V-Force Britain’s Nuclear Bombers and the Cold War

'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. Glancey is an aviation nut who's interested as much in the technical wonder of these planes as he is in the legacy they leave in the public consciousness... ― Daily Telegraph 'Evokes that brief but intense period when Britain stood in the front line of the Cold War. Well-researched, engagingly written, and enriched with many telling details, V-Force is an elegy for the fleeting modernity of yesteryear.' ― Military History Matters