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Davis, Donald A.,
LIGHTNING STRIKE: The Secret Mission to Kill Yamamoto and Avenge Pearl Harbor.
NEW copy. St. Martin's Press, 2005. Hardcover with dust jacket. Photographs, 400 pages.
"Five American airmen hunt down and kill the admiral of the Japanese navy in WW
II. After Yamamoto’s plane is blown out of the sky over Bougainville, the
Japanese navy loses every battle in which it engages. If we didn’t know better,
we’d think this scenario was that of an alternate history. It is, of course, a
true story. ~~ Imagine if the Germans had somehow managed to kill Eisenhower
or Patton. It would have been the equivalent for America. Yamamoto wasn’t just
an admiral. He was a policy-maker, a hero, a paragon of the Japanese warrior.
The loss was a major blow to morale, from which their navy never recovered.
~~ Given the raw drama of the tale, Lightning Strike was bound to be
a page-turner. It would almost be hard to mess up a story like this. The writing
style of author Donald A. Davis, though, adds to the edge-of-your-seat reading
experience. With a knack for action writing and getting into the heads of those
involved, he takes you through all the stages of the seemingly impossible
mission—focusing on the Americans in the middle of it, as well as the Japanese
on the receiving end. You get an inside view to all the planning, replanning,
action and courage, plus a detailed description of the wreckage and aftermath.
Lightning Strike is a fast-reading reenactment of one of the war’s most
remarkable missions."
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Baisden, Chuck,
FLYING TIGER TO AIR COMMANDO.
NEW copy, hardcover with dust jacket. (Atglen, PA: Schiffer Books, 2001).
Over 100 b&w photographs, 160 pages.
~~~ Flying Tiger to Air Commando is an enlisted man's story of
over twenty years of service to his country. From enlistment in the Army Air
Corps at age nineteen as a Private to his retirement at age 44 as a Master Sgt.,
his unusual tale will interest all aviation, history, and gunnery buffs. At age
twenty he volunteered for the American Volunteer Group, hardly aware of China
and its problems with Japan, but was soon to find out as an armorer with
Chennault's famed Flying Tigers. When that elite group was broken up, he
returned to the States, soon to return to the CBI theater flying as a B-25
gunner with his good friend from the Tigers, R.T. Smith, in the First Air
Commandos. The end of WWII was not the end of combat for Sgt. Baisden, who saw
service in the Korean War, both as an armorer in the 80th Fighter-Bomber
Squadron of the 8th Fighter-Bomber Group, and as a gunner on B-29s in the 93rd
Heavy Bombardment Squadron, 19th Bomb Group. His last days in the Air Force were
flown as an in-flight refueling technician in KC-97s with the 308th, 2nd, and
19th Air Refueling Squadrons. His down-to-earth narrative is interesting and
informative, and is presented along with his own period
$24.95
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Boyington,
TONYA. A novel based on Boyington's experiences in
the Flying Tigers. "Tonya", described on the dust jacket flap as "...the self-confessed nymphomaniac wife of an American pilot..." was based on the real-life Olga Greenlaw, wife of Chennault's executive officer, with whom Boyington had a number of "liasons".
$55.00
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Boyington,
TONYA. A novel based on Boyington's experiences in
the Flying Tigers. "...She wasn't handing out doughnuts & coffee..."
$25.00
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Losonsky, Frank S. & Terry M. Losonsky,
FLYING TIGER: A Crew Chief's Story.
NEW copy, hardcover with dust jacket. (Atglen, PA: Schiffer Books, 1997).
Over 200 photographs, 112 pages.
~~~ This new book is the war diary of a Flying Tiger American
Volunteer Group crew chief from the 3rd Pursuit Squadron. Much of the Flying
Tiger history is written from the pilot's viewpoint. These brave pilots deserve
much praise, but those who fixed the aircraft and kept them flying also have a
story to tell. Though their story is perhaps not as flashy, it is quite
interesting and very much in tune with the everyday spirit of that intense
period before America entered the World War II. This book contains Losonsky's
war diary, which is supplemented with interviews and dialogue, and includes over
200 unpublished photographs. This format provides the reader with a
multi-dimensional view of the period. Flying Tiger will give aviation historians
new insights into the days shortly before the Flying Tiger successes in late
1941.
$35.00
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Molesworth, Carl.
SHARKS OVER CHINA: The 23rd Fighter Group in World War II.
NEW copy, hardcover with dust jacket. (Edison, NJ: Castle Books, 2001). Map, photographs, rosters, appendices, notes,
bibliography, index, 325 pages.
~~~ The shark-faced P-40 fighter planes that patrolled the deadly skies over China during World War II hold a
special fascination for aviation and military history enthusiasts. Yet even now, more than fifty years later, little is
known about the employment of those extraordinary machines, the courageous men who flew them, and the very different
kind of war they fought. And much of what people think they know is wrong. Sharks Over China sets the record straight.
It is the first history of the U.S. Army Air Corps unit that incorporated Gen. Claire Chennault's famous Flying Tigers
- the 23rd Fighter Group. During the dark days immediately after Pearl Harbor, most news from the Asian front was bad
- with the exception of reports about the Flying Tigers and their successor, the 23rd. Day after day, the P-40s of this
legendary unit outfought the powerful Japanese air forces despite acute shortages of men and material. No single
American fighter group in World War II performed more varied missions, was more successful, or was more central to
the war effort in its theater of operations. By the end of the war, the 23rd had tallied nearly six hundred aerial
victories and destroyed nearly four hundred more Japanese aircraft on the ground. Based on eyewitness interviews
with the group's survivors and containing numerous rare photographs, Sharks Over China
belongs in every World War II and aviation library, right next to another classic about the 23rd Fighter Group,
God Is My Co-Pilot.
~~~ From Publishers Weekly: "In 1942 the 23rd Fighter Group of the U.S. Army Air Force replaced the
American Volunteer Group (`Flying Tigers') in
China, inheriting their famed shark-mouthed P-40s as well as their difficult mission. Short of pilots, planes, fuel
and ammunition, based at primitive airfields vulnerable to the Japanese, the 23rd developed special tactics to become
the highest-scoring aerial unit in the China-Burma-India theater, achieving 594 aerial victories while destroying some
400 Japanese aircraft on the ground. Drawing on interviews, diaries, letters and unit histories, Molesworth (Wing to
Wing) has stitched together a chronicle of a gutsy, resourceful outfit whose tasks included escorting bombers, bombing
bridges, strafing troop trains and raiding enemy airfields."
~~~ OUT OF PRINT.
$35.00
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Smith, Robert M.,
WITH CHENNAULT IN CHINA: A Flying Tiger's Diary.
NEW copy, hardcover with dust jacket. (Atglen, PA: Schiffer Books, 1997).
Over 110 b&w photographs, 176 pages.
~~~ Smith was a radioman with the American Volunteer Group in Burma and S.W. China
from mid-1941 to mid-'42. His duty gave him immediate information on air action
while allowing the time to keep a rather detailed & articulate diary.
$29.95
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[Geiger] Roger Willock,
UNACCUSTOMED TO FEAR: A Biography of the Late General Roy S. Geiger.
Ray Geiger's World War II service began in Guadalcanal as a Brigadier General with command of the 1st
Marine Air Wing, Fleet Marine Force headquartered at Henderson Field. After a stint of Washington duty,
he returned to the Pacific to relieve General Vandegrift as commander I Amphibious Corps. He led his
Corps, then re-designated the II Amphibious Corps, in the invasion of Guam, Peleliu, and on Okinawa under
General Buckner's Tenth Army. On Okinawa, he briefly commanded the Tenth Army after Buckner was killed and
before General Stilwell took over, thus becoming the first and only Marine officer to command a field army.
At the time of the surrender he was commander of the Fleet Marine Force, Pacific.
$30.00
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Hata, Ikuhiko and Yasuho Izawa,
JAPANESE NAVAL ACES AND FIGHTER UNITS IN WORLD WAR II.
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Hess, William N,
PACIFIC SWEEP:
The 5th and 13th Fighter Commands in World War II.
Doubleday & Company, Inc., NF/NF.
Clean copy, no obvious flaws. Photographs, appendices, index,
278 pages.
$25.00
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Tillman, Barrett,
CLASH OF THE CARRIERS: The True Story of the MARIANAS TURKEY SHOOT of World War II.
NEW copy, hardcover with dust jacket. (NY: NAL Caliber, Penguin Group, 2005).
Map, photographs, appendices, notes, bibliography, index, 348 pages.
~~~ In June, 1944, American and Japanese carrier fleets made their way through the Philippine Sea, both hoping to take control of the vital Marianas Islands. When they met, they embarked upon a naval engagement that escalated into the most spectacular aircraft carrier battle in history. Here is the true account of the battle, told from both sides-by those who were there. Drawing upon numerous interviews as well as official sources, Clash of the Carriers is an unforgettable testimonial to the bravery of those who fought and those who died in a battle that will never be forgotten.
$24.95
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Werneth, Ron,
BEYOND PEARL HARBOR: The Untold Stories of Japan's Naval Airmen.
NEW copy, hardcover with dust jacket. (Atglen, PA: Schiffer Books, 2008).
Over 150 b&w photographs, 288 pages.
~~~ This book is the story of the air war in the Pacific through
the eyes of the last surviving Imperial Japanese Naval aviators of World War II,
chronicled through never before published first-hand accounts, wartime diaries,
and private photographs.
$65.00
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