatural realm? "If God were to show up in my life, what would He say?" "Why do so many bad things happen?" "Does God care about me as a person? Or is He too busy running the universe?" "Is heaven like a big resort with carnivals and fun things to do?" David Hobbs (Author of Out of the Fire, A Life Radically Changed) came across the surprising answers to these and many other questions in his journey which began as a stubborn attempt to discover God''s purpose for his life and took him into the very heart of God Himself. Along the way he learned: 1. How Christianity is supposed to work 2. What is the "treasure hidden in the field?" (Matt. 13:44) [Maybe not what you think!] 3. What is God''s reward for those who diligently seek Him? 4. What God sees as His greatest accomplishment for time and eternity (this will surprise you!), and many more But beyond all this, he developed a relationship with God that became his own greatest treasure and provoked his great-est desire: that others might lay hold of this same "Promised Land" in God that satisfies the deepest longings and provides the greatest challenge to any person willing to learn to Walk in the Spirit.

A Mathematical Dictionary for Schools contains over 500 definitions of technical terms found within GCSE syllabuses. Key words and phrases are explained in clear, simple language with illustrations to aid understanding of more difficult terms. It has been written for key stages 1/GCSE students but is also suitable for key stage 3 and is the ideal companion for coursework and revision.

Even my son and grandson know there are not three days and three nights between Friday evening and early Sunday morning. Then why do denominational Christian leaders insist on preaching that Jesus was crucified and buried on Friday and rose early Sunday morning? It is because God has hidden precious truths from the so-called wise and prudent and revealed them literally and figuratively to babies. There are several reasons why God has done this. By choice, rebellious religious leaders have suppressed the truth and exalted lies. Beginning the next day, the first day of the feast of unleavened bread, the high day Sabbath, a Thursday, one of seven "annual Sabbaths days," religious and political leaders began to conspire to stop the Messiah from rising (see Matthew 27:62-66). Together, they have continued to think to change times and laws of the living God.

Buying a performance car is an expensive business and mistakes can prove costly financially and in time, effort and stress. Wouldn''t it be great if you could take an expert with you? With the aid of this books step-by-step guidance from a marque specialist, you can! The Subaru Impreza Buyers Guide aims to guide enthusiasts through the various production changes and problem areas between model years to make sure their restoration or prospective purchase is correct, original, and legitimate. The guide will be an essential reference tool to be used when buying, selling, repairing or restoring the various Impreza models manufactured from 1993 to date. This books unique points system will help you to place the cars value in relation to condition whilst extensive photographs illustrate the problems to look out for. This is an important investment - STOP! Don''t buy a Subaru Impreza without buying this book first! One hundred colour photos, useful appendices and expert advice mean this book could save you 1000''s.

A reference which gives details of all those ships whose primary role has been to operate aircraft at sea, including ships from the British Royal Navy, the Royal Australian Navy, the Royal Canadian Navy/Canadian Armed Forces and the Indian Navy, as well as many vessels that served with the US Navy.

Athletic administrators in a Christian school setting have an unusual amount of influence over large portions of the student body via their influence on coaches. This study investigated the possibility of a correlative relationship between how varsity team head coaches perceive the degree of transformational leadership behaviors of their athletic administrators and their own coaching efficacy. Transformational leadership behaviors could be the most relevant leadership style for modern society while the benefits of coaching efficacy range from an increase in job satisfaction to an increase in student-athlete satisfaction with the athletic experience. A correlation between athletic administrator leadership and the efficacy of their coaches could provide significant insight into ensuring that the student-athlete experience is positive. Utilizing the Global Transformational Leadership scale and the Coaching Efficacy Scale II – High School Teams, 171 varsity head coaches of team sports were surveyed regarding the perceptions of the athletic administrators they work for in Christian high schools. Pearson’s Product-Moment Correlation was used to correlate the single scale scores of the Global Transformational Leadership scale and the Total Coaching Efficacy Scores of the Coaching Efficacy Scale II – High School Teams. A moderately positive statistically significant relationship was found between the varsity head coaches’ perception of their athletic administrator’s transformational leadership behaviors and their own coaching efficacy. These findings have implications for how athletic administrators lead their coaches, and what behaviors school leaders should encourage in their athletic administrators.

Memories of early childhood told by a grandfather, Papa D, recalled after attending his brother''s wedding.