Author(s): Jeremy Harwood

Military/War

World War Two From Above retells the fascinating and hitherto little-known story of the battle waged by Allied and Axis spies in the skies to obtain accurate aerial intelligence during the Second World War. Featuring dozens of eye-catching aerial reconnaissance photographs drawn from the archives compiled by all the major fighting powers, the accompanying text sheds light on the daring pilots who risked death to shoot these photographs, and the photographic interpreters who pioneered a totally new science to reveal the secrets they contained. Inspiring and informative chapters focus on particularly crucial World War Two operations. Examples include the aerial reconnaissance that led to the airborne assault on the Italian fleet at Taranto; the hunt for the supposedly unsinkable German battleship Bismarck; and the Dam Busters' raid on the Ruhr dams. The final section focuses on the end of the war with the D-Day landings, V-Weapons, the firestorm raids on Tokyo and the dropping of the first atomic bombs on Japan.