"In the early 1950s it was not unusual to see the high altitude contrails of USAF B-36s over England. 385 were built and, commonly dubbed "Six Turning, Four Burning" thanks to its six piston and four jet engines. The development of the B-36 is fully described and there is considerable coverage of the political issues including competition from the Northrop flying wing. We see the B-36 into services with SAC, and we well remember al those contrails over Britain in the 1950s as the B-36s flew over. This is a readable history..."
Aviation World - Spring 2025

Book of the Year 2024 "A hugely welcome work on a notable British company..."
Aeroplane - December 2024

“…what Pike reports in the book remains intriguing and suspenseful… an excellent, eye-opening book.” Read the full review [link=https://vvabooks.wordpress.com/2024/08/11/vietnam-and-the-cold-war1945-1954-by-john-pike/]here.[/link]
The VVA Veteran

As featured on [link=https://historywithjackson.co.uk/blog/f/book-review-brixmis-and-the-secret-cold-war] History with Jackson [/link]
History With Jackson

If you have read the excellent books by Dr Helen Fry on Britain's intelligence gathering & the bugging of German POWs during the second world war, then this is the story of how the Americans created an almost identical system, for both Japanese & German prisoners. Between 1943-46 almost 3500 Germans lived only twelve miles from the Pentagon at a POW camp called Fort Hunt. Elsewhere in the US, a once luxurious Californian hotel where stars such as Clark Gable & Charlie Chaplin once frequented, Japanese POWs now occupied those same rooms. Unbeknown to them was the fact that all their rooms were bugged by hidden microphones in the previously lowered ceilings. Both of these facilities were based on British sites like Trent Park which had proved to be very successful. Like Britain, the US had also taken in Jewish refugees from Germany before the war. Some of these men were trained in how to question & interrogate German POWs, others would translate what the many microphones recorded. In the.. Read more
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