Author: Martin W. Bowman
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781435146129
Category : Fighter pilots
Languages : en
Pages : 156
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Book Description
"P-51 Mustang combat missions brings to life what it was like to fly - and take into battle - one of the defining fighter aircraft of World War II. The tactics, violence, and tension of U.S. fighter missions in the European Theater of Operations (ETO) are revealed in exceptional drams and detail. More than seventy first-person accounts from P-51 Mustang pilots, including renowned aces. Detailed accounts of every type of P-51 operation, from bomber escorts over the Reich to hedge-skimming strafing runs over German airfields in occupied France. Authoritative explanations of the P-51's historical development and technical characteristics. More than 300 high-quality archive and memorabilia photos." -- p.4 of cover.
Author: Carl Molesworth
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN: 178200548X
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 198
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Book Description
These pilots called themselves the 'Tokyo Club'. It was a simple task to become a member. All you had to do was strap yourself into a heavily loaded P-51 Mustang, take off from Iwo Jima, fly 650 miles north over the sea – often through monsoon storms – in your single-engined aircraft to Japan, attack a heavily defended target and then turn around and fly home despite a shrinking fuel supply and perhaps battle damage as well. Do it once and you earned membership in the club. Do it 15 times and you earned a trip home. But make one mistake or have one touch of bad luck, and you had a very good chance of ending up dead. This book tells the little-known story of these brave men and their efforts to defeat the aerial forces defending Japan.
Author: George Loving
Publisher: Ballantine Books
ISBN: 0307417786
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 322
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Book Description
A COMBAT ACE’S ACCOUNT OF PILOTING THE GREATEST SINGLE-SEAT FIGHTER IN WORLD WAR II World War II marked the end of an era; fighter pilots still flew by the seat of their pants, and George Loving recaptures the exhilarating world of aerial combat in all its stark terror and fiery glory. His first fighter was the famed Spitfire, hero of the Battle of Britain. By 1943, however, it was obsolescent and did not match up well against the first-line German Messerschmitts and Focke-Wulfs. Yet Loving survived 101 combat missions flying the Spitfire. In the spring of 1944, Loving’s 31st Fighter Group started flying P-51 Mustangs and was transferred to the new Fifteenth Air Force to escort heavy-bomber formations on long-range strategic strikes across southern Europe, including southeastern Germany. In the flak-filled skies over Ploesti, Vienna, Bucharest, Munich, and Stuttgart, where a number of the war’s fiercest air battles took place, Lieutenant Loving flew head-to-head against some of the Luftwaffe’s top fighter aces. By the time George Loving completed his 151st, and final, combat mission on August 21, 1944, he had risen from a lowly second lieutenant and untested wingman to captain, group leader, and Mustang ace. Loving’s gripping account captures the savage action he experienced in all its intensity.
Author: Clarence E. "Bud" Anderson
Publisher: Xlibris Corporation
ISBN: 1524563420
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 530
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Book Description
Bud Anderson is a flyers flyer. The Californians enduring love of flying began in the 1920s with the planes that flew over his fathers farm. In January 1942, he entered the Army Air Corps Aviation Cadet Program. Later after he received his wings and flew P-39s, he was chosen as one of the original flight leaders of the new 357th Fighter Group. Equipped with the new and deadly P-51 Mustang, the group shot down five enemy aircraft for each one it lost while escorting bombers to targets deep inside Germany. But the price was high. Half of its pilots were killed or imprisoned, including some of Buds closest friends. In February 1944, Bud Anderson, entered the uncertain, exhilarating, and deadly world of aerial combat. He flew two tours of combat against the Luftwaffe in less than a year. In battles sometimes involving hundreds of airplanes, he ranked among the groups leading aces with 16 aerial victories. He flew 116 missions in his old crow without ever being hit by enemy aircraft or turning back for any reason, despite one life or death confrontation after another. His friend Chuck Yeager, who flew with Anderson in the 357th, says, In an airplane, the guy was a mongoosethe best fighter pilot I ever saw. Buds years as a test pilot were at least as risky. In one bizarre experiment, he repeatedly linked up in midair with a B-29 bomber, wingtip to wingtip. In other tests, he flew a jet fighter that was launched and retrieved from a giant B-36 bomber. As in combat, he lost many friends flying tests such as these. Bud commanded a squadron of F-86 jet fighters in postwar Korea, and a wing of F-105s on Okinawa during the mid-1960s. In 1970 at age 48, he flew combat strikes as a wing commander against communist supply lines. To Fly and Fight is about flying, plain and simple: the joys and dangers and the very special skills it demands. Touching, thoughtful, and dead honest, it is the story of a boy who grew up living his dream.
Author: Gardner N. Hatch
Publisher: Turner Publishing Company
ISBN: 1563110806
Category : Fighter pilots
Languages : en
Pages : 202
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Book Description
Fittingly named for a wild horse, this fighter became widely recognized for its power and beauty. It was a key element in Allied air superiority in Europe during WWII, destroying 9,081 enemy aircraft, and with similar results in the Korean War. Striking photos and the personal stories of the men who flew it help to tell the story of this superior aircraft. Full color photos of restored P-51s. Revised and updated
Author: James P. Busha
Publisher: Quarto Publishing Group USA
ISBN: 1627881417
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 265
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Book Description
Get as close as you’ll get to a World War II–era P-51 Mustang without flying one yourself with this spellbinding collection of tales from the men who actually flew the planes into war.The North American Aviation P-51 Mustang first started appearing in real numbers in 1943, at the climax of the Allied campaign in World War II. Able to fly long ranges, it was the perfect escort, keeping bombers protected all the way from Allied bases in Europe, the Mediterranean, and the Pacific to a variety of Axis industrial targets and military installations and back. The Mustang would go on to provide pivotal air support on D-Day, and by the end of the war, the P-51 would be responsible for nearly half of all enemy aircraft shot down.In The Fight in the Clouds, aviation writer and EAA Warbirds of America editor James P. Busha draws on interviews conducted with dozens of veteran P-51 pilots to trace the progress of war through the men’s exciting, chronologically organized experiences. You’ll encounter: ·Mustangs tangling with Soviet-built Yaks ·A Mustang ace shooting down an Me 262 Stormbird ·An epic long-range battle over the Pacific Ocean ·And a score of other riveting accounts underscoring the P-51’s versatility and its vital importance to the Allied victoryBolstered by Busha’s own commentary and historical analysis, along with a gallery of rare black-and-white period photographs, The Fight in the Clouds offers a cockpit-seat view of one of WWII’s most celebrated aircraft and the men who bravely flew it into harm’s way.
Author: Warren Thompson
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN: 1472808681
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 212
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Book Description
By the time the Korean War erupted, the F-51 Mustang was seen as obsolete, but that view quickly changed when the USAF rushed 145 of them to the theatre in late 1950. They had the endurance to attack targets in Korea from bases in Japan, where the modern F-86 fighters and other jets did not. Rather than the interceptor and escort fighter roles the Mustang had performed during World War 2, in the Korean War they were assigned to ground attack missions – striking at communist troop columns advancing south. This is the chronicle of the Mustang units that fought in the Korean War, detailing the type's involvement in a series of intense actions, its successes and its considerable losses. Drawing on meticulous research and gripping first-hand accounts from aircrew, this book explains how the faithful Mustang was able to roll back the years, fight, and prove itself in a new era of aerial warfare.
Author: Robert J. Goebel
Publisher: Zenith Press
ISBN: 9780760320693
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 228
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Book Description
When Bob Goebel left home to join the Army Air Corps in 1942, he was nineteen years old and a high school graduate. By the spring of 1944 he was on his way to Italy and the 31st Fighter Group, one of the top fighter outfits of the war. He was also headed for a new aircraft, the legendary P-51 Mustang. After 61 combat missions now-Captain Goebel was offcially credited with 11 victories in his Mustang. Returning home in September 1944 he was not yet 21 years old. Goebel's memoir is a classic of combat aviation, giving the reader a true sense of what it was like to fly and fight as a World War II fighter pilot.
Author: Cory Graff
Publisher: Zenith Press
ISBN: 0760348596
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 227
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Book Description
P-51 Mustang celebrates the 75th anniversary of the most iconic American warbird; from combat to recon, D-Day to the Battle of the Bulge.
Author: Robert J. Goebel
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780935553734
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 262
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Book Description
MUSTANG ACE Memoirs of a P-51 Fighter Pilot by Robert J. Goebel When Robert Goebel left home to join the Army Air Corps in 1942, he was a 19 years old and a high-school graduate. The only previous time he had traveled far from his native Racine, Wisconsin, was an epic trip in the summer of 1940, when he and a pal had ridden the rails to Texas and back to visit two of Bob's brothers who were in the service. Even during his weeks in Pre-flight training, young Goebel found that he felt at home in the service, and he looked forward to the great adventure on which he had embarked out of a sense of patriotism and yearning to see the wide world. Easygoing and quick to learn, Cadet Goebel worked his way steadily through the Basic, Primary, and Advanced phases of military flight training, and found in himself an aptitude for flight. However, like nearly all of his comrades, Goebel could not learn how to hit a flying target with the guns mounted on the trainers he flew. Nevertheless, he-and they-graduated to fighter school and, after earning their wings and commissions, were sent on to join an operational fighter unit - in Panama. The months of rigorous operational flying in Panama seasoned Lieutenant Goebel and his young companions, and made better aviators of them, but it did little to advance their gunnery skills. When a new crop of novices arrived, Goebel and his companions found themselves on their way to Europe to join the fight. They wound up in North Africa in the Spring of 1944 with orders to join the 31st Fighter Group in Italy. Just as Goebel and his young companions were about to join the leading fighter group in the Mediterranean Theater of Operations, the 31st turned in its British-made Spitfire fighters for new P-51 Mustang fighters. Within weeks, Bob Goebel had flown his first combat missions and had lost his element leader, who was shot down in a swirling dogfight. But master the job he did. A steady succession of bomber-escort missions over southeastern Europe slowly and then more rapidly forced Lieutenant Goebel to settle in and master aerial gunnery and the mentally taxing high-speed dogfights in which he became engaged. At last, he shot down his first German fighter. And he advanced to positions of leadership, in due course leading the entire 31st Fighter Group deep into enemy territory. At length, he shot down a fifth German and thus became an ace-a Mustang Ace. And then he shot down three Germans in one day on a mission to Ploesti, Rumania. He flew to Russia and back, and supported the invasion of southern France. In the end, by September 1944, he had eleven confirmed victories to his credit and was one of the 308th Fighter Squadron's most respected combat leaders. When he was sent home at the end of his combat tour, Captain Bob Goebel was not yet 22 years old.
