Manchester University Press The American Bomb in Britain: Us Air Forces' Strategic Presence, 1946–64

The American bomb in Britain tells the story of the strategic nuclear forces deployed to England by the United States, drawing on more than a decade's worth of research in archives on both sides of the Atlantic. The book begins with the secret installation on two airfields in eastern England, just months after the atomic bombing of Japan, of the infrastructure to support the US atomic strike force for planned attacks on the Soviet Union. It proceeds to examine how Strategic Air Command built up those forces until the coming of the missile age, when the need for forward bomber bases in Britain came to an end. Specific areas of focus include the USAF's relations with their British hosts, tensions between the American commands, the continuous struggle to develop and safeguard the expanding base network and the losing battle to provide the deployed bomber forces with an adequate air defence. The resulting picture casts an unfavourable light on the British governments of the period, who are criticised for their lack of foresight, their uncertain grasp of strategic realities and their unwillingness to shoulder the burden of defending the United Kingdom against Soviet air attack. This challenging analysis, based on massive archival sources, will provoke and stimulate Cold War historians and air power enthusiasts alike, and be read by those many veterans who served in the units of Strategic Air Command and the United States Air Forces, Europe, during that brief but dangerous period of nuclear history.