Bez zpátečního lístku 1940 - kapitoly z letecké války – Šnajdr Miroslav (2013)

This book is dedicated to one perspective on the role of bombers during World War II. Specifically, it focuses on operations that ended with heavy losses for the deployed forces, where a large number of crews took off without that proverbial 'return ticket.' These dramatic episodes are connected not only by the heavy losses of the participants but also by one other element: they all took place during the year 1940. The first chapter is devoted to one of the many aerial battles during the so-called Winter War, which began on November 30, 1939, with the unannounced attack of Stalin's Soviet Union on neighboring Finland. The next chapter describes the period of the German Western Campaign, in which the professional superiority of the Wehrmacht crushed its opponents and ensured the Third Reich a temporary dominance over Western Europe. The third part is dedicated to the bloody operation of the often-forgotten participants of the great battle, the French naval aviators in the Berlaimont area. As the fighting spread to Africa following Italy's entry into the war, the fourth chapter will take us to the eastern part of the dark continent, where the armies and air forces of colonial powers clashed. The concluding section is devoted to one of the episodes of the famous Battle of Britain, in which that legendary 'handful' of Royal Air Force pilots secured the island nation...