THE WARBIRD'S BOOKSHELF

P-40 Warhawk vs. Ki-43 Oscar

"Carl Molesworth's book has a few flaws but it is well written, interesting, and its artwork and illustrations are a visual delight. Despite this reviewer's barbs, Carl's book will be highly interesting and useful to many readers. For those interested but who have not ventured deeply; or at all, into the aerial conflict in China it may be considered an essential addition to their library. For many others the illustrations and accounts of combat in 1944-1945 will be interesting and worthwhile." Read Richard Dunn's review

Max Hastings: Retribution

Max Hastings is an always-interesting, sometimes-annoying historian of World War II. He's one of those Englishman who have never quite forgiven the United States for eclipsing the old Empire, and indeed hastening its demise, so he finds it very difficult to say anything nice about American warfighters--for example, that they might actually have been as good as their allies and enemies. So it's no surprise that he blames the horrific destruction of Manila, not upon its Japanese perpetrators, but on Douglas MacArthur--because he didn't bypass the Philippines! But there's no denying the brilliance of Hastings's writing, or the sharpness of his judgments when they don't involve the clumsy former colonials from North America. He gives short shrift to the Hiroshima revisionists who argue that Japan would have politely surrendered without a nudge from two atomic bombs: "peddlers of fantasies," he snaps. Belongs in the library of every student of WWII.

Dan Ford's books:

• Flying Tigers: Claire Chennault & His American Volunteers
• Michael's War (a story of the Irish Republican Army)
• The Lady and the Tigers (with Olga Greenlaw)
• The Only War We've Got: Early Days in South Vietnam
• Remains (a story of the Flying Tigers)
• Incident at Muc Wa (a story of the Vietnam War)
• Half price: Glen Edwards: Diary of a Bomber Pilot

Five great books about flying