Ruben Ygua - Aircraft of the Second Word War

RUBEN YGUA AIRCRAFT OF THE SECOND WORLD WAR RUBEN YGUA AIRCRAFTOF THE SECOND WORLD WAR RUBEN YGUA Todos los derechos autorales de esta obra fueron registrados en Espaa, el 11 de septiembre de 2014. Todos los derechos reservados. Esta obra est protegida por las leyes de copyright y tratados internacionales. Identificador:1409111950157Fecha de registro:11-sep-2014 8:27 UTCAutor: Ruben YguaLicencia: All rights reserved AIRCRAFT OF THE SECOND WORLD WAR The content of this work, including the spell check, is the sole responsibility of the author RUBEN YGUA Dedicated to my family .. AIRCRAFT OF THE SECOND WORLD WAR Introduction I have created this book as a reference catalog for illustrators, historians, writers and for all those passionate about History. As a draftsman I have suffered many headaches for the time lost during the search for material for the realization of a certain job, its technical details, forms, etc.

For this reason I decided to organize several catalogs on airplanes, uniforms and boats, to facilitate the work of many professionals. Ruben Ygua RUBEN YGUA AVIATION IN THE SECOND WORLD WAR Aviation played a pivotal role in the WW2. Controlling the airspace was the first step in the direction of victory for the armies on the ground or the naval forces, in all the war scenarios. The effective action of German aviation allowed Hitler to successfully launch the Blitzkrieg, " the Lightning War", with its armored divisions in Poland, Norway, Denmark, and the surprising victory in the west, over Belgium, Holland and France. On the other hand, it was the aviation that allowed the British to reject the Luftwaffe, avoiding the invasion of Great Britain. Later, aviation enabled the Allied landing on the beaches of Normandy, with its full control of air space.

On the other side of the world, without the intervention of air forces, the Japanese could not have carried out their attack on Pearl Harbor, and American aviation would be responsible for the greatest naval victories in the Pacific, imposing the superiority of the aircraft carriers as the main weapon maritime and displacing forever the hegemony of the old battleships. Finally, the planes were responsible for the launch of the two atomic bombs that forced the Japanese to capitulate, ending the war, without the need for a single American soldier to land in enemy territory. During the Second World War about 675,000 aircraft were used, of which some 475,000 were from the Allied countries. The conflict marked the end of biplane aircraft and wooden and canvas aircraft, to give rise to metal monoplanes. In the same way, the war definitively established the heavy strategic bombers and the airplane as an essential part of the Navy, the night fighter equipped with radar and the jet plane emerged, which revolutionized the world aviation. Aviation enabled the air transport of millions of men and goods, from one continent to another through the oceans, in a massive and rapid manner.

With the use of nuclear weapons launched from a single plane, with the power to annihilate entire cities, aviation has changed the global strategy, ending forever with the old concepts of front and rear of war, transforming conventional forces into secondary actors , and replacing the conquest with absolute nuclear destruction. In the 2nd World War the Axis Powers: Germany, Italy, Japan, Romania, Hungary, Finland, Slovakia, Croatia, Lithuania, Estonia and Bulgaria; they faced the allied countries: France, Great Britain and the countries of the Commonwealth, United States, Soviet Union, China, Norway, Holland, Belgium, Greece, Yugoslavia, Poland, and several Latin American countries with little participation of their limited air forces. AIRCRAFT OF THE SECOND WORLD WAR RUBEN YGUA FRANCE French aviation was completely unprepared at the start of the Second Air War. The High Command, in addition to underestimating the importance of aviation and not paying due attention to German air rearmament, placed all its trust in the defensive line Maginot, which, according to the general opinion, should contain any invasion attempt from the east . It was only in 1936 when the country reacted when the enormous German air power was revealed, La Arme de l'Air was immediately created and French aeronautical production was nationalized. Numerous aircraft were ordered to French and American factories, but it was too late.

On September 3, 1939, France entered the war with only 3,600 aircraft, many of them distributed in the colonies. In the metropolitan territory they had 510 fighters, of which 400 were modern aircraft, 500 reconnaissance aircraft, of which only 51 were recently manufactured, and 390 old bombers. The defensive lines were useless, France succumbed on June 20, 1940; its air force, despite fighting fiercely, could do nothing, and for the most part was under the control of the Vichy government. However, many pilots took refuge in Great Britain, placing themselves under the orders of General de Gaulle, who organized the Forces of Free France. One of those pilots was the sergeant, who later would ascend to major and would become the Ace of the French aviation, Pierre Clostermann, with 33 victories. In March of 1943 a French air squadron, baptized of Normandie, began to operate in the Soviet Union, realizing an outstanding aerial activity in the Eastern front.

The French ace Pierre Clostermann. The crosses marked on the fuselage correspond to their victories. AIRCRAFT OF THE SECOND WORLD WAR RUBEN YGUA AIRCRAFT OF THE SECOND WORLD WAR RUBEN YGUA AIRCRAFT OF THE SECOND WORLD WAR UNITED KINGDOM OF GREAT BRITAIN AND IRELAND Despite having closely followed the evolution of civil and military aviation during the 20s and 30s, the English had in September 1939 of just a thousand fighters and an equal number of bombers. However, the British designers had created excellent devices, such as the Hurricanes, the Spitfires and the Wellingtons, and the industry endeavored to produce them in sufficient numbers: in 1938, 4,000 apparatuses were built, in 1939 the production went up to 7,000, to 15,000 in 1940, and reached 20,100 aircraft in 1941. In 1942, 20,100 aircraft were manufactured, 23,671 in 1943, to reach the figure of 29,220 in 1944. After the French defeat in 1940, the Germans were preparing to eliminate England with a disembarked in Great Britain, for it they would have to conquer the airspace, giving beginning to the Battle of England, when the RAF and the Luftwaffe faced in the British skies.