Operation Eagle Claw 1980: The disastrous bid to end the Iran hostage crisis

by Justin W. Williamson, Jim Laurier (Illustrator), Johnny Shumate (Illustrator), Alan Gilliland (Illustrator)

Overview

Following months of negotiations after the seizure of the US Embassy in Tehran on 4 November 1979, President Jimmy Carter ordered the newly formed Delta Force to conduct a raid into Iran to free the hostages. The raid, Operation Eagle Claw, was risky to say the least. US forces would have to fly into the deserts of Iran on C-130s; marry up with carrier-based RH-53D helicopters; fly to hide sites near Tehran; approach the Embassy via trucks; seize the Embassy and rescue the hostages; board the helicopters descending on Tehran; fly to an airbase captured by more US forces; and then fly out on C-141s and to freedom. Unfortunately, and unsurprisingly given the complexity of the mission, things went wrong from the start and when the mission was called off at the refueling site at Desert One, the resulting collision between aircraft killed eight US personnel.

This title tells the full story of this tragic operation, supported by maps, photographs, and specially-commissioned bird's-eye-views and battlescenes which reveal the complexity and scale of the proposed rescue and the disaster which followed.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781472837806
Publisher:	Bloomsbury Publishing
Publication date:	03/19/2020
Series:	Raid , #52
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	80
Sales rank:	897,156
File size:	18 MB
Note:	This product may take a few minutes to download.

About the Author

Justin Williamson is a career US diplomat who has served in Iraq, Mexico, Spain, and the Democratic Republic of Congo. He has degrees from Texas Tech University, The University of Texas at El Paso, and has recently graduated from the US Army Command and Staff College with a Master of Military Arts and Sciences. He is based in Texas, USA.

Jim Laurier is a native of New England, growing up in New Hampshire and Massachusetts. He has been drawing since he could hold a pencil and throughout his life he has worked in many mediums creating artwork on a variety of subjects. He has worked on the Osprey Aviation list since 2000, and in that time he has produced some of the finest artwork seen in these volumes.He lives in New England, USA.
Justin Williamson is a career US diplomat who has served in Iraq, Mexico, Spain, and the Democratic Republic of Congo, but calls Texas home. He has degrees from Texas Tech University and The University of Texas at El Paso, and graduated from the US Army Command and Staff College with a Master of Military Arts and Sciences. He is the author of Operation Eagle Claw 1980 for Osprey.
Jim Laurier is a native of New England and lives in New Hampshire. He attended Paier School of Art in Hamden, Connecticut, from 1974–78, and since graduating with Honours, he has been working professionally in the field of Fine Art and Illustration. He has been commissioned to paint for the US Air Force and has aviation paintings on permanent display at the Pentagon.
Johnny Shumate works as a freelance illustrator living in Nashville, Tennessee. He began his career in 1987 after graduating from Austin Peay State University. Most of his work is rendered in Adobe Photoshop using a Cintiq monitor. His greatest influences are Angus McBride, Don Troiani, and Édouard Detaille.
Alan Gilliland, a contributor to more than 70 Osprey titles, notably in the Weapon series, writes, illustrates and publishes fiction (www.ravensquill.com), as well as illustrating for a variety of publishers (alangillilandillustration.blogspot.com).

Table of Contents

Origins
Chronology
Initial Strategy
The Plan
The Raid
The Aftermath
Analysis and Conclusion
Bibliography
Index