Dive Bomber! Aircraft, Technology, and Tactics in World War II

It is a dive bomber that provides one of the most dramatic images of World War II: a German Stuka screaming toward the ground as part of the blitzkrieg that opened the war. Almost all the major combatants developed dive bombers, from the Japanese Val to the American Dauntless and Soviet Pe-2. In this illustrated history of Allied and Axis dive bombers, military historian Peter C. Smith traces these formidable aircraft from the earliest test runs to their emergence as devastatingly effective weapons in the Pacific and Mediterranean, on the Eastern Front, and in Western Europe. Book jacket.

Peter C. Smith is a well-known authority on the history of dive-bombing and is the author of over sixty naval history books that are published on four continents. He currently lives with his wife and two Labradors in Bedfordshire, England.