What are you reading?

[JohnB]

Ian W. Toll's WWII Pacific trilogy...

Pacific Crucible
The Concuering Tide
Twilight for the Gods

They cover most of the action in the Pacific...primarily naval and the island hopping campaigns (not much on the Aleutians or MacArthur pre-Philippine invasion). Aviation is very well covered, though not the primary focus.
Plus some details on the home front politics...newsflash, despite what you were told in high school, FDR was not universally seen as a god. Also, a good look at the Japanese home front.

As aviation people we tend to specialize, it doesn't hurt to step back and get a broader look...i.e. Why the carriers and Grummans were there in the first place.

In the same vein...any of the WWII books by award willing Naval historian James D. Hornfischer

[Hooligan2]

Just finished "Everything But the Flak" by Martin Caidin...

I'd love to run across a copy and read that again. IIRC, it was hilarious!

It's brilliant - I'd be of the opinion that Caidin made the whole thing up - except... he didn't!! I've also got his Ju-52 book somewhere. plus Ragwings and Anywhere, Anytime, Anyplace...

I got Everything but the Flak from Abebooks as I recall.

Hope you find a copy...

[Saville]

Going "Old School" here. Also got the new P-51B North American's Bastard Stepchild that saved the 8th Air Force. The story was NOT that they drew up some sketches on a napkin to show the British and 120 days later a new airplane rolled out.

Very True. Schmued had been working on elements of the fighter for months - maybe even years. Most of the pieces were conceptually in place when NAA talked with the British.

[wendovertom]

"Pearl Harbor: From Infamy to Greatness" - by Craig Nelson.

I also re-read "Backwards into Battle: A tail gunners Journey in World War II" By Andy Doty - I actually was able to converse with the author several years ago via email about his B-29 experiences.

I highly recommend both books - the Pearl Harbor book is a little slow to start as it covers a great amount of the political background prior to 1941.

Tom P.

Last edited by wendovertom on Wed Feb 03, 2021 1:32 pm, edited 1 time in total.

[Baldeagle]

My favorite WW2 fighter pilot book is "First Light" by Spitfire pilot Geoffrey Wellum.

For WW1 it's "Sagittarius Rising" by Cecil Lewis, who went on to be a founder of the BBC, and won a screenwriting Oscar for Pygmalion in 1938.



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[Vagabond]

“The Flying Tigers” by Sam Kleiner

“Race of Aces” by John R Bruning

Both books really fleshed out my knowledge!!

TFT on the AVG - lots of details on dates, events and the end of Chennault’s life.

ROA on General Kenney, the P-39 in the Aluetians, Gerald Johnson, Neel Kearby and the P-47s in the Pacific, Charles MacDonald, Lindbergh pushing his way into combat and lots of detail regarding McGuire and Bong. Info about the families fallout and survivors post war.

Also Jack Cook got a nice thanks from the author - Go WIX!!!

Looking forward to Bruning’s book on Pappy Gunn.

[MKD1966]

Although it won't be delivered until the first of next week - with all the talk both here on WIX and also several pages on Facebook about the upcoming movie on the true story of Thomas Hudner and Jesse Brown and reading alot of comments about how great the book "Devotion" is - so I ordered it a couple days ago... Really looking forward to start reading it next week - and then of coarse looking forward to the movie later on when it comes out...
Mike

[ZRX61]

Just finished Matt Jackson's (no, not that one) third Vietnam book LamSon 719
Now reading The Battle For Skyline Ridge
and also CW2 by Layne Heath.
I have "Surely You're Joking Mr Feynman" in the *to read* pile coming up next.

[steve dickey]

1) ‘Twelve to One’ V Fighter Command Aces of the Pacific

Does this one by chance show 7 victory ace(likely 8 ), Burnell "Burt" Adams. Good friend of mine is his son in law. Trying to find any wartime photos of him or his plane. His plane had a standing lady painted on the front with a W on the nose. See link. This is all we have.

https://i1.wp.com/80fsheadhunters.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/NOSEA07.jpg

[Scott Rose]

Next up...

Forgotten Fifteenth
By Barrett Tillman

So far pretty interesting

[Snake45]

I'll probably finish up Combat Jump today. It's about the 505th Parachute Regiment's jump into Sicily on July 9, 1943. Pretty darn good--puts me in mind of Band of Brothers. Recommended!

[Jeremy S]

I have been reading a lot of books by Gemini/Apollo era astronauts lately.

Finished reading (all three of these were really good):

Carrying The Fire - Michael Collins
Failure Is Not An Option - Gene Kranz
The All American Boys - Walt Cunningham

Books I have purchased and are on the list to read:

Falling to Earth: An Apollo 15 Astronaut's Journey to the Moon - Al Worden
Countdown - An Autobiography - Frank Borman
We Have Capture: Tom Stafford and the Space Race - Tom Stafford

[Vagabond]

Just dove into:

“Hitler’s Jet Plane The Me-262 Story” by Mano Ziegler - great stuff so far.

Available on Kindle Unlimited.

[Saville]

1) ‘Twelve to One’ V Fighter Command Aces of the Pacific

Does this one by chance show 7 victory ace(likely 8 ), Burnell "Burt" Adams. Good friend of mine is his son in law. Trying to find any wartime photos of him or his plane. His plane had a standing lady painted on the front with a W on the nose. See link. This is all we have.

https://i1.wp.com/80fsheadhunters.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/NOSEA07.jpg

There is no "Adams" in the index. Sorry

[junkman9096]

"Twelve to One" isn't a listing of aces in the 5th AF. It would be more correctly described as a compilation of tactical reports from the field laying out what the folks of the "pointy end" found worked and didn't work. I've also got a copy.