Your favorite warbird books

[Beachy]

Woodbine Red Leader: A P-51 Mustang Ace in the Mediterranean Theater by George Loving...........that was pretty interesting........was one of the guys who flew the Spits before the Mustangs arrived........

[valdez25]

"To Fly and Fight" Bud Anderson is the best. You can really feel it while Bud was going through training. "Goodbye Mickey Mouse" (fiction) by Len Deighton, "Over the Beach" (Vietnam) by Zalin Grant, "The Wild Blue" by Stephen Ambrose, "John Glenn" (autobiography), "Mighty Eighth" by Roger Freeman

[Jerry O'Neill]

"The Lonely Sky"..Bill Bridgeman D-558 pilot
"The Wrong Stuff"...Test flying for the Navy
"Bombs Ary"...B-26's & B-36's
"Whistling Death"...Boone Guyton

Just a couple!
Jerry

[yakdriver]

Piece of Cake by Derek Robinson One of the best books I've read. Very good depiction of flying in France at the beginning of WWII.

[oz rb fan]

"the samuri"and "killer cadlwell"
paul

[DCogdon1]

Piece of Cake by Derek Robinson One of the best books I've read. Very good depiction of flying in France at the beginning of WWII.

Get the DVD as well - it's amazing just how well the story translated into a 6-part TV series.

[treadigraph]

I'll second Bill Greenwood's nomination "Fly for Your Life" by Larry Forrester about Bob Stanford-Tuck. Gripping, exceptionally well written and very, very readable. But make sure you get the unabridged version! First read it when I was about six (no really, just after seeing "Battle of Britain") and recently acquired another copy. Every bit as good as I remembered!

[corsair166b]

How could no one mention 'Rag wings and heavy Iron' by Martin Caidin? Hilarious warbird stories that make you proud to have been part of the whole 'warbird movement' of the 60' 70's and 80's if you were there...

M

[Matt Gunsch]

How could no one mention 'Rag wings and heavy Iron' by Martin Caidin? Hilarious warbird stories that make you proud to have been part of the whole 'warbird movement' of the 60' 70's and 80's if you were there... [/quote]

I was, as a very young kid. lot older now, still a kid.

I forgot one other book I like,
Grey Eagles, about a group of ex Luftwaffe aces in restored 109s, from a secret base in AZ, attacking the CAF.

[k5083]

Piece of Cake by Derek Robinson One of the best books I've read. Very good depiction of flying in France at the beginning of WWII.

Yes, that was a good one. Well written and with a good story arc. The thesis, advanced through a reporter character, that the BoB really didn't matter because the Germans lacked the capability to invade Britain even with air supremacy was controversial at the time, but thought provoking.

For non-fiction, I thought "The Narrow Margin" was probably the best BoB piece, although some of its conclusions are dubious now.

I like books that offer big-picture analysis of air power rather than endless first-hand combat accounts, and in that context Stokesbury's "A Short History of Air Power" is a good read. For a deeper and more critical analysis, Sherry's "The Rise of American Air Power" is good.

August

[ww2John]

In addition to some already mentioned (good thread guys):

Here are a very few "picks"...

For Historical Perspective, try:
Winged Victory - Geoffrey Perret
USAF Handbook 1939-1945 - Martin Bowman
Beyond The Wild Blue - Walter Boyne

First Person Perspective, try:
Wild Blue Yonder - Martin Bowman
Duty - Bob Greene
Flight of the Enola Gay - Paul Tibbets
War's End - Charles Sweeney
Laughter and Tears - George Rarey
Lucky Bastard Club - Eugene Fletcher

Something a bit different:
Flying the Old Planes - Frank Tallman (a pilots-pilot view of actually flying these a/c, but not in combat).

enjoy

[TEXANTOMCAT]

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.

YES STEVE!!!

Ace is a great book - didnt know anyone else had ever heard of it....would make a great film!!!



TT

[dors]

Yeager - the autobiography

[Bill Greenwood]

Correction, the book on Douglas Bader is Reach(not Fight) For The Sky. I would say this may be my choice of warbird books if you only read one, not just for the flying, but for a person who's strenght of character was immense. There are many who disagreed with him as on the Big Wing, even some who did not like him, but I think all respect him. Has any one read the book that doesn't think it is tops? The other 4 I mentioned are close, and all can be found in paperback. Thanks to the courtesy of Peter Arnold I met Alex Henshaw and have a signed copy of his book.

[C170BDan]

Sigh for a Merlin on Alex Henshaw: Test Pilot on Jeffery Quill: Fly for Your Life on Robert Stanford-Tuck.

Alex Henshaw's books are some of the best I have read. Sigh for a Merlin and Flight of the Mew Gull are well written and take you right into the action.

Also high on my list...

Nine Lives by Alen Deere
Night Fighter (forgot the authors name - about flying Beaufighters)
Into the Teeth of the Tiger by Lopez
My Secret War by Drury