Aces High Bulletin Board
General Forums => Aircraft and Vehicles => Topic started by: anonymous on September 10, 2004, 02:31:01 PM
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guys i dont know much at all about air combat in world war two. give me three books to read. one on pacific one on europe one on the whole shebang. if you see your recommendation mentioned by someone else mention it again. ill look at the list and see which books mentioned most. thanks for your time.
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Books don't tend to be that general.
Most of mine are aircraft specific. Other common books are memoirs or biographies. Some to look into would be about Erich Hartmann, Adolf Galland, Johnie Johnson, Francis Gabreski, Douglas Bader, Robert Tuck, Saburo Sakai and Bud Anderson. There are many others too.
There are also various Osprey series books that may be of interest to you.
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Are you looking for the cut and dry history A, then B, then C happened? or something more analytical? Interested in first hand accounts? There's a lot of bio's written by various pilots that do a good job of conveying what it was like to be there, but their scope is understandibly limited.
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Hmmm, you make it tough with only 3 options.
Three that would give you some flavor would be
Steve Birdsell="Flying Buccaneers" Its a history of the 5th Air Force in the Pacific but gives a real good taste of the airwar there from beginning to end.
Roger Freeman-"The Mighty Eighth" Covers the 8th Air Force war from England.
Cajus Bekker-"Luftwaffe War Diaries" A fairly good look at the airwar from the Luftwaffe perspective.
There are tons of others, and as an RAF fan I know I've missed on that with the three titles I gave and that I missed the Soviet side and the Japanese side, but you said 3 titles :)
Dan/Slack
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Malta 1942: The Spitfire Year.
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For the General Air War
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0684839156/qid=1094865143/sr=1-1/ref=sr_1_1/103-5816288-5939800?v=glance&s=books
For the Luftwaffe (not repeating reommendations already in the thread:
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/1853675601/ref=sib_rdr_dp/103-5816288-5939800?%5Fencoding=UTF8&no=283155&me=ATVPDKIKX0DER&st=books
For a great snapshot of the entire dayfighter war I recommend:
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0804110506/ref=pd_sim_books_3/103-5816288-5939800?v=glance&s=books
Hope that helps you out some!
Crumpp
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anonymous--
These are three excellent books worth tracking down and studying. They aren't from each of the categories you wanted, but so it goes...enjoy.
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Two books by EDWARD H. SIMS
Fighter Tactics and Strategy 1914-1970
The Greatest Aces
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By Norman Franks: Aircraft Versus Aircraft
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I admit that the first and third books aren't just about WW2, but they mostly are, and make very valuable reading.
MRPLUTO
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By Norman Franks: Aircraft Versus Aircraft
Good book.
Crumpp
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If you have a particular plane you'd like to read up about, check out the "Osprey Aircraft of the Aces" series... They have numerous titles for just about any plane or theatre (they had 33 titles as of 2003, I believe, so probably have a few more by now).
They are short reads (for example, "Bf109 Aces of North Africa and the Mediterranean" is only 99 pages, start to end of index) But they are interesting. You can find them at Amazon I'm sure.
- BTW just noticed Karnak already mentioned this, but I gave the full title of the series, so there :p
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For Airwarfare history and tactics in both wars, Simm's book mentioned above is excellent.
Also Johnny Johnson's "Full Circle"
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A couple of other good reads are:
"Samurai" by Saburo Sakai (sp?) - Japan's leading ace to survive the war
"The Blonde Knight of Germany" - can't remember the author, but is the biography of Erich Hartmann
"The First and the Last" - autobiography by Adolph Galland but deals very much with the rise and fall of the Luftwaffe from his point of view
"Gunther Rall: A Memoir" by Gunther Rall
Hammer
netAces.org (http://www.netaces.org) - Tips, Tactics, and More!
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For the whole shebang - good, digestable read is: Clash of Wings by Walter J. Boyne. (already mentioned by crumpp). Great sweeping overview of the different theaters around the world. Probably one of my favorites.
For a USAAF operations view for the ETO, MTO, and PTO - Winged Victory by Geoffrey Perret. A little bit dryer reading but again a nice look at the broad picture including air force build-up.
A couple of perrenial favorites for me of specific campaigns:
Miracle at Midway by Gordon W. Prange
The Battle of Britain by Richard Hough and Denis Richards
Tango, XO
412th FS Braunco Mustangs
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i have a really nice book called "Battles with the luftwaffe" by Janes.
great pilot quotes & pictures.
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How is that big fat book
"Fire in the sky"
About the Pacific air war
Was at Foyle's and would have bought it if I'd had the money...........
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Paperbacks:
- Eric Hammel, "Aces Against Japan" (and Aces Against Germany)
Nothing but non-stop combat stories from American Aces.
- Saburo Sakai, "Samurai"
One of Japan's top aces tells his stories, including his amazing flight home over hundreds of miles of water after being shot in the head.
- Donald Caldwell, "JG-26"
Great unit history, lots of combat, a microcosm of the rise and fall of the luftwaffe.
Doesn't fit your '3 books' criteria exactly, but these are pretty cheap paperbacks that should be easy to find and all are great reads.