Aces High Bulletin Board
General Forums => Aces High General Discussion => Topic started by: Howitzer on March 25, 2004, 10:24:49 AM
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Hey guys, I couldn't find a forum that fit this post well, so just put it General. Anyways, I just finished reading "The Wild Blue" by Stephen Ambrose about the B-24 Liberators in Italy. I am now looking for another book, and was wondering if anyone had any recommendations. Anything WWII air/infantry campaign would be interesting, just nothing too ACM technical or anything, kinda looking for a story to go along with the specifics :)
Thanks all who reply.
--Howitzer
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I enjoyed "an ace of the eighth" by norman "bud" fortier.
also heard a book called "fly boys" is good.. dont know authors name. Plus there is the classic book "thunderbolt" by Robert Johnson i believe was his name. Think he was #2 ace behind gabby.
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Try Panzer Aces by Franz Kurowski ,JG 26, Top Guns of the Luftwaffe by Donald Caldwell, or maybe Soldat, I cant find it right now, so no author, or Samurai! by Saburo Sakai,
or Aces agianst Germany, by Eric Hammel (lots'a good stories in that one)
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This topic should be in the History section. Flyboys is a great read.
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I just finished a new one: 'Wreaking Havoc ; A year in an A-20" by Joseph W. Rutter. Rutter flew with the 312BG/389BS which is the same unit depicted by the AH A-20G. His bird had a C on the tail. My bud's dad flew with them too. His had an M.
Read another one a while ago. "First Light" by Geoffery Wellum ( I think the name's right) He flew Spits from the beginning of the war on thru the BoB.
Drano
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If you have not already,
Good By Micky Mouse
Great story about a P51 sqd in England.
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Anything by Martin Middlebrook; any of his several books about the bombing raids over Germany will be superb.
Anything by Gerald Astor; especially, "The Mighty Eighth."
Anything by Eric Bergerud; especially, "Fire in the Sky" about the Pacific air campaign.
Rick Atkins is starting to look pretty good.
All of the above are written by solid historians with plenty of literary integrity. They deal with whole campaigns, but are filled with individual stories and the awesome, unexpected kind of details of combat experience that you just won't find anywhere else.
And yes, "An Ace of the Eighth" is excellent.
Best first hand accounts by infantry men? "Roll Me Over" and, the most horrifying account of ground combat: "The Forgotten Soldier" by Guy Sajer.
"Flyboys" was pretty insubstantial. A small story about atrocities, puffed up in length to fill a book-length volume.
There's more.
regards, Airman T. E. Shaw
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Originally posted by Howitzer
Hey guys, I couldn't find a forum that fit this post well, so just put it General. Anyways, I just finished reading "The Wild Blue" by Stephen Ambrose about the B-24 Liberators in Italy. I am now looking for another book, and was wondering if anyone had any recommendations. Anything WWII air/infantry campaign would be interesting, just nothing too ACM technical or anything, kinda looking for a story to go along with the specifics :)
Thanks all who reply.
--Howitzer
Try JG26 - Top Guns of the Luftwaffe by Donald Caldwell
or A Piece of Cake by Derek Robinson
Both available on Amazon
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Originally posted by mars01
If you have not already,
Good By Micky Mouse
Great story about a P51 sqd in England.
Bomber and Blitzkrieg by Deighton are great too..
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Wing Leader by Johnnie Johnstone oops :D
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Originally posted by Furball
Wing Commander by Johnnie Johnstone
Psst Furball!
"Wing Leader" by Johnnie Johnson
"Enemy in the Sky" by Sandy Johnstone
Ya got em combined :)
Both good books by two different Spit pilots
Dan/Slack
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Not infantry or airwar, but a damn good read.
The book is the bio of the guy who got Macarthur out of the Philipines on his PT boat. The Movie "they where exspendable" was based on him.
He had a long and VERY interesting career. Starting in 1940 when he stole the brief case of the japanese embasadore.
Sea Wolf The Daring Exploits of Navy Legend John D. Bulkeley
William B. Breuer Presidio
One of those books I just couldnt put down..
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Originally posted by Howitzer
Hey guys, I couldn't find a forum that fit this post well, so just put it General. Anyways, I just finished reading "The Wild Blue" by Stephen Ambrose about the B-24 Liberators in Italy. I am now looking for another book, and was wondering if anyone had any recommendations. Anything WWII air/infantry campaign would be interesting, just nothing too ACM technical or anything, kinda looking for a story to go along with the specifics :)
Thanks all who reply.
--Howitzer
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'd also suggest the classic "Serenade to the Big Bird", written by Bert Stiles. He was a co-pilot, flying with the 91st BG out of Basingbourn, England and wrote the book during the war. He was killed flying 51s in November of 44. That the book was written before the war ended, gives it a real 'at the time' feeling.
Just looking around at the books on the shelves near my computer, I could give you a list a mile long too. There are some really great books out there.
Dan/Slack
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I enjoyed Tuck's "Fly for your Life". read it as a kid though... don't remember if it makes good adult reading.
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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.
Dan/Slack
Agreed While it was an ok read. I found it only ...well ok.
It was far from Ambrose's normal standards
Anything else by Abrose is a great read.
Here's another great read.
"Up Front" by Bill Maulden.
If the name sounds familiour it should Mauden was the cartoonest who did the "Willie and Joe" cartoons for "Stars and Stripes" during the war.
What many do not realise is that Bill actually went to and lived up front with the combat soldier and shared in their experiances. Such as the time he witnessed 3 selt propelled anti tank gunseach firing several rounds a point blank range on a tiger and having zero effect on it other then to have it wheel its turret around and destroy all three ATGs with 3 shots.
Anyway "Up Front" is about those experiances and the experiances of being in the service during the war.
Really a VERY good book
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If you can find it - "The Big Show" by Pierre Clostermann.
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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.
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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.
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I remember tucks book also,another good one I don't see lised yet is "Reach for the Sky" By Douglas Bader
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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
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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.
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stuka pilot is pretty good...
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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.
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"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 :aok
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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 (http://www.biggles.au.com/)
:D couldent resist...sorry