Military + aviation book reviews

Some of these book reviews first appeared in Air & Space / Smithsonian magazine, the Wall Street Journal, or another publication. Others were written for this website, and a few are just my rough notes. Each book is for sale somewhere (please let me know if that's not the case) and each review is linked to the book at Amazon.com or elsewhere. -- Dan Ford

Flying Tigers
Japan at War, 1931-1945
The Allies fight back, 1941-1945
The war in Europe, 1939-1945
World War One
Vietnam
Taildraggers
The war on terror
Other good stuff

Flying Tigers

• New: War Wings: the U.S. and Chinese Military Aviation (Xu)
• Tex Hill: Flying Tiger (Tex Hill & Reagan Schaupp)
• AVG Colours & Markings (Terrill Clements)
• Flying Tigers: Claire Chennault and the AVG (Daniel Ford)
• Remains (a novel of the Flying Tigers) (Daniel Ford)
• Tale of a Tiger (R.T. Smith)
• P-40 Warhawk Aces of the CBI (Carl Molesworth)
• The Lady and the Tigers (Greenlaw & Ford)
• China Pilot: Flying For Chennault in the Cold War (Felix Smith)
• Destiny: A Flying Tiger's Rendezvous With Fate (Erik Shilling)
• Last Hope: The Blood Chit Story (R.E. Baldwin & Thomas McGarry)
• P-40 Warhawk vs. Ki-43 Oscar (Carl Molesworth)

Back to top

Japan at war, 1931-1945

• Crysthanthemum and Sword: Japanese Culture (Ruth Benedict)
• Hirohito and the Making of Modern Japan (Herbert Bix)
• The Rape of Nanking: The Forgotten Holocaust (Iris Chang)
• Nomonhan: Japan Against Russia, 1939 (Alvin Coox)
• Kaigun: Strategy, Tactics, Technology (Evans & Peattie)
• Sunburst: Rise of Japanese Naval Air Power (Mark Peattie)
• JAAF Fighter Units & Their Aces (Izawa, Hata, Shores)
• Japanese Army Air Force Aces 1937-45 (Henry Sakaida)
• The Pacific War, 1931-1945: Japan's Role (Saburo Ienaga)
• Kempeitai: Japan's Military Police (Ramond Lamont-Brown)
• Prisoners of the Japanese (Gavan Daws)
• Death on the Hellships: Prisoners at Sea (Gregory Michno)
• Sex slaves for the Emperor: Japan's "Comfort Women"
• Samurai! (Saburo Sakai et al)
• Downfall: End of the Japanese Empire (Frank)
• Kamikaze: Japan's Suicide Gods (Axell & Kaze)
• Kamikaze, Cherry Blossoms, Nationalisms (Emiko Ohnuki-Tierney)
• Embracing Defeat: Japan in the Wake of WWII (John Dower)

Back to top

The Allies fight back, 1941-1945

• Buffaloes Over Singapore (Brian Cull et al)
• Defeat Into Victory (Field Marshal Sir William Slim)
• The Bravest Man: U.S. Submariners in the Pacific War
• Black Sheep One: Gregory "Pappy" Boyington (Bruce Gamble)
• Magnificent Fight: The Battle for Wake Island (Robert Cressman)
• The Black Sheep: VMF 214 in World War II (Bruce Gamble)
• Building the B-29 (Jacob Vander Meulen)
• Blankets of Fire: U.S. Bombers over Japan (Kenneth Werrell)
• Breaking the Emperor's Codes (Michael Smith)
• Flyboys: a flawed account of an atrocity
• Hiroshima's Shadow: Denial and the Smithsonian (Bird et al)

Back to top

The war in Europe, 1939-1945

• Blitzkrieg Legend: The 1940 Campaign in the West (Frieser)
• Forgotten Air Force: French Air Doctrine 1930s (Caine)
• Reach for the Sky: The Story of Douglas Bader (Brickhill)
• Bomber Pilot: A Memoir of World War II (Ardery)
• Lentolaivue 24 (Stenman & Keskinen)
• Luftwaffe War Diaries: German Air Force in WWII (Bekker)
• The Battle of Britain: The Myth and the Reality (Overy)
• The Day We Bombed Switzerland (Granholm)
• The Wild Blue (Ambrose)
• Rhetoric and Reality in Air Warfare (Biddle)

Back to top

World War One

• Winged Victory (Victor Yeates)
• Horses Don't Fly (Frederick Libby)
• Falcons of France (Charles Nordhoff & James Hall)

Back to top

Vietnam

• The Father of All Things (Bissell)
• Bury Us Upside Down (Newman & Shepperd)
• No Man's Land (Huong)
• "Unquiet Americans (Nam-a-Rama and Fatal Crossroads)
• Stolen Valor (Burkett & Whitley)
• They Marched into Sunlight (Maraniss)
• Green Berets in the Vanguard, 1953-1963 (Chalmers Archer)
• Only War We've Got: Early Days in South Vietnam (Ford)
• Incident at Muc Wa (Ford)
• War Story (Jim Morris)
• The Village (Bing West)
• When Thunder Rolled: F-105 over North Vietnam (Rasimus)

Back to top

Taildraggers

• Flight of Passage: A Memoir (Rinker Buck)
• Janey: A Little Plane in a Big War (Alfred Schultz)
• Low and Slow: a Liaison Pilot in World War II (Don Moore)
• The Compleat Taildragger Pilot (Harvey Plourde)
• Guide to Bush Flying (F. E. Potts)

Back to top

The war on terror

• The Army After Next: The First Postindustrial Army (Adams)
• The Looming Tower: the Road to 9/11 (Wright)
• 'A military marvel's race to Baghdad' (Lacey)
• Imperial Grunts: American Military on the Ground (Kaplan)
• The Iraq War and Dark Victory (John Keegan, Jeffrey Record)
• The March Up: 1st Marine Division to Baghdad (West & Smith)
• El Dorado Canyon: Reagan's War on Qaddagi (Joseph Stanik)
• The Warthog and the CAS Debate (Campbell)
• The New Face of War (Bruce Berkowitz)
• Terrorism, Afghanistan, & America's Way of War (Friedman)

Back to top

Other good stuff

• 'Point and Shoot' - of Gatling guns and AK-47s
• Twilight Warriors: Covert Ops against the USSR (Curtis Peebles)
• Dr. Space: The Life of Wernher von Braun (Bob Ward)
• American Raiders: Race for the Luftwaffe's Secrets (Samuels)
• Howard Hughes, Aviator (George Marrett)
• 'Perils of Captivity' - three books about PWs
• Adak: The Rescue of Alfa Foxtrot 586 (Andrew Jampoler)
• North Star Over My Shoulder: A Flying Life (Bob Buck)
• Century of Triumph: The History of Aviation (Christopher Chant)
• Guts & Glory: American Military Image in Film (Lawrence Suid)
• Hap Arnold and the Evolution of American Air Power (Dik Daso)
• Aircraft carrier operations - two books
• America's Pursuit of Precision Bombing (McFarland)
• Warbirds: U.S. Military Aircraft, 1915-2000 (John C. Fredriksen)
• The Horten Brothers and Their All-Wing Aircraft (David Myhra)
• America's Hundred Thousand: Fighter Aircraft (Francis Dean)
• Aces High: Most Notable Fighter Pilots (Shores et al)
• Glen Edwards: The Diary of a Bomber Pilot (Daniel Ford)
• Rounding the Horn (Dallas Murphy)
• Young Men and Fire (Norman Maclean)

Back to top