NUKES, FUEL AND CAMERAS

224 pages

Strategic Air Command in the UK

By: Robert S Hopkins III

ISBN: 978-1-90210-956-5

Price: £29.95 Format: 305 x 217mm

Web: www.crecy.co.uk

During its 46-year existence, the US Air Force’ Strategic Air Command (SAC) was closely associated with bases in the UK, initially for bombers, but later for long-range reconnaissance assets, notably the SR-71 Blackbird. This well-researched volume brings together a wealth of historical and archive information with an equally impressive selection of period photos, many of which are in colour depicting deployed aircraft. There are also many of the air- and groundcrews, at work and at play during a period when the Cold War was at its height, with the lavish photo collection supplemented by maps of notable missions and planned bomber routes. It also manages to encompass the political aspects of these deployments, and how decisions to deploy assets in the UK were driven in part by simple factors. These included the initial short range of nuclear bombers and vulnerability of other European bases, and later the increasing financial costs (to the US) of retaining large squadrons overseas when they could equally be operated from home soil – leading to the ending of permanent basing. Combat missions are also covered, from Operation El Dorado Canyon against Libya, to Desert Shield/Storm against Iraq, involving UK-deployed bombers, air refuellers and strategic reconnaissance platforms.