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Military + aviation book reviews

[Some of these reviews first appeared in Air & Space / Smithsonian magazine, the Wall Street Journal, Michigan War Studies Review, or another publication. Others were written for this website, and some are just rough notes. Each book should be for sale somewhere, and I have linked the review to the book at Amazon.com or elsewhere. However, I have not updated this file for several years. -- Daniel Ford]

Japan at War, 1931-1945
The Brewster Buffalo
Flying Tigers
Vietnam
All-wing aircraft
War in the Modern World

Japan at war, 1931-1945

• Crysthanthemum and Sword: Japanese Culture (Benedict)
• Japanese Imperialism, 1894-1945 (Beasley)
• Hirohito and the Making of Modern Japan (Herbert Bix)
• The Rape of Nanking: The Forgotten Holocaust (Iris Chang)
• Nomonhan: Japan Against Russia, 1939 (Alvin Coox)
• Kaigun: Strategy, Tactics, Technology (Evans & Peattie)
• Sunburst: Rise of Japanese Naval Air Power (Mark Peattie)
• JAAF Fighter Units & Their Aces (Izawa, Hata, Shores)
• Japanese Army Air Force Aces 1937-45 (Henry Sakaida)
• The Pacific War, 1931-1945: Japan's Role (Saburo Ienaga)
• Kempeitai: Japan's Military Police (Ramond Lamont-Brown)
• Prisoners of the Japanese (Gavan Daws)
• Death on the Hellships: Prisoners at Sea (Gregory Michno)
• Sex slaves for the Emperor: Japan's "Comfort Women"
• Samurai! (Saburo Sakai et al)
• Kamikaze: Japan's Suicide Gods (Axell & Kaze)
• Kamikaze, Cherry Blossoms, Nationalisms (Emiko Ohnuki-Tierney)
• Embracing Defeat: Japan in the Wake of WWII (John Dower)
• Retribution: The Battle for Japan, 1944-45 (Hastings)
• Flyboys: a flawed account of an atrocity
• Downfall: End of the Japanese Empire (Frank)
• Magnificent Fight: The Battle for Wake Island (Robert Cressman)
• Building the B-29 (Jacob Vander Meulen)
• Blankets of Fire: U.S. Bombers over Japan (Kenneth Werrell)
• Breaking the Emperor's Codes (Michael Smith)
• Hiroshima's Shadow: Denial and the Smithsonian (Bird etc)

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The Brewster Buffalo

• Buffaloes Over Singapore (Brian Cull et al)
• Lentolaivue 24 (Stenman & Keskinen)

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Flying Tigers

• War Wings: the U.S. and Chinese Military Aviation (Xu)
• Tex Hill: Flying Tiger (Tex Hill & Reagan Schaupp)
• AVG Colours & Markings (Terrill Clements)
• Flying Tigers: Claire Chennault and the AVG (Daniel Ford)
• Remains (a novel of the Flying Tigers) (Daniel Ford)
• Tale of a Tiger (R.T. Smith)
• P-40 Warhawk Aces of the CBI (Carl Molesworth)
• The Lady and the Tigers (Greenlaw & Ford)
• China Pilot: Flying For Chennault in the Cold War (Felix Smith)
• Destiny: A Flying Tiger's Rendezvous With Fate (Erik Shilling)
• Last Hope: The Blood Chit Story (R.E. Baldwin & Thomas McGarry)
• P-40 Warhawk vs. Ki-43 Oscar (Carl Molesworth)
• Pappy Boyington and the Black Sheep (Bruce Gamble)

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Vietnam

• The Father of All Things (Bissell)
• Bury Us Upside Down (Newman & Shepperd)
• 'Unquiet Americans' (Nam-a-Rama and Fatal Crossroads)
• Stolen Valor (Burkett & Whitley)
• They Marched into Sunlight (Maraniss)
• Green Berets in the Vanguard, 1953-1963 (Chalmers Archer)
• Only War We've Got: Early Days in South Vietnam (Ford)
• Incident at Muc Wa (Ford)
• War Story (Jim Morris)
• The Village (Bing West)
• When Thunder Rolled: F-105 over North Vietnam (Rasimus)

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All-wing aircraft

• Glen Edwards: The Diary of a Bomber Pilot (Daniel Ford)
• The Horten Brothers and Their All-Wing Aircraft (David Myhra)
• Horten Ho 229 Spirit of Thuringia (Andrei Shepelev & Huib Ottens)

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War in the Modern World

• How the Weak Win Wars: Asymmetric Conflict (Arreguin-Toft)
• Strategy: The Logic of War and Peace (Luttwak)
• The Utility of Force: The Art of War in the Modern World (Smith)
• Counterinsurgency Warfare: Theory and Practice (Galula)
• The Transformation of War (van Creveld)
• 'Was John Boyd a new Sun Tzu?' (the OODA Loop and all that)
• Terror and Consent: The Wars for the 21st Century (Bobbitt)
• The Army After Next: The First Postindustrial Army (Adams)
• The Looming Tower: the Road to 9/11 (Wright)
• 'A military marvel's race to Baghdad' (Lacey)
• Imperial Grunts: American Military on the Ground (Kaplan)
• The Iraq War - Dark Victory (Keegan & Record)
• The March Up: 1st Marine Division to Baghdad (West & Smith)
• El Dorado Canyon: Reagan's War on Qaddagi (Stanik)
• The Warthog and the CAS Debate (Campbell)
• The New Face of War (Berkowitz)
• Terrorism, Afghanistan, & America's Way of War (Friedman)
• Twilight Warriors: Covert Ops against the USSR (Curtis Peebles)
• Dr. Space: The Life of Wernher von Braun (Bob Ward)
• American Raiders: Race for the Luftwaffe's Secrets (Samuels)
• Adak: The Rescue of Alfa Foxtrot 586 (Andrew Jampoler)

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Question? Comment? Newsletter? Send me an email. Blue skies! -- Dan Ford

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Posted June 2019. Websites © 1997-2019 Daniel Ford; all rights reserved.