THE YEARS OF THE WARBIRDS

A history of World War II aviation, and especially of the great aces, written by an accomplished military author, himself a World War I pilot. The aces---Cobber Kain, John Cunningham, Richard Bong, Hermann Graf, Ivan Kozhedub, Joe Foss, etc.---take precedence. The reader sees them in their natural habitat, the cockpit of a fighter, sending dozens of enemy planes down in flames. But these men are not all. The Inventors, the strategists, those most responsible for the conduct of the air war for six years, find their way in as well. So do great air feats, such as the German raids, the fighting British carrier, Ark Royal and her story, Pearl Harbor, the Tokyo fire raids. The sum total is a skilled blending of the personal and the factual, making for a highly readable history.... a history with a wide appeal, one might add.