Your favorite warbird books

[wwiiavfan]

I'm always looking for recommendations for good warbird-related stories, and I'm wondering what everyone else would list as their favorites. Did a bit of a search on here but didn't come up with much on this topic, so I'm wondering if you folks would mind listing your top 5 or 10 (or three!) favorite titles, fiction or non-. Please list author if possible. A couple of words on why you enjoyed it would be fun, too.

A couple of my favorites:
Flyboys
The last Dogfight -- Martin Caidin
The Ragged, Rugged Warriors -- Martin Caidin

Thanks,
Ken[/i]

[Steve T]

Ken--

Hm, first movies, now books...yeah, it's cocooning season, isn't it...

Some of my bookshelf faves

The Last Dogfight (Caidin)
Whip (Caidin)
Ace (Spencer Dunmore...a kind of WWII Blue Max)
To War In A Stringbag (author's name escapes me)
Winged Victory (ditto)
Terror In The Starboard Seat (shoot: can't even remember that one!!)

S.

[Jerry O'Neill]

Are we talking Fiction or Non-Fiction books?
Jerry

[Matt Gunsch]

Everything But The Flak

Iron Annie

[ZeamerB17]

Half a Wing, Three Engines and a Prayer by Brian D. O'Neill (special revised edition) A classic; one of the best I've ever read.

Those Who Fall by John Muirhead

Combat Crew by John Comer

To Fly and Fight by Clarence E. "Bud" Anderson

Serenade to the Big Bird by Bert Stiles

A Wing and a Prayer by Harry H. Crosby

Lady's Men by Mario Martinez

Or Go Down in Flame: A Navigator's Death over Schweinfurt by W. Raymond Wood

Ragwings and Heavy Iron; The Saga of Iron Annie; and Flying Forts by Martin Caidin

Bomber Pilot by Philip Ardery

One Last Look by Philip Kaplan and Rex Alan Smith

etc etc ...

Dave

[k5083]

I liked Caidin's "Last Dogfight" and "Whip" when I was a kid but when I later re-read them as an adult they seemed very juvenile, very pulp fiction. I thought his non-fiction was simplistic as well. "The Fork-Tailed Devil" is the only book of his that I felt really holds up over the years.

Spencer Dunmore's "Bomb Run" also thrilled me as a kid; today I think it's okay, not as great as I once did.

"Sea Flight" by Hugh Popham is a good WWII bio. He was basically an unknown Sea Hurricane pilot. "I Was a Kamikaze" by Nagatsuka, an obscure Kamikaze pilot, is also okay. Not one autobio by any famous ace is a decent piece of writing IMO; I think I've read them all. "Samurai!" by Sakai, Caidin & Saito is not too bad, but still very much in the transcribed-diary genre that gets very old after a while.

Eric Brown's "Wings of the Navy," "Wings of the Luftwaffe", and "Wings of the Weird and Wonderful" are all very enjoyable books on the flying qualities of various WW2 aircraft from one of the all-time great WW2 "type hogs," and quite literately written as well.

"Catch-22" of course is a masterpiece but it is much more than a WW2 aviation book.

August

[Former Member]

When I was a teenager in high school I remember reading "Stuka Pilot" by Hans Ulrich Rudel as well as "The Blonde Knight of Germany" by the all-time leading kills pilot, Eric Hartmann.

Both books were quite an eye-opener when describing the brutal air war on the eastern front.

John

[Erich]

Jean-Yves Lorant/Richard Goyat's JG 300, two volumes. Not just covering this much overworked Geschwader but also the US units facing it over the Reich. volume 1 is already out in English

E ~

[DCogdon1]

The Big Show by Pierre Clostermann - one of the first books I ever read on the air war of WW2, and still a darn fine read years later!

[Beachy]

The First Heroes by Craig Nelson was good......Was about the Doolittle Raid.

[Flashonyrsix]

Nanette by Edwards Park and Jet Age Test Pilot by Tex Johnston, no combat but lots of test flying P-39 thru B-52, The Hunters by James Salter.

Norm

Last edited by Flashonyrsix on Tue Nov 07, 2006 2:12 am, edited 1 time in total.

[Bill Greenwood]

Fight for the Sky on Douglas Bader: Blonde Knight of Germany on Hartmann: Sigh for a Merlin on Alex Henshaw: Test Pilot on Jeffery Quill: Fly for Your Life on Robert Stanford-Tuck.

[leo]

Thunderbolt by Robert Johnson

The Look of Eagles by John Godfrey

Fork Tailed Devil, A Torch to the Enemy, The Night Hamburg Died, Whip, The Last Dogfight, Flying Fort and Ragwings and Heavy Iron by Martin Caiden (I know he takes a few liberties but he reads good)

Flying Fortress, and the Airwar 2 book set by Edward Jablonski

The Big Show by Closterman.

and on and on.
Heck I like em all...

[wwiiavfan]

Excellent responses!
Thanks, and keep 'em coming!

[wwiiavfan]

Are we talking Fiction or Non-Fiction books?
Jerry

Both (at least I like them both...)