The RAF in Cold War Germany

Fonthill Media has published ‘The RAF in Cold War Germany’ by Ian Smith Watson is a comprehensive and illustrated study on how the RAF prepared for the Cold War and potential nuclear Armageddon


With the Second World War in Europe at an end, Britain was faced with the immediate responsibility to play her part in the occupation of a defeated Germany. As a near bankrupt country, the UK was hard pressed to maintain such a significant military presence on the continent and manage other commitments in the Mediterranean and Far East. As the immediate post- war years came to pass, Britain and other western powers found themselves reviewing their relationship with the key victor in the east: the USSR. A defining moment developed in 1948 when the Soviet Union attempted to starve the civilians of West Berlin. Consequently, the Allies delivered aid every minute in the Berlin Airlift or Berliner Luftbrücke. Following a sterling and stubborn effort to keep the city supplied with the minimum materials and food, the Soviet exercise ended in 1949; however, the parameters were now set. The Iron Curtain had descended across the continent and the RAF were to maintain a constant vigil with nuclear-armed aircraft on station ready to respond to Soviet aggression for four decades.

• Many unpublished personal accounts of pilots and aircrews

• Essential for military/historians, modellers, flight-sim enthusiasts (War Thunder, IL-2 Sturmovik: Great Battles and DCS) and those interested in the complexities of aircraft design and production during the Cold War

• Historically rich in detail with previously unpublished photographs from private archives

Publication: 12 July 2022

Price: £30.00/$45.00

ISBN: 978-1-78155-842-3

Size: 234 x 156 mm

Binding: Hardback

Extent: 284 pages

Illustrations: 71 colour

Rights: World, all languages

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