#3690651 - 11/30/12 06:22 AM
Re: Please recommend good aviation/air combat story books
[Re: Juggernaut]
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Joined: Dec 2008
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wheelsup_cavu
Lifer
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Lifer
Joined: Dec 2008
Posts: 26,557
Corona, California
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The Last Zero Fighter – Firsthand Accounts from WWII Japanese Naval Pilots By Dan King Pacific Press – 2012 ISBN 978-1468178807 The book is 292 pages long, divided into 5 Chapters (each one devoted to one man) and contains 79 pictures and drawings. The men featured are ( summaries are from Historical Consulting | The Last Zero Figher): 1 - Kaname Harada: Worked his way out of the fleet Navy to become a fighter pilot. He is the last surviving member of the air group that bombed the USS Panay outside of Nanking in December 1937. He flew from the Soryu at the Battle of Wake Island, then at Midway claiming few U.S. Navy torpedo bombers, and was later shot down at Guadalcanal. He ended the war training future Kamikaze pilots who were slated to fly rocket fighters into US warships. 2 - Isamu Miyazaki: Served in the surface fleet where he traveled to Egypt and Paris before the war, later worked on a river boat in China before making it into the Naval Air Service in 1936. He was a wingman of Kanichi "One-Wing" Kashimura in the sky above Yokosuka on April 18, 1942 as the Doolittle Raiders attacked Japan. He fought US fighters in the 252nd Air Group under Lt Suganami and then Lt. Naoshi Kanno at Rabaul; then Guadalcanal; the reverse defense of Wake Island; then fought against B-24 bombers and then the US invasion of Tarawa from his base in the Marshall Islands; he fought as a member of the Hachiman Butai in the skies over Iwo Jima and then assigned to Minoru Genda's air group of Aces, the 343rd Air Group for the defense of the homelands. He witnessed the atomic bombing of Nagasaki 3 - Haruo Yoshino: Joined the Navy as a teenager and was the commander of a torpedo plane from the Kaga that dropped a fish into the USS Oklahoma at Pearl Harbor. He was in the initial invasion of Rabaul and the attack on Port Darwin, Australia. He was later in one of the seven infamous search planes that failed to locate the Americans at the Battle of Midway and was aboard the Kaga when it was attacked and sunk. He went through Truk Lagoon, fought at Guadalcanal, Santa Cruz, in the air above Iwo Jima and Leyte Gulf in the Philippines. 4 - Toshimitsu Imaizumi: Joined the Navy's pre-flight academy as a teenager and became a fighter pilot stationed on Hainan Island where he fought against B-24s and P-38s before being sent to Taiwan and with the 254th Air Group to Mabalacat Airfield the Philippines. He witnessed the first official Kamikaze flight taken by Lt. Yukio Seki. He himself flew Kamikaze escort duty, and then eventually was assigned as a Kamikaze pilot himself in the defense of Okinawa. 5 - Tomokazu Kasai: The youngest Japanese Naval ace of the war joined the Navy's pre-flight academy as a teenager and found himself thrust into combat over Iwo Jima, Guam, Saipan, Peleliu, Yap the Philippines as a Kamikaze escort pilot and finally with the squadron of aces, the 301st Fighter Squadron under Minoru Genda, the planner of the Pearl Harbor attack. ---------------------------------------------------------------- From an American perspective it was interesting to read the story from the other side of the war. Imo, The book is a little light on the "getting to know the men" side of the story but can't be beat from a detail "Where were you and when" side of the story. If you don't want to buy a copy I would definitely see if your local library has it. Dan King will be speaking at Planes of Fame this Saturday December 01, 2012. Having read "The Last Zero Fighter" I am interested to hear any new stories he might relate about the pilots he interviewed. Planes of Fame December Flying History Event: http://simhq.com/forum/ubbthreads.php/topics/3690648/Re_Planes_of_Fame_Flying_Histo.html#Post3690648 Wheels
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#3722747 - 01/22/13 03:54 PM
Re: Please recommend good aviation/air combat story books
[Re: Juggernaut]
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Joined: Dec 2006
Posts: 1,600
Tbag
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Haslemere, UK
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Alone I fly. http://www.aloneifly.com/A very good read
The knack of flying is learning how to throw yourself at the ground and miss. - Douglas Adams
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#3723911 - 01/24/13 12:40 PM
Re: Please recommend good aviation/air combat story books
[Re: Juggernaut]
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Joined: May 2010
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Alicatt
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Ice Cold in Alex or Eating in ...
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Just finished 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. More details can be found here http://www.whirlwindfighterproject.org/
Last edited by Alicatt; 01/24/13 12:41 PM.
Chlanna nan con thigibh a so's gheibh sibh feoil Sons of the hound come here and get flesh Clan Cameron
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#3724161 - 01/24/13 07:04 PM
Re: Please recommend good aviation/air combat story books
[Re: Juggernaut]
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Joined: Sep 2007
Posts: 948
JonnyD
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The Fens, UK
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Hmmm, I find it difficult to sort through the list, with my old arthritic eyes so I don't know if these are on there, but I am currently reading "MiG Alley" by Larry Davis from the Squadron/Signal series. Needless to say it's about the air combat of the Korean war, though it is obviously quite heavily UN/US biased. It has lots of stories from the pilots. A couple of novels I read which have some reasonably good air combat themes are Eagle In The Sky by Wilbur Smith, about an Israeli pilot and his adventures (not just aviation, mind) and Red Storm Rising includes quite a bit of all-round air combat - again fictional. I read a book called "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. Not combat but a fix for any aviation junkie.
I say it as I see it
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#3809929 - 07/15/13 08:38 PM
Re: Please recommend good aviation/air combat story books
[Re: Juggernaut]
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Joined: Jan 2001
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kaa
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France
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And what about Saint-Exupéry "Flight to Arras/ Pilote de guerre" ? His first hand story as a Recco pilot during the battle of France.
"Anyone can shoot you down if you don't see him coming but it takes a wonderfully good Hun to bag a Camel if you're expecting him." Tom Cundall.
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#3831945 - 09/05/13 01:23 AM
Re: Please recommend good aviation/air combat story books
[Re: Juggernaut]
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Joined: Oct 1999
Posts: 522
Stonehouse
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Sydney,NSW,Australia
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This has always been a favourite of mine: F4 Phantom: A Pilot's Story by Robert Prest
It's not air combat as such but it is basically the recollections/highlights of a peace time air force pilot's daily working life in the RAF first in Britain and later posted to Germany. I found it a very enjoyable read and considering at the time (1985ish) I got the book for a school prize I wanted to join the air force when I finished school, it really made the book a hit for me and I've re-read it quite a bit. Unfortunately probably like a lot of us here I didn't pass the eyesight requirements and that was long before laser correction.
Cheers, Stonehouse
Last edited by Stonehouse; 09/05/13 01:23 AM.
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#3892252 - 01/09/14 04:16 AM
Re: Please recommend good aviation/air combat story books
[Re: Juggernaut]
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carrick58
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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. All Great Reads. Also there was the 1948 Book that led to this Movie. http://youtu.be/G1GbiuG40Ak
Last edited by carrick58; 01/09/14 04:30 AM.
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#3892314 - 01/09/14 06:54 AM
Re: Please recommend good aviation/air combat story books
[Re: Juggernaut]
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Joined: Jan 2014
Posts: 1
PapaZ
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"A Higher Call" - Incredible True Story of Combat and Chivalry in the War-Torn Skies of WWII" Author Adam Makos
Key word here is "Incredible". Engrossing, insightful and heart warming if ever an event in war could be.
I would also second the plug for author Earnest K. Gann - my personal favorite: "Fate is the Hunter"
Last edited by PapaZ; 01/09/14 06:58 AM.
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#3918203 - 02/28/14 03:57 PM
Re: Please recommend good aviation/air combat story books
[Re: Juggernaut]
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Li'lJugs
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The Larks by Jem Shaw, WW1 from the RFC perspective. Only $3 for the Kindle, it stands up favorably with Wings of Victory and Derek Robinson's RFC Trilogy. To be brutally honest, it seems to be somewhat derivative of both those works, but that's not all bad. $3 on Amazon edit: Just bought "The Hunters" by Salter, based on the recommendations written here, thanks, guys!
Last edited by Li'lJugs; 02/28/14 04:20 PM.
Hi, I'm Larry and this my brother Dayrle, and this is my other brother Dayrle.
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#3922500 - 03/10/14 04:55 AM
Re: Please recommend good aviation/air combat story books
[Re: Juggernaut]
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Joined: Feb 2001
Posts: 173
NECyclone
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Lincoln, Nebraska, USA
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God is My Co-Pilot: A True Story by Colonel Robert L. Scott
Read this years ago when I was a kid in middle school. Pretty decent account of the early years of war in the pacific.
"Democracy is two wolves and a lamb deciding what to have for dinner. Liberty is a well-armed lamb." - Benjamin Franklin
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