Looking for a new book

[Bonden]

If you can find it - "The Big Show" by Pierre Clostermann.

[MotorOil]

Originally posted by Guppy35
Psst Furball!

"Wing Leader" by Johnnie Johnson

Dan/Slack

Ya, it's "Wing Leader" - Excellent account, perhaps a little poorly written but it's straight to the point.  It doesn't dive heavily into the past of the pilot and how the guy never saw a plane before the war or how he came from "Hick Town" USA and then you find out the only reason the book was written is cause the guy was a senator and ran for President like "Wild Blue" does.  Wing Leader has a lot of his actual accounts of sorties and those of his buddies.  

"Faith Under Fire"  Wasn't too bad, modern day author about chaplains in WWII.  Not what I expected, allot of good accounts there.  

Zero Fighter - Yoshimura, Akira, Made me fly it for a tour after reading the book.

[gofaster]

Originally posted by Guppy35
Just so you know, "The Wild Blue" was not Ambrose's best effort.  He took large parts of a very good book and used them in Wild Blue.

The book Ambrose borrowed from is by Thomas Childers and called "Wings of Morning" about his search to learn about his uncle who was killed in B24s over Europe.  It's a fascinating book and far better then Wild Blue.

I've read "Wings of Morning" and I agree that its a fantastic book.  For that reason, I scanned Ambrose's work, realized it was simply a repeat of a better book, and put "Wild Blue" back on the display table.  

Read "Wings of Morning", right now!  No excuses mister!  And that's an order!

By the way, try "Decision Over Schweinfurt" and "A Cold Blue Sky" for more heavy bomber reading.

[Flit]

I remember tucks book also,another good one I don't see lised yet is "Reach for the Sky" By Douglas Bader

[Howitzer]

Dan,

Yeah I never really said in this post how I felt about "The Wild Blue", but I thought that it jumped around WAY too much, I found at least one grammatical error in the book, and it centered too heavily around Senator McGovern.  I know that he ran for president and all, but it was much more interesting when it was just a group of Joe Schmoe's heading off to war.  I have respect for Ambrose as he wrote "Band of Brothers", but you are right, not his best effort.

All,

Thank you to everyone who responded, I'm definetely going to look up your suggestions, I really appreciate all of them.

--Howitzer

[MotorOil]

Originally posted by gofaster
..... realized it was simply a repeat of a better book, and put "Wild Blue" back on the display table.  
 

 That's exactly how the book felt.  Never read the other book you've mentioned but yes Wild Blue was centred around Senator McGovern too much.  Nothing really happened to him, he never saw a fighter, never was shot down, had a couple close calls perhaps and saw a few things.  I think there were probably hundreds of better people to write about and the book in the end just felt like it was written because of what he became after the war rather than what he did during the war.  

Don't get me wrong, anyone who served in the war was a hero, there are some that are worth writing about and some that.... well, you get the point.

[vorticon]

stuka pilot is pretty good...

[mars01]

I have to agree, Wild Blue was a decent read but not an edge of your seat thriller.

Any General Aviation guys Try Fate Is The Hunter, was a good book.

[Keiler]

"The first and the Last" by Adolf Galland
("Die Ersten und die Letzten").

Very good read on his carreer as a pilot.
Starts before the war, over to the Spanish civil war in "Legion Condor" over to his time as fighter pilot in WW2.
Reflects well his thoughts, concers, and views in this time, as well as towards other officers, and his superiors, as well as Hitler and Göring. Funny read from time to time too

I highly recommend that one

[vorticon]

the black peril by W.E. JOHNS is good...though its about the ww1 ace james bigglesworth...read more about it and other books about this famous person here

 couldent resist...sorry