Best WWII Aircraft Source Book?

[Halo]

Curious what you consider the best book about WWII aircraft -- all types, all countries?  

Or, your top favorites.  Don't know if any one book is clearly dominant.  

For example, for U.S. fighters, I'm impressed with The American Fighter (Orion, 1987) by Enzo Angelucci.  I've also ordered America's Hundred Thousand after seeing its highly favorable reviews.

Also ordered Soviet Combat Aircraft of the Second World War (Single-Engined Fighters) by Gordon and Khazanov.  

Best single compact reference I've seen is Fighting Aircraft of World War II (MBI, 1998)by Bill Gunston, although it omits support aircraft like the C-47 and Ju52.  

I have several others, from paperback single plane to huge coffee table compendiums, but these are the ones that sortie the most for me.  What are your favs?

[Wilbus]

Warplanes of the Luftwaffe.

Brittish Warplanes.

American Warplanes.

Fighters of World War II.

Focke Wulf FW 190 In Combat by Alfred Price.

more coming in a month or so, going in to buy some as soon as I get money  

[Swoop]

Wilbus,

Luftwaffe war diaries - Cajus Bekker.  ISBN 0-306-80604-5.


You'll love it.

 

[air_ReCoile]

Got that one too Swoop, very nice indeed!

[leonid]

• Soviet Combat Aircraft of the Second World War Vol.1 & 2, Gordon & Khazanov
  
• Black Cross/Red Star Vol.1 & 2, Bergstrom & Mikhailov (a total of 6 volumes are planned)

[funkedup]

Warplanes of the Third Reich - William Green
It's out of print and has some errors, but it's got SOOOOOOOOOO much stuff.

Japanese Aircraft of the Pacific War
 - Rene J. Francillon.  Really nice and compact reference on Japanese aircraft and their weapons.

I have both volumes of the Gordon/Khazanov Soviet books and they are great.

America's Hundred Thousand is the best book I have ever seen on the aircraft of any country.

I'm still looking for a similar book on US Bombers.

I'm looking for a good Spitfire book.  The ones I have been able to find are pretty wimpy and lacking in technical detail.

Also anything on Tempest/Typhoon would rock.

[funkedup]

PS If you have trouble finding a particular book try www.abebooks.com

[Effdub]

www.amazon.com

Huge Collection of Aircraft books.

I like the "Aircraft of the Aces" series alot (good for modelling  

[Karnak]

I have in my view right now:

De Haviland Mosquito by Martin Bowman
The Battle of Britain by Richard Townshend Bickers
The History of German Aviation: Kurt Tank Focke-Wulf's Designer and Test Pilot by Wolfgang Wagner
Fighters of World War II edited by David Donald
Bombers of World War II edited by David Donald
Luftwaffe Handbook 1939-1945 by Alfred Price
JANE's Fighting Aircraft of World War II
Fighting Aircraft of World War II by Bill Gunston
World War II Airplanes by David Lee
Spitfire Flying Legend by John Dibbs and Tony Holmes
Spitfire The History by Eric B. Morgan and Edward Shacklady
The Great Book of World War II Airplanes
Rapid Fire by Anthony Williams
Mosquito Bomber/Fighter-Bomber Units 1942-45 by Martin Bowman
Mosquito Fighter/Fighter-Bomber Units of World War 2 by Martin Bowman
Imperial Japanese Navy Aces 1937-45 by Henry Sakaida
Finnish Aces of World War 2 by Kari Stenman and Kalevi Keskinen

I need references on Armor now.

[flakbait]

Aircraft of WW2
Stewart Wilson
ISBN# 1-875671-35-8
$20

Not the biggest, or the greatest, but it does have a single B&W photo of every aircraft in it. Along with a few paragraphs of text it gives typical specs for a given type. Not too bad actually.

-----------------------
Flakbait [Delta6]
Delta Six's Flight School
Put the P-61B in Aces High
"For yay did the sky darken, and split open and spew forth fire, and
through the smoke rode the Four Wurgers of the Apocalypse.
And on their canopies was tattooed the number of the Beast, and the
number was 190." Jedi, Verse Five, Capter Two, The Book of Dweeb
 

[wells]

Funked,

You want 'Spitfire: The History' by Morgan and Shacklady.  ISBN 0-946219-48-6

Wing's of the Luftwaffe is pretty good by Eric Brown.  ISBN 1-85310-413-2

'The Great Book of World War II Airplanes' is also a good one, it's huge!  I know the title seems a bit cheesy, but it's a compilation of authors on a variety of aircraft, P-38, P-51, B-17, Hellcat, Corsair, Spitfire, Mosquito, Lancaster, bf109, fw190, Ju87, Zero.

ISBN 0-517-16024-2

[Jimdandy]

The Complete Book of Fighters An Illustrated Encyclopedia of Every Fighter Aircraft Built and Flown

William Green, Gordon Swanborough

Smithmark Publishers, Inc. 1994

It's no longer in publication. I got on line and found a used copy. Very good book.

[ 08-31-2001: Message edited by: Jimdandy ]

[mipoikel]

Double Fighter Knight

web page

read also:

web page

[Durr]

An awesome book especially for those of us in massively multiplayer WW2 type flight sims is a book by Capt Erich Brown, RN
Duels in the Sky:World War II Naval Aircraft in Combat
In this book he compares aircraft, even those which didnt historically actually fight one another such as, FW-190 vs Corsair for instance, and tells which was better at what.  Its a fascinating book and he knows what hes talking about. Capt Brown at one point held the world record for most carrier landings and I think he still does.  He also may have the record for most types of WW2 aircraft flown.  So if you are tired of hearing people in AH that have no clue what they are talking about debate P-51 vs Spitfire, or Corsair vs N1k1, and you want the straight scoop, you should check this book out.

[hazed-]

also try:


'Ive flown 'em all and I know which is best' written by Hauptmann Hazed KC
ISBN 0-666-666-0