Hi,

I am looking to read a bunch of books which either are based mostly on aviation and air combat or which have a large part of the book which includes avaiation and air combat.

I do not care what era or genre it is from - could be WW1, WW2, Vietnam, Gulf wars, non-fiction, fiction, historical, futuristic, fantasy, sci-fi etc.

Can anyone recommend any good books in this genre?
I'm not looking for technical manuals or training manuals etc at this time.

Thanks!
Juggernaut

p.s. If I am able to back edit this post, I can keep the full list at the top with the suggestions made so everyone can easily see the list.

As promised:
-"Bomber" from Len Deighton
-"Goodbye Mickey Mouse" from Len Deighton
-"War in the Air" by Stephen Coonts, this is a collection of stories from WWI to Vietnam (and maybe later)
-http://www.pen-and-sword.co.uk/Aviation-History-Books/c/22/
-http://www.pen-and-sword.co.uk/Military-Biography/c/33/
-http://www.hamiltonbook.com/hamiltonbook.storefront/4fad2fab0023f63a271dd8b1903b06c6/Catalog/AAA
-http://www.hamiltonbook.com/hamiltonbook.filereader?4fad2fab0023f63a271dd8b1903b06c6+EN/catalogs/WW
-"War for the Hell of it: A Fighter Pilot's View of Vietnam" By Ed Cobleigh
-"The Big Show".
-Rescue of Streetcar 304 by Kenny Wayne Fields
-'Fighter Pilot' by Robin Olds.
-"Bury Us Upside Down", about the "Misty" fast FACs in Vietnam.
-Vietnam "Da Nang Diary" by Tom Yarborough, about his days as an OV-10 FAC/Special ops support.
-"Winged Victory", a WW1 novel but written by a RFC/RAF ace
-Vipers in the Storm - http://books.google.com/books/about/Vipers_in_the_Storm.html?id=og3al258ch8C
-Warthog - http://books.google.com/books?id=v9QykLb...ved=0CDgQ6AEwAA
-Strike Eagle - http://books.google.com/books?id=90yQPwA...ved=0CDQQ6AEwAA
-"Flight of the Intruder" by Coonts
-"The Mouchotte Diaries" From June 1940 to Mouchotte's last entry - again in June - but 3 years on.
-"Samurai!" by Saburo Sakai. One of Japan's top WWII aces.
-"Chickenhawk" by Robert Mason
-Rolling Thunder, Steel Tiger, Phantom Leader, Eagle Station, Storm Flight. All by Mark Berent. The air combat sequences put you right there in the cockpit. Fiction, but obviously written from experience.
-"Fate is the hunter", by Ernest Gann. It's quite possibly the best aviation book ever written.
-"Flying Fury" by James McCudden http://books.google.nl/books/about/Flying_Fury.html?id=ryi5p_Jt5kcC&redir_esc=y
-'First Light' by Geoffrey Wellum is simply marvellous. He has a great writing style, and a lot of interesting stories. It's early WW2, mostly Battle of Britain and Malta
-"Once a Fighter Pilot" by Gerry Cook - a great and interesting collection of short accounts from his time in training and Vietnam.
-"Thud Ridge" F-105's in North Vietnam. Jack Broughton
-"Going Downtown." - Jack Broughton
-Yeager. Autobiography. 'Nuff said.
-Feet Wet. Autobiography.
-Wildcats to Tomcats.
-Pettibone's Law. Despite the disclaimer, way too funny not to be true.
-'Piece of cake' by Derek Robinson http://www.amazon.co.uk/Piece-Cake-Derek...6720&sr=8-4
-The Mighty Eighth. 8th Air Force in WWII with lots of anecdotes.
-"Thunderbolt"
-Sigh for a Merlin..Alex Henshaw - Spit test pilot.
-Nine Lives.. ALAN DEERE
-Best Foot Forward.. the 'other' legless fighter pilot - Colin Hodgkinson
-The Blond Knight of Germany ..Hartmann bio
-Bomber command ..Max Hastings
-Night Fighter..Jimmy Rawnsley - 'Cats eyes' Cunninghams radar operator, observer,gunner.
-Summer of no Surrender..Richard Townsend Bickers
-"Fast Movers" by John Sherwood. Its a great collection of stories from renown Vietnam era pilots.
-The Hunters...James Salter. Not just a good aviation book, a good book. The man was, and is, a master of the English language. He makes you want to write. Don't know where the film came from, it's not even the same story.
-Wings of Fury by Robert Wilcox. Tells the story of the development of the F15 and F16, AIMVAL/ACEVAL, as well as profiles of the most successful fighter pilots of the Korean, Vietnam & Desert Storm campaigns.
-Blind Mans Bluff by Sherry Sontag. Fascinating insight into US Navy submarine intelligence gathering since 1945, as well as the development of Rickovers babys.
-By Any Means Necessary by William Burrows. Scary stories about spyflights around (and sometimes in!) the USSR during the Cold War.
-Fate is the Hunter is outstanding.
-North Star over my Shoulder by Robert 'Bob' Buck.
-F-15: Eagle Engaged, though a huge study book on the F-15, is loaded with detailed, interesting accounts of a-a accounts.
-The novelization of Top Gun is also, well, a fun light read. Maverick actually uses guns in the book.
-Sweetwater Gunslinger 201 (?) Is a fun F-14 fictional work, but seems to combine actual stories and tells them in a fictional story.
-Alpha Strike by Levinson- A-4/A-6 histories- very good.
-Jolly Rogers by Blackburn- Corsair/WWII action
-Ed Macy's works- Apache and Hellfire are hard to put down books about British Apaches in Afghanistan.
-"Flight Of The Old Dog" by Dale Brown. Very good B-52 novel!
-The entire series by Tom "Bear" Wilson (Wild Weasel F-105 Vietnam pilot)..."Termite Hill", "Lucky's Bridge", "Tango Uniform"
-"Steel Tiger" and "Rolling Thunder" by Mark Berent
-"The First and the Last" by Adlophe Galland. Most memoirs are narrow in focus. Galland was General of the fighters. Gives the very best explanation of how the Luftwaffe was defeated in WWII. The inexorable calculus of defeat as American production of warplanes and pilots ground away the German Air Force. He also gives his opinion of Goering.
-"The Man Who Flew The Memphis Belle." Captain Morgan was the first to compete a tour in Europe flying B17s, then he went on to fly B29s against Japan.
-"The First Team", and "The First Team and the Guadalcanal Campaign", both by Lunsford. The books are a very detailed account of the US Navy air battles from Pearl Harbor through Guadalcanal.
-"CW2" by Layne Heath. It is about a Vietnam helicopter pilot, fiction, but I think the author flew helos in Vietnam
-F4 Phantom: A Pilot's Story by Robert Prest
-Thud Ridge, The Hunters, Piece of Cake,Battle of Britain by Peter Townsend, 9 Lives, The Jolly Rogers,
Ba Ba Black Sheep, 5 years in the RFC ,They fought with what they had, I flew for the fuhrer.
-"A Higher Call" - Incredible True Story of Combat and Chivalry in the War-Torn Skies of WWII" Author Adam Makos
-The Larks by Jem Shaw, WW1 from the RFC perspective.
-God is My Co-Pilot: A True Story by Colonel Robert L. Scott
-Everything but the flak by Martin Caidin
-Flying through Midnight - John T Halliday
-"Joe Foss, Flying Marine" by Joe Foss, US Marine aviator with 26 aerial victories and the Congressional Medal of Honor.
-The Last Dogfighter (fiction) by Martin Caidin
-The Blue Max, by Jack Hunter, a grittier story than the movie
-Air gunner , Mike Henry DFC
-Rear gunner Pathfinders, Ron smith DFM
-Lancaster Target, Jack Currie DFC
-Lancaster to Berlin, Walter Thompson DFC
-Only owls and bloody fools fly at night, Tom Sayer DFC
-No Moon tonight, Don Charlwood
-Night Flyer, Lewis Brandon DSO DFC
-Combat crew, John Comer
-Stuka Pilot about Hans Ulrich Rudel, probably the greatest close air support pilot of all time. His Wir Frontsoldaten zur Wiederaufrüstung is good too, if you can find it and have it translated.
-An Ace of the 8th by Norman "Bud" Fortier
-To Fly and Fight by Clarence "Bud" Anderson
-Red Tails Black Wings by John Holway
-Black Knights by Lynn Homan & Thomas Reily
-Flying Tigers
-Half a Wing, Three Engines and a Prayer by Brian O'Neill.
One of the best collections of USAAF WW2 bomber stories.
-Vulcan 607 by Rowland White
Gripping tale of the 1982 raid on the occupied Falklands.
-The Last Zero Fighter – Firsthand Accounts from WWII Japanese Naval Pilots
By Dan King
-Flying Circus by Ernest K. Gann, a collection of short stories and partly an autobiography ISBN-13: 978-0553296976 or ISBN 0-02-542400-9
-Mosquito Racer by Don McVicar, he bought a Mossie for the Reno air races, illustrated, ISBN-13: 978-0906393581
-Derek Robinsons WW1 Trilogy..superb read
-Target Berlin: Mission 250, 6th March 1944. Jeffery Ethell, Dr Alfred Price. Wrens Park 2002 (first published 1981).
200pp AAR for this 'mission gone wrong', from both the US and German points of view.
-Fighter Combat: Tactics & Manoeuvring. Robert Shaw. Naval Institute Press.
The classic text on ACM and fighter tactics.
-Alone I fly
-Anything written by Ernest K. Gann will be a guaranteed good read.
-"The Night Stalkers", about the 160th SOAR. Written by Michael Durant (of Black Hawk Down fame) and Steven Hartov.
-Night of the Whirlwind by David Bruce, excellent read, a bit of fiction generated around the last mission of 137 Squadron on the 21June 1943 where 5 Whirlwinds go off to ostensibly attack the German airfield at Poix in France, but they have a diffrent goal and it is the training and build up to that mission the book documents.
-"MiG Alley" by Larry Davis from the Squadron/Signal series.
-Eagle In The Sky by Wilbur Smith, about an Israeli pilot and his adventures (not just aviation, mind)
-Red Storm Rising by Tom Clancey
- "Phoenix Squadron" by Rowland White not so long back about Belize and how a flight of Buccaneers was used as a show of force to stop Guatemala invading (after a record-breaking non-stop flight) - but only a small part of the book covers this. However the rest is interesting - covering carrier ops by UK and US navies and pilots. That's non-fiction and was by the chap who wrote the XM607 book about the Vulcans bombing Stanley airport.
-Saint-Exupéry "Flight to Arras/ Pilote de guerre" ? His first hand story as a Recco pilot during the battle of France.
-"Loud and Clear", by Iftach Spector.