Boots Bikes And Bombers

Born in Washington in 1917, Ginny Hill Wood served as a Women's Airforce Service pilot in World War II and flew a military surplus airplane to Alaska in 1946. Settling in Fairbanks, she went on to cofound Camp Denali, Alaska's first wilderness ecotourism lodge. This title presents an oral history of Ginny Hill Wood.

Young or old, everyone has heard of the Lancaster bomber. Such is the legacy handed down by this aviation icon that although it is not the most numerous aircraft ever built - two are still flying today, one in Britain and another in Canada with many proudly displayed in museums throughout the world - it is up there with the Spitfire and the Flying Fortress in terms of affection, nostalgia and lasting fame. The legendary Lancaster has bequeathed to the world an invaluable heritage beloved of generations of movie-goers, air show enthusiasts, readers of fine literature and historians alike. Exploits such as the famous low-level raid by 617 Squadron on Germany’s hydro electric dams on the night of 16/17 May 1943, the nightly raids on Germany and the sinking of the Tirpitz in 1945 are all without equal. At the 50th anniversary of the raid in 1993 more than 70,000 people thronged Derwent Water to watch the BBMF Lancaster roar over the same dam that 617 practiced on shortly before the raid on 16/17 May 1943. As we approach the 70th Anniversary of the raid, such scenes will no doubt play out once again. It seems timely therefore that such a history should be recorded, charting the course of the Lancaster’s career in the skies and the legacy it continues to provide for new generations of aviation enthusiasts and pilots. The text is supplemented throughout by an exciting selection of black and white images that work to evoke a real sense of the scale and majesty of this iconic aircraft. An additional colour plate section boasts a captivating range of shots, showing the aircraft in full glory.

The Allied bombing of Berlin was the longest and most sustained bombing offensive against one target in the Second World War. The Berlin Blitz By Those Who Were There is a compelling, gripping and thought-provoking story of the Allied bombing forces and the ordinary people on the ground, told in their own tongue and with meticulous attention to detail. The result is a coherent, single story which unfolds in a straightforward and incisive narrative. This work draws attention in some detail to the major raids on the Reich capital by RAF Bomber Command from the late summer of 1940 to September 1943. It begins with the reliable but largely ineffective twin-engined Blenheims, Hampdens, Wellingtons and Whitleys, through to the introduction into front-line service of the four-engined ‘heavies’ - the Stirling, Manchester and Halifax, which bore the brunt of the bomber offensive until the advent of the incomparable Avro Lancaster in 1942 and the superlative Mosquito. On 30 January 1943, on the tenth anniversary of Hitler’s usurpation of power, two formations (each of three Mosquitoes) appeared over Berlin in daylight and interrupted large rallies being addressed by Goering and Goebbels. Sir Arthur Harris, Commander-in-Chief, RAF Bomber Command, hoped to ‘wreck Berlin from end to end’ and ‘produce a state of devastation in which German surrender is inevitable’. But the ‘Big City’, as it was known to his faithful ‘old lags’, was never completely destroyed.

“A fascinating look into the aircrews used and the effect on those who had to live through this constant bombing” by the RAF during World War II (UK Historian). Berlin was bombed by four Allied air forces between 1940 and 1945. British bombers alone dropped 45,517 tons of bombs, while the Americans a further 23,000 tons. By 1944, some 1.2 million people, 790,000 of them women and children, about a quarter of Berlin’s population, had been evacuated to rural areas. An effort was made to evacuate all children from Berlin, but this was defeated by parents and many evacuees who soon made their way back to the city. However, by May 1945, 1.7 million people—40% of the population—had fled the city. This fitting tribute to those who died in the relentless struggle to knock Berlin, and hopefully Germany, out of the war resonates with eyewitness accounts and background information which the author has painstakingly investigated and researched. The result is a hugely fascinating and highly readable narrative containing very real and unique observations by British and Commonwealth aircrew and, equally importantly, the long-suffering citizens of Berlin, and well as the capital’s defenders. Though not a defeat in absolute terms, in the operational sense The Battle of Berlin was an offensive that Air Marshal Sir Arthur Harris and his aircrews could not win. “Berlin won” concluded Sir Ralph Cochrane, the Air Officer Commanding 5 Group RAF Bomber Command. “It was just too tough a nut.” “An impressively informative, deftly written, exceptionally well documented, and expertly organized history . . . a seminal work of original scholarship.” —Midwest Book Review

The narrative description and condensed history of the Lancaster's construction, combat career and post-war service, brought together to tell the complete, concise history of the world's most famous aircraft of all time and undoubtedly the finest bomber of World War Two. A superlative colour section of 50 photos of the BBMF Lancaster and the Canadian Warplane Heritage Lancaster (the only two Lancasters still flying) are featured in which is a unique photo section to complement the 150 mono contemporary images, many of which have never been published before. Appendix sections, detailed and expert captions and other material complement the exciting narrative which includes a special chapter on the Dam Busters to conincide with the release of the new movie by Peter Jackson and the unveiling of the Bomber Command Memorial in Hyde Park, London.

"The Land Speaks explores the intersections of two vibrant fields, oral history and environmental studies. The pieces range North America, examining wilderness and cities, farms and forests, rivers and arid lands. The authors argue that oral history can capture communication from the land and serve as a tool for environmental problem solving. Essays include transcript excerpts and photographs, and address issues as diverse as climate change, pollution, animal encounters, and firefighting"--

This is an innovative and collaborative life history of one of Alaska's pioneering wildlife biologists. David R. Klein has been a leader in promoting habitat studies across wildlife research in Alaska, and this is his first-hand account of how science and biological fieldwork has been carried out in Alaska in the last sixty years. This book tells the stories of how Klein did his science and the inspiration behind the research, while exposing the thinking that underlies particular scientific theories. In addition, this book shows the evolution of Alaska's wildlife management regimes from territorial days to statehood to the era of big oil. The first portion of the book is comprised of stories from Klein's life collected during oral history interviews, while the latter section contains essays written by Klein about philosophical topics of importance to him, such as eco-philosophy, the definition of wilderness, and the morality of hunting. Many of Klein's graduate students have gone on to become successful wildlife managers themselves, in Alaska and around the globe. Through The Making of an Ecologist, Klein's outlook, philosophy, and approach toward sustainability, wildlife management, and conservation can now inspire even more readers to ensure the survival of our fragile planet in an ever-changing global society.

No American state is more antistatist than Alaska. And no state takes in more federal money per capita, which accounts for a full third of Alaska's economy. This seeming paradox underlies the story Stephen Haycox tells in Battleground Alaska, a history of the fraught dynamic between development and environmental regulation in a state aptly dubbed "The Last Frontier." Examining inconvenient truths, the book investigates the genesis and persistence of the oft-heard claim that Congress has trampled Alaska's sovereignty with its management of the state's pristine wilderness. At the same time it debunks the myth of an inviolable Alaska statehood compact at the center of this claim. Unique, isolated, and remote, Alaska's economy depends as much on absentee corporate exploitation of its natural resources, particularly oil, as it does on federal spending. This dependency forces Alaskans to endorse any economic development in the state, putting them in conflict with restrictive environmental constraint. Battleground Alaska reveals how Alaskans' abiding resentment of federal regulation and control has exacerbated the tensions and political sparring between these camps—and how Alaska's leaders have exploited this antistatist sentiment to promote their own agendas, specifically the opening of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to oil drilling. Haycox builds his history and critique around four now classic environmental battles in modern Alaska: the establishment of the ANWR is the 1950s; the construction of the Trans-Alaska Pipeline in the 1970s; the passage of the Alaska National Interests Lands Conservation Act in 1980; and the struggle that culminated in the Tongass Timber Reform Act of 1990. What emerges is a complex tale, with no clear-cut villains and heroes, that explains why Alaskans as a collective almost always opt for development, even as they profess their genuine love for the beauty and bounty of their state's environment. Yet even as it exposes the potential folly of this practice, Haycox's work reminds environmentalists that all wilderness is inhabited, and that human life depends—as it always has—on the exploitation of the earth's resources.