WW2 Books that you've read??

[Soviet Ace]

I'm just curious, to what book(s) everyone if anyone (I'm sure there's a few :P) who have read a book about a pilots life during WW2? It could be about a bomber pilot or fighter pilot, doesn't matter. I'm just curious since I just finished reading for the 50,000th time "Samurai" about the highest scoring Japanese ace during WW2 Saburo Sakai. Incase anyone doesn't know who he is, he was the highest scoring Japanese Ace in WW2, that survived the war. The actual highest scoring ace was his friend Hiroyoshi Nishizawa aka "The Devil". I've also read "Duel of Eagles" by Peter Townsend, who flew during the Battle of Britain. It's a very good book that tells about the entire 1940 campaign, and his time flying during it. I highly recommend both books for those interested in the Japanese pilots perspective of the war, and a good/highly regarded book on the Battle of Britain.

[juz1]

I'm kinda curious about Stuka Pilot, but I want to make sure I get the edited version with all the Nazi BS removed...seeing as it's required reading for A10 pilots it look like fundamental reading for ground attack.

Lots of cool stuff out there...I was reading the other day about the only VC of the BOB...a Hurricane pilot in a flight of 3 got bounced by 110s...all three hurricanes shot down, but the VC winner started climbing out of his burning plane when he noticed the 110 had over shot him, so he CLIMBED BACK INTO HIS BURNING PLANE, shot it down, and only then bailed out. Balls of steel!
________
Mercury milan history (http://www.ford-wiki.com/wiki/Mercury_Milan)

[redtiger02]

A Pictoral History of the Luftwaffe is great, should be easy to find at Amazon or <gasp> a real bookstore.

"To Fly and Fight" by Col. Bud E. Anderson (ret.) is also a great book about combat against the Luftwaffe in a P-51D. He really goes into the tactics and emotional toll that fighting in the air takes on a pilot. Also, I would recommend watching every episode of Dogfights on the History Channel that you can find. They break every single fight down move by move and show you what went right, what went wrong, what could have been done better, what was just luck.

[Riceball]

No books I can think of. But I have read Avaition History, and Air Classics magizines for a few years now. Each issue has a couple multi-page stories, mostly WW1 thru Vietman. They have updates on restorations, airshows, all kinds of stuff. I like AH better but they are both recommended.

[redtiger02]

Also, if you have a lot of time to burn, read all the volumes of "The War in the Air" by Sir Walter Raleigh, not the colonial type guy, the professor type guy. It's several volumes long but it covers everything there is to know about WW I flight.

[Tally-Ho]

My most recent WWII books about pilots were


Aircrew (can't remember who wrote it)
Fighter Boys (can't remember who wrote it)
Wild Blue by Stephen Ambrose

Enjoyed all of them.

[Swagger7]

I've read Samurai and Stuka Pilot! Another good book is On Boyington's Wing, written by Pappy Boyington's wingman. If you want a good WWI read, checkout Wind in the Wires and An Escaper's Log, both by Duncan Grinnell-Milne. He was a British pilot who got shot down and captured, but escaped and returned to the air to become an ace (6 kills I think) Basically, you've gotta read the first half of WitW, then An Escaper's Log, then the rest of Wind in the Wires. Escaper's Log was written first, hence the weird format. They're both fairly hard to find, so if you're interested, I'd suggest Inter Library Loan (or whatever they call it outside the US).

[manintrees]

Thunderbolt by Robert S Johnson.

[ThatYoungGameGuy]

Blue Man Falling is a good book. It follows an RAF pilot through the taking of France.

[HauptmannMolders]

Phew, there's been a few!

-Jagdgeschwader 51
-Jagdgeschwader 53
-Jagdgeschwader 26
-Bf 109D/E Aces 1939-1941
-Fw190 Aces of the Weestern Front
-FW190 Aces of the Russian Front
-Hurricane Aces 1939-1940
-Spitfire Aces 1939-1940
-P-51 VS FW190
-Spitifre VS Bf 109
-Luftwaffe Aces
-The Illustrated Biography of Werner Molders
-The Illustrated Biography of Helmut Wick

and many many more I cannot think of right now.

[SeaCat]

I'm just finishing up "Luftwaffe Aces", and I've previously read "The Blonde Knight of Germany", which is about Erich Hartmann, the top-scoring ace. Those are the only ones I've read as far as aviation goes.

[Steiner]

When I was a kid I was taught how to read, then a public library was built just a 10 minute walk from my home. The first books I read were science fiction and I read everything published by Robert Anson Heinlein (I must have read "Starship Troopers" 50 times). Of course I read everything by I. Asimov, A.C. Clark and even H.G. Wells.
One day I picked up this little book entitled "I Flew for the Führer" pinned by Heinz Knoke, ...I haven't read any ScFi books since because TRUTH is stranger than fiction.
Some good reading I recommend is "DAY ONE" and "Omar Bradly: General of the Army".


Heinz Knoke, the German pilot who shot down Robert Post's plane wrote an account which was published after the war. The English translation of Knoke's book is called "I Flew for the Führer" and is available in a paperback version published by Greenhill Books. The translation here is from the original German version published by C. Boesendahl. Here is an excerpt from Knoke's account:
The enemy group draws nearer. Involuntarily I have gone up to full throttle. Attack! I can distinctly see the individual planes. They are for the most part Liberators. They appear plump with pregnant bellies full of bombs.
I select a target. I will attack from the front. Clearly the American sits in my sights. Quickly he becomes larger. I feel the buttons on the control stick. Tracer bullets fly over my cabin. They're shooting at me!
At the same time I open fire, pressing both buttons. The recoil of my cannons and heavy machine guns leave my bird shaking lightly. My aim is not good. I can see only a few hits on the right wing.
I swoop under the fat stomach of my opponent. The draft of his four propellers shakes me around in such a way that I think for a second that my tail assembly is torn. The combined speeds of our two approaching planes is over 1,000 kilometers per hour.
Steeply I pull above to the left. Tracer bullets from the guns of the Liberator follow me.
Damned iron-filled air! 300 four-engine bombers carry 4,800 heavy machine guns. If only a third of those are firing, that still means a hail of fire for us.
For the second time I attack, this time from the front and below, and shoot until I am within ramming distance. My shots hit! I let myself fall away below. In falling away I turn my head. My Liberator is burning underneath. It turns in a wide curve to the right away from her group. We are about 8,000 meters high.
From behind and above, once again I attack. Strong defensive fire comes toward me. My high explosive shells hit in the top side of the fuselage and the right wing. With both hands I clasp the control stick.
The fire has overcome the right side of the wing. The inside engine has stopped. The wing has ripped away! Perpendicularly the huge fuselage falls heavily to the earth, turning along its long axis. A long black flag of smog follows it.
A crew member tries to climb out of the upper part of the fuselage. He gets free, but his parachute is burning. Poor fellow! His somersaulting body falls after the spinning fuselage of the fatally hit Liberator. At 1,000 meters above the earth a violent explosion rips the wreck. Burning single parts fall two, three hundred meters along the runway of Zwischenahn airport near a farm that is immediately set on fire by the gas from the plane's tanks.
In its insane descent to the ground, I follow my booty and land on the runway below me. I roll my machine in the direction of the burning farm, turn my engine off, and swing out of my seat. I hurry to the crash site. There is a crowd of people there trying to put out the barnyard fire. I help move furniture, animals, and appliances out of the smoke and flames to safety. The smoke bites my eyes, takes my breath, and the flames singe my flying suit as I pull a pitifully squealing pig on its hind paws out of a burning stall. The stall burns to the ground. The house and the barn are saved.
What is left of the Liberator is scattered in an animal enclosure. When the machine exploded in mid-air, the crew were blown out. With limbs broken a hundred times they lay close to one another among the smoking rubble.
100 meters further on the other side of an earthen wall, I find the pilot's seat along with the nose wheel.
Undamaged, a doll, a mascot, sits next to the splintered cockpit glass.
An hour later I land in Jever. My men carry me on their shoulders to the dormitory.

LINK:
http://www.greenharbor.com/wr69/Knoke.html
http://www.heinzknokewebsite.com/My-Site/The_planes.htm
http://www.greenharbor.com/wr69/Writing_69th_images/Knoke.GIF
Heinz Knoke, Luftwaffe pilot

[Irishmandkg]

Not for a long time, but the last I read was Flyboys, same guy who wrote flags of our fathers(the movie was okay, letters from iwo jima was badass though). Flyboys was pretty brutal.

[Soviet Ace]

Not for a long time, but the last I read was Flyboys, same guy who wrote flags of our fathers(the movie was okay, letters from iwo jima was badass though). Flyboys was pretty brutal.

I read flyboys once. It was... interesting. Now I understand why my other grandfather never liked talking about the Japanese. It's weird having two grandfathers who flew for two opposing sides sometimes.

[The Doctor B]

My favourite books have to be:

1) The Big Show by Pierre Closterman - superbly written book about the air offensive after the BoB! I cannot reccomend this book highly enough.

2) First Light by Geoffrey Wellum - Very good book written by the youngest participant in the Battle of Britain. When I read this book, I can't turn the pages fast enough!

[Plippy]

I just read a book by Vern Haugland called The Eagle Squadrons: Yanks in the RAF, 1940-1942 and I'm starting on his followup, The Eagles' War: The Saga of the Eagle Squadron Pilots 1940-1945.

There are some great stories in here about US kids who joined the RAF before the US entered the war. The second books seems to skip much of the training and back story on the characters, so I think that it might be a little more action-packed.

[Pyquila]

The Big Show by Pierre Closterman - superbly written book about the air offensive after the BoB! I cannot reccomend this book highly enough.


Just ordered it. Thanks for the tip! Looks really intresting.

A book i really enjoyed when i was young was A piece of cake (http://www.play.com/Books/Books/4-/386701/Piece-of-Cake/Product.html)

They also made it into a miniserie. Allthough not 100% historically correct it's a great watch. (it is however some 20 years old. So don't expect much in the way of special effects.)

[The Doctor B]

^:cool:

Ray Hannah flying a Spitfire under a bridge. Really nice bit of flying.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xf3UtmHLKUU

[King Jareth]

Mustang Pilot -Richard E Turner
My mum bought it for me from a charity shop on a whim (50p) and I read it about 10 times but sadly since moving out I have no idea where its gone at all.

[shackenb]

I would suggest "The mighty eighth: "The Air War in Europe as Told by the Men Who Fought It" by Gerald Astor and "Wild blue" by Stephen Ambrose.

Cheers Stefan

[fritzwendel]

Flyboys
Wild Blue
Dumb, but lucky(just okay, some funny stories but definitely not a must read)

Carrier War(Page turner, must read), about the Marianas Turkey Shoot

Lightning Strike, the story of the mission to shoot down Yammamoto

I read a book on the Black Sheep squadron, but can't think of the name. it was
NOT the biography of Pappy, and was excellent.

I have to read Chuck Yeagers' book, as well as Bud Anderson's. They are next on my list.

I also have a good collection of aircraft reference books.

[Soviet Ace]

Anyone looking for some books on specific planes, battles, and such. The site I have below, is a great place for ordering/calling for books. I'm sure the Englishmen on this site already know about it (Maybe not, I dunno?) but I've already have like several hundred of their books, and their always very accurate, detailed etc.

LINK: Osprey Publishing (http://www.ospreypublishing.com/)

[M3-SRT8]

Well, you name the Reference Book, and I probably have it. If it flew & fought betwixt 1913 and 2009, I probably have something on it.

"Flyboys" was a good read. Good perspective on the Enemy's POV.

LJB:cool:

[Blue Leader]

Ive read a fair few book on this subject and I highly recommend the following:

Fighter Boys by Patrick Bishop. A highly entertaining look at the pilots of fighter command during 1940. It covers the culture and its genesis in the squadrons of flanders and the aces like mannock and ball, through to the conception of Cranwell, the pilots and their background and their eventual part in the battle. Lots of drinking and late nights followed with oxygen cured hangovers.

Bomber Boys by Patrick Bishop. Similar to above but a bit more sad.

Lonely Warrior by Jean Offenberg. Incredible insight into Belgiums best pilot during the Battle of Britain. Lots of action.

Fighter Pilot by Paul Richey. Paul was a good pilot and a great writer and his personal accounts of flying and fghting with no 1 squadron in France during the Phoney War and the Battle of France are essential reading.

[M3-SRT8]

Just finished re-reading "Dive Bomber!" by Peter C. Smith.

Best history on the Dive Bomber's developement I've ever read. Absolutely lays waste to the claim that the Stuka was "finished" after the Battle of Britian, and that Strategic Bombing "won the war."

Great read.

LJB:cool:

[Jazzy Jase]

I've read loads of books on WW2. I particularly enjoy reading personal accounts from pilots/aircrew, but I've always read ones from the Allies side. Can anyone recommend some Luftwaffe accounts?