Böcker av Tom Cooper

The Iran-Iraq War was one of the bloodiest conflicts of the 20th century and accidentally created the current nightmare of Islamic fundamentalist terrorism. There have been many books on the conflict, but this is the first detailed military history using materials from both sides, as well as materials obtained from US Intelligence circles and Briti

Designed by Sydney Camm as a swept wing, daytime interceptor with excellent maneuverability, the Hunter became the first jet aircraft manufactured by Hawker for the Royal Air Force. It set numerous aviation records and saw widespread service with a large number of RAF units in Europe and abroad. When the Royal Air Force received newer aircraft capable of supersonic speeds to perform the interceptor duties, many Hunters were modified and re-equipped for ground-attack and reconnaissance missions instead. Because they were deemed surplus to British requirements, most of these were subsequently refurbished and exported to foreign customers - so also to Iraq and Jordan. Hawker Hunters at War covers every aspect of Hunter's service in the two countries, from in-depth coverage of negotiations related to their export to Iraq and Jordan, to all-important details of their operational service during 1958-67. It culminates in detailed examination of their role in the June 1967 Arab-Israeli War (also known as the 'Six Days War') and extensive tables listing all aircraft delivered and their fates. Almost entirely based on interviews with retired commanding officers and pilots of the former Royal Iraqi Air Force, Iraqi Air Force and Royal Jordanian Air Force - as well as plenty of unpublished official documents from British, Iraqi and Jordanian archives - the narrative is providing an unprecedented insight into a number of contemporary affairs. Profusely illustrated with well over 100 photographs and 15 color profiles showing all aspects of camouflage, markings and various equipment, Hawker Hunters at War is the ultimate profile of Hunter's colorful and action-packed service in Iraq and Jordan during a period when this legendary type formed the backbone of local air forces.

Sixty years since the tripartite aggression of France, Great Britain and Israel against Egypt, this is the first account about Egyptian military operations during the Suez War of 1956 (or 'Suez Crisis', as it is known in the West). Based on research with the help of official Egyptian documentation and recollections of crucial participants, this book provides an unique and exclusive insight into the 'other side' of a war that many consider has marked 'the end of the British Empire'. From the Western point of view, the situation is usually explained in quite simple terms: in retaliation for President Gamal Abdel Nasser's nationalization of the Universal Suez Canal Company - and thus the strategically important waterway of the Suez Canal - France and Great Britain (operating in concert with Israel) launched the operation codenamed 'Musketeer'. Divided into three phases, each shaded into the other; this aimed at obliterating the Egyptian Air Force, occupying the whole of the Suez Canal and toppling Nasser's government. From the Egyptian point of view, backgrounds were much more complex than this. Striving to modernize the country, a new and inexperienced government in Cairo launched a number of major projects, including one for the construction of a gigantic Asswan Dam on the Nile. The only Western power ready to help finance this project, the USA conditioned its support with basing rights for its military. With the last British soldiers still about to leave the country - and thus end Egypt's occupation by foreign powers for the first time in 2,000 years - Nasser found this unacceptable. Around the same time, Egypt found itself under pressure from Israeli raids against border posts on the Sinai. Left without a solution, Cairo decided to nationalize the Suez Canal in order to finance the Aswan Dam project, but also to start purchasing arms from the Soviet Union. In an attempt to bolster Egyptian defenses without antagonizing Western powers, Nasser concluded the so-called 'Czech Arms deal' with Moscow - resulting in the acquisition of Soviet arms via Czechoslovakia. Little known in Cairo at the time, such moves tripped several 'red lines' in Israel and in the West - in turn prompting aggression that culminated in a war. Wings over Sinai is, first and foremost, an account of the battle for survival of the Egyptian Air Force (EAF). Caught in the middle of conversion to Soviet-types, this proved more than a match for Israel, but were hopelessly ill-prepared to face the military might of Great Britain and France too. Sustained, days-long air strikes on Egyptian air bases caused heavy damage, but were nowhere near as crippling as the losses usually claimed and assessed by the British, French and Israelis. The EAF not only survived that conflict in quite a good order, but also quickly recovered. This story is told against the backdrop of the fighting on the ground and the air and naval invasion by British and French forces. Richly illustrated with plenty of new and previously unpublished photographs, maps (and 15 color profiles), this action-packed volume is illustrates all aspects of camouflage, markings and various equipment of British and Soviet origin in Egyptian military service as of 1956.

"A little Elmore Leonard, a little Charles Portis, and very much its own uniquely American self. . .Tom Cooper has written one hell of a novel." –Stephen King When the BP oil spill devastates the Louisiana Gulf Coast, the citizens of the bayou town of Jeanette scramble to replace their lost livelihoods. Among them is one-armed, pill-popping shrimper Gus Lindquist, who has nothing left but the dying glimmer of a boyhood dream: finding the lost treasure of pirate Jean Lafitte. With his metal detector and Pez dispenser full of Oxycontin, Lindquist steers his rickety shrimp boat into the savage Louisiana swamps.   Along his journey, Gus meets a motley crew of characters: Wes Trench, a young Cajun man estranged from his father since his mother died in Katrina; Reginald and Victor Toup, sociopathic twin brothers and drug lords; Cosgrove and Hanson, petty criminals searching for a secret that could make them rich, or kill them; and Brady Grimes, a BP middleman out to make his career by swindling the townsfolk of Jeanette, among them his own mother.   Funny, dark, and compelling, The Marauders throws these characters on a rollicking collision course that all of them might not survive.

On 1 October 1990, hundreds of Banyarawanda militants that served with the Ugandan Army deserted their posts to form the Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF) and invade Rwanda. Thus began the Rwandan Civil War, which was to culminate in the famous genocide of nearly one million of Tutsi and moderate Hutus, in 1994.

In 1971, Idi Amin Dada, seized power in a military coup in Uganda. Characterized by human rights abuses, political repression, ethnic persecution, judicial killings, corruption and economic mismanagement, Amin's rule drove thousands into exile. With Tanzanian leader Julius Nyerere offering sanctuary to Uganda's ousted president, Milton Obote, Ugand

Confrontations between Libya, and the USA and France reached their highest point in the period between April 1986 and early 1989.

The first volume in this mini-series spanned the first decade of confrontations between Libya and several of its neighbors, but foremost the USA and France, between 1973 and 1985, the second is to cover the period of less than a year - between mid-1985 and March 1986, when this confrontation reached its first climax. Through mid and late 1985, rela