'Impressive… Glancey has written an engaging and affectionate account of the V-bombers, not least the figures who made it all possible.' Telegraph THE THREE VERY DIFFERENT models of V class bomber comprising Britain's strategic nuclear strike force – Vickers Valiant, Avro Vulcan and Handley Page Victor – marked a radical change in post-war bomber design. From the time they first entered service between 1955 and 1957, these charismatic, high-flying jets stole the public imagination. Theirs, though, was a terrible beauty. In 1956, over the South Australian desert, Valiant WZ366 was the first British aircraft to drop an operational atomic bomb. The V-bombers were Britain's premier Cold War aircraft. But frictions in Anglo-American relations alongside developments in radar and surface-to-air missiles led to the Royal Navy taking over Britain's nuclear deterrent role in 1968. Despite this, the V-bombers enjoyed a second life in conventional roles, most notably when Vulcans undertook the longest bombing raids in history in the 1982 Falklands War. V-Force sets these formidable, haunting aircraft in the story of the development of twentieth-century weapons of mass destruction, military rivalries and international politics. It is both an extraordinary ode to the V-bombers and a unique lens through which to view Britain's Cold War experience.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
As World War II came to an end and America’s nuclear bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki shocked the world, it became clear that the nascent Cold War would be as different a conflagration from WWII as that war was from WWI. Believing that the UK was extremely vulnerable to nuclear attack, it was quickly determined that only ‘the threat of large-scale damage from similar weapons’ could prevent a Soviet attack. And, thus, V-Force was born. Entered into service between 1955 and 1957, the three models of V class bombers that made up Britain’s strategic nuclear strike force – the Vickers Valiant, Avro Vulcan and Handley Page Victor – were modern marvels of machinery. ‘V-Force’ is both an ode to these most resilient and beautiful of British aircraft, and a lens through which to view Britain’s Cold War experience.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":[],"product_brand":[],"product_cat":[98],"product_tag":[290,675,823,79],"class_list":["post-119190","product","type-product","status-publish","product_cat-nat-history-popular-science","product_tag-history","product_tag-military-history-post-ww2-conflicts","product_tag-military-vehicles","product_tag-nuclear-weapons","pa_book_author-glancey-jonathan","pa_cover-paperback","pa_dewey-358-42830941-edition23","pa_imprint-atlantic-books","pa_language-english","pa_pages-8497","pa_publisher-atlantic-books","pa_readership-general-trade-code-k","first","onbackorder","taxable","shipping-taxable","purchasable","product-type-simple"],"yoast_head":"\n