Surprised nobody has mentioned THUD RIDGE by (Col, USAF) Jack Broughton, originally published 1969 it was re-published in 2006 by Crecy, <www.crecy.co.uk>
Definitive, first hand, account of the F105 operations over North Vietnam and the impact on the pilots of the political shenanigans surrounding them.
As far as WWII fighter pilots are concerned Bob Spurdle's book 'The Blue Arena' (published by William Kimber in 1986) was, IMHO, the best (i.e most authentic) read 'til the aforementioned G.Wellum's First light came along. He was a New Zealander by birth and served under 'Sailor' Malan on 74 Sqn. during BofB. I won't spoil your read by telling you what else he did from then until 1945.
Incidentally: Does anybody know of a definitive biography of Malan - I know a bit about his post-war return to his native South Africa (there is a small display devoted to him in the Hugenot museum in Franschoek, Cape Wnelands). Amongst the generation of fighter pilots who were my mentors (i.e. 35+ years ago) his was the reputation they most admired on the grounds that he, allegedly, "never lost a wingman" - unlike Closterman it seems!