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Old 2nd Apr 2012, 14:36
  #337 (permalink)  
Lonewolf_50
 
Join Date: Aug 2009
Location: Texas
Age: 64
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Two books not mentioned:

Fehrenbach: This Kind of War. An excellent overall treatment of the Korean War.

A. Gould Lee: No Parachute
This short book is a first hand account of what it meant to be a Fighter Pilot (Scout PIlkot? Pursuit Pilot?) in the RFC -> RAF. He also discusses how much flight training he had back t hen, how to fly a Sopwith Pup, then a Camel, and some of the early efforts at Close Air Support. He also explains how the new interruptor gear in the Camel made a significant improvement in air to air gunnery over the Pup. Very interesting stuff.

No Parachute is worth a read for any pilot.
His observations about what happened at Cambrai in 1917 made me look up the battle.

I read a number of the Biggles books as a boy.

In some ways, Lee's book is a welcome counter to some of the license fiction writing takes with fact. Mind you, Johns writes very well, and I still have those books on my shelf to this day.

Rhoald Dahl wrote a book about being a pilot in the early phases of WW II (before his crash and injury) that I found pretty good. I forget the title.
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