Aces High Bulletin Board
General Forums => Aces High General Discussion => Topic started by: cav58d on December 29, 2005, 10:27:32 PM
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Couple books have caught my eye and im thinking of ordering them...Looking for reviews or suggestions...
1- Dumb but lucky: Confessions of a P-51 Fighter Pilot in WWII (Richard K. Curtis)
2- The Black Sheep: The Definitive Account of Marine Fighting Squadron 214 in World War II (Bruce Gamble)
3- The Blond Knight of Germany : A Biography of Erich Hartmann
4- I Flew for the Fuhrer (Heinz Knoke)
5- Fate is the Hunter- (Ernest Kellogg Gann)
Thanks...Cav
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1- Dumb but lucky: Confessions of a P-51 Fighter Pilot in WWII (Richard K. Curtis)
2- The Black Sheep: The Definitive Account of Marine Fighting Squadron 214 in World War II (Bruce Gamble)
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It was OK , not real detailed combat accounts , i think he fired his guns air to air once or twice . Not very technical as far as flying the 51 either . A fair read, i would never say it was a bad book for i have too much respect for anyone who served and flew a 51 in combat .
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Good book , read it 2 years ago so dont remember alot of details , do remember that he kinda picked boyington's storys apart and seperated the facts from the myths. 38
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4 Hienz knoke fantastic read..the poor bugger. Some nazi anti commie stuff to err set the pace?
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I have heard awesome reviews on Heinz Knokes book, im pumped to read it.....How about harttmans book, theres got to be atleast one of you luftwaffe nuts who have read it...?
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To Fly and Fight ...Anderson
Nine Lives.....Deere
The Jolly Rogers....Blackburn
Horrido Fighter Aces Of The Luftwaffe...I forget who wrote that
Wing Leader...Johnson
Thunderbolt.....another Johnson
The First and The Last...Galland
Samuri.....Sakai
Baa Baa Blacksheep....Boyington
The Big Show....Clostermann
These are some of the books I have.All of them were a great read.1st person accounts that put ya in the cockpit.Knoke's book was a good one too.If your into the Luftwaffe Id highly recomend"Horrido Fighter Aces Of the Luftwaffe"
"A bandit at you six is better than no bandit at all"
Pipz
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Not to take anything away from Pipz recommendations, but I read Baa Baa Blacksheep by Boyington, and I didn't care for it very much. Everyone has different tastes, but I was to the point at the end of the book where I just read it just so I could say that I finished it for the sake of not wasting money when I bought it. His first person accounts were pretty good, but I've also heard that they were somewhat suspect. Also, he seems to go out of his way in this book to portray himself as a degenerate loser with a drinking problem. It may be true... but he tries way to hard to get it across. Just my thoughts.
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I just finished reading Gunther Rall's autobiography, fascinating book IMO. I don't know if it's already available in English (the Finnish version I read just came out in the end of November, while the original German book is from 2004). About 2 thirds of the book was WWII, the rest from Rall's career in Bundesluftwaffe (and NATO).
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Speaking of books anybody who lives near a halfprice bookstore in the D/FW area they have some good one's cheep ,Flight manuals for the spit V and Hurc II ..real RAF reprints and german aircraft and armaments summery No. 44-32 (official WW II I.D. manual ) all these are brand new and under 10 bucks. My wife hates this store almost as much as she hates this game:lol
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"How to be a Ho" by Velvet Jones
BTW - that the 1/2 price off NW highway, i believe? (the bookstore, not the ho's...gotta see H.Hines about that)
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The one I was at was cooper street in arlington ,but the clerk said "most" of the stores should have them because they they are new stock..................Harry Hines.......... the street too tuff to die....... ...My parents owned a biker bar there for 10 years ........everything was for sale on Harry Hines,;)
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I too enjoy aviation history. A nice book that you may also enjoy is :
"The War Diary of Hauptmann Helmut Lipfert"
JG52 On the Russian Front 1943-1945
This is a translation of his diary. Gives personal information regarding his experiences during mission and how he engaged the Russian aircraft on the western front. Also towards the end of the War he talks about his engagements with US forces. Overall an interesting read.
Enjoy!
BisonCH
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One to add, a must get is Douglas Bader's autobiography 'Reach for the Sky'. An absolutely incredible 'character' is the best way to describe him.
Enemy Coast Ahead by Guy Gibson is also a good one.
If you want to go First World War too, i recomment 'Flying Fury, Five Years in The Royal Flying Corps' by James McCudden and 'Saggitarius Rising' by Cecil Lewis
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Yo Panzzer
Ralls book is available in English.I bought it some time ago when it came out.A great book by a great man.He realy accomplished a lot with his life.During and after the war.I found the storys of the Starfighters and the post war Luftwaffe interesting.He seemed like one of those guys with no end to his stamina.Is he still alive?I know in the early 90s when I saw him in interviews he looked like he was 50 years old.He was prolly 70 at the time.
Pipz
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"Messershmitts Over Sicily" - Johannes Steinhoff
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Originally posted by pipz
Yo Panzzer
Ralls book is available in English.I bought it some time ago when it came out.A great book by a great man.He realy accomplished a lot with his life.During and after the war.I found the storys of the Starfighters and the post war Luftwaffe interesting.He seemed like one of those guys with no end to his stamina.Is he still alive?I know in the early 90s when I saw him in interviews he looked like he was 50 years old.He was prolly 70 at the time.
Pipz
Yes, he is still alive. I saw him in 2003 when he was visiting Finland (link (http://www.virtualpilots.fi/feature/photoreports/guntherrall2003/)). :)
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You got to meet Guther Rall!!!!...ooo im jealous,excuse me while I eat my liver As much as I am into all this I have never actualy met a WW2 fighter pilot.I oughta make a point of it before its too late.Rall still looks good even in 2003.I hope I age so well,lookin in the mirror now though...I doubt it heheh
BTW in that link at the top theres a picture of Rall sitting at a table.What is that fury thing jumping up on to the table?Some kind of small ugly Finnish Lap Dog???
Have a happy new year!..Kippis!!
Pipz
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Originally posted by pipz
You got to meet Guther Rall!!!!...ooo im jealous,excuse me while I eat my liver As much as I am into all this I have never actualy met a WW2 fighter pilot.I oughta make a point of it before its too late.Rall still looks good even in 2003.I hope I age so well,lookin in the mirror now though...I doubt it heheh
BTW in that link at the top theres a picture of Rall sitting at a table.What is that fury thing jumping up on to the table?Some kind of small ugly Finnish Lap Dog???
Have a happy new year!..Kippis!!
Pipz
LOL, that's the microphone. :) Rall's visit was televised - that was part of the tv crew equipment.
Rall was an extremely nice gentleman, I'm happy to have met him. These are the finest occasions that happen due to interest in WWII aviation. :)
Kippis, Pipz, it's already 2006 here.. And a happy new year to all!
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"Nanette" by Edwards Park
Of all the fighter pilot books I've read over the years, this is still my absolute favorite.
He talks about his time with the 41st FS, 35th FG 5th AF flying P39s in the Pacific. And he talks about his 'love affair' with his Cobra, named "Nanette"
Great book about the average Joes flying in WW2. He's not a great pilot, his plane is lousy but he's kinda crazy about her, he's scared most if not all of the time, and he's just trying to survive.
A bit different from the Aces stories :)
"The Look of Eagles" by Johnny Godfrey is probably a close second. He flew Jugs and 51s with the 4th FG out of England.
"Serenade to the Big Bird" by Bert Stiles would be my favorite about bombers. It was written during the war by Stiles who was a co-pilot on 17s with the 91st BG in England. He was killed in November 44 flying a P51 with the 339th FG.
Something about it really captures the time. He, like Park, is an average at best pilot, doing the best he could while paying attention to what's going on in the world around him and putting it all into some sort of perspective.
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Blonde Knight of Germany is great.
Stuka by Hans Rudel is also good.
Fighter Pilot by Harold Robbins is some great fiction, and for a change of pace, read HMS Ulysses (think I spelled it right) ..fiction about a heavy cruiser on the North Atlantic runs.. cat launch hurricane and all.
'Peice of Cake' ..must read. Truly great fiction, but characters are right on the money along with the character of the early days over Britain. The sequel is also just as good ..P-40's in Africa in the early days.
Another nice read is 'Blazing (may be Brazen) Chariots' ..true story of british tankers in the Stuart light tanks in the early days against the Afrika corps. Big Brass Ones.
To fly and fight by 'Andy' Anderson (ya.. Yeager was his dweeb wingman)
First and the Last is kinda dry ..good when its good tho.
Galland got shoved into admin early on and dint get to fly combat as much as he wanted to.
I dont know of a good book about Moelders ..would love to find one.
Then there's that bohemian, the virtuoso of fighter pilots, Marseilles flyin for the Afrika Corps.
Thunderbolt is a great one.
Just don't come here an start ranting about how the P-47 should out dive, out climb, out turn everything ok?
Wing Leader is excellent. John E. Johnson climbed the ranks fast from spit dweeb to leader of spit dweebs :) (firmly tongue in cheek ..he was a great fighter pilot)
There's a great book about the 100th bomb group ..and how they earned the nickname 'The Bloody Hundredth' ..I cant remember the name of it and its packed away somewhere .. was written by their lead navigator, Mr. Chase I b'lieve.
I envy you a bit .. you are about to read some great stuff :)
-GE (had almost all the books ..need to get that one about Rall)
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GE,
Great choices!
Blond Knight was an excellent insight into Hartmann's life as a combat pilot.
I Flew for the Fuhrer was also great, although a bit drier than Hartmann's biography.
JG-26 - At work, can remember author
Fate is the Hunter, enjoyed that back in college!
I'd like to suggest a couple others that I enjoyed as well.
A Question of Honor - Lynne Olsen and Stanley Cloud (Absolutely shocking portrayal of the war from their point of view, MUST READ!)
WolfPack (56th FG) do not have the book as Maverick has yet to return it, so I can't give u the author!
Wings of Gold - Gerald Astor
Fire in the Sky - Regerud (Gets dry at times but very comprehensive coverage of SoPAC portion of the war)
Fight for the Sky - Douglas Bader (Excellent)
Spitfire! - Robert Jackson (A must read)
I have some more at works, will put them together for you at a later date!
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Excellent recommendations! Here are some I don't think have been mentioned yet.
TOP GUNS, by Joe Foss and Matthew Brennan. First-hand dogfighting accounts by a selection of pilots from WWI to Vietnam. Excellent.
Zemke's Wolfpack: The 56th Fighter Group in World War II, by William N. Hess. Stories of Hub Zemke, Robert Johnson, Francis Gabreski, etc.
Samurai, by Saburo Sakai, Martin Caido, Fred Saito. Accounts of Sakai, who was Japan's leading surviving ace.
Fork-Tailed Devil : The P-38, by Martin Caidin. A book about the plane and war accounts of flying it.
On the more technical side:
America's Hundred Thousand: U.S. Production Fighters of World War II,
by Francis H. Dean. Wonderful, amazing book with enormous technical detail on US WWII fighters.
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I haven't read "Dumb but Lucky", but if I were to get a book by a P-51 pilot it would be either "Mustang Ace" by Bob Goebel, or "To Fly and Fight" by Bud Anderson. Both are very well written - they give you a sense of being there in the cockpit and keep you wrapped up in the story. They also provide some good technical detail, and have lots of descriptions of combat (11 kills for Goebel and 16 for Anderson I believe). Better yet, get both.
I can't say I really liked "I Flew for the Fuhrer". The typical dogfight sequence would describe the same fighter as a lightning in one sentance, a mustang in the next, and a thunderbolt in the sentance after that. The whole book seemed to go in this fashion. My guess is that a lot was lost in translation.
"The Blonde Knight" was ok, but not really captivating - it sort of feels like reading a newspaper story about an event, rather then hearing it told first hand by the person who was there. Galland's book "The First and the Last" and Rudell's book "Stuka" both read like this as well IMO.
I recently got "Alert in the West" (by Willi Heilmann I believe). Writing and translation seemed much better then the others I mentioned - however there are some questionable parts. For instance, the author describes III/JG54 taking part in operation bodenplatte, and talks about how perfectly their mission went, and how they destroyed hundreds of aircraft on the ground for no loss. If one reads about this same event in Donald Caldwell's "JG26: Top Guns of the Luftwaffe" (which is a MUST read - one of the best unit histories ever written) it appears that most of the III/JG54 formation was downed by ground fire, and the airfield they struck was closed (big X's painted on the runways) with only a few aircraft sitting there.
So far I'm still hunting for a really great Luftwaffe autobiography. If you want one book to read for the Luftwaffe, the best IMO is Caldwell's. It's not an autobiography, but it has a number of first hand accounts taken from the pilots writings and interviews. It is also very well researched and balanced.
"Fate is the hunter" is a great read, lots of scary battles with icing and thunderstorms.
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Sable, track down a book by a 190 driver called "Betrayed Skies". It's a novel but the author had flown with the Luftwaffe in WW2 so it's based on his experiences if the author's description is accurate.
Rudolf Braunburg is the author.
It's kind of the LW version of "Nanette" by Edwards Park. He's an average pilot, trying to survive and deal with all that's going on around him. You can tell he loves flying the 190
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Just finished In My Sights by James Morehead. Very good read, with an unusual pespective. The guy just missed being shipped into the Phillipines (and thus just missed getting to be a rifleman and POW), but he flew in Java and elsewhere while the Zero ran rampant. Seeing buddies go down all around him, hearing about atrocities, feeling completely outclassed in skill and machine -- not surprisingly he has a darker feel than most US pilots. He was definitely NOT in love with the P-40, which he called "a pile of junk" -- but he managed to become an ace in 1942 regardless.
Later went to ETO rather than take a command position in a P-39 unit, and flew P-38s. Absolutely loved the bird, but felt heavily shackled by restrictions from HQ.
Ended war with 2x DSC and a DFC, plus eight confirmed kills. (Had others that didnt get confirmed -- early in war the wingman/flight element concept wasnt emphasized, and he felt let down by failure to spread tactical knowledge as it was developed.)
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I thought "The blonde Knight Of Germany" was an excelent read.
also liked "An Ace Of The Eighth" Norman "Bud" Fortier" was pretty good.
Just ordered Caldwells book, Top Guns of the Luftwaffe
Looking forward to reading it.