A new book in my library. (2 Viewers)
- Thread starter Wayne Little
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vikingBerserker
Lieutenant General
Nice!
Love aviation books about the beginning of the Pacific war. Please let me know how that one is.
Jim, I am way behind on book reading right now but here is a summory of the back of the book and what drew me to picking it up.
Patrol Wing Ten was the only U.S. Navy aviation unit to fight the Japanese in the early weeks of World War II, and the daring exploits of its PBY scout-plane pilots offer a dramatic tale of heroism, duty, and controversy. Poorly equipped and dead tired from flying back-to-back patrols with no fighter cover, the men lost sixty-six percent of their aircraft in just eight weeks as they took on an enemy that outnumbered them nearly 1,000 to one. This forceful narrative places the reader right in the midst of their courageous battle. Dwight Messimer's aggressive research on the topic has resulted in a work that provides moving details to their desperate but valiant acts against the seemingly invincible Japanese juggernaut that swept across the southwest Pacific at the opening of the war.
By Christmas Day in 1941, Patrol Wing Ten was forced to split into two groups, one fighting an air and sea campaign in Java, the other fighting as infantry on Bataan and Corregidor. Moving back and forth between the two groups, Messimer skillfully interweaves their experiences with the major events of the overall war. He uses material from the fifty survivors he managed to track down and deftly captures their ability to maintain a sense of humor in the face of overwhelming danger. The more than one hundred personal and official documents uncovered during years of research reveal new information relating to technical points about the planes, facts verified by the PBY crews that do not agree with popularly accepted ideas. To those who believe the wing accomplished nothing--and this group includes many pilots--Messimer argues that while attempts to bomb the Japanese fleet proved futile because the PBYs were unsuitable for such a task, the wing's rescue and evacuation missions saved many lives. The airdales themselves were not so lucky. When Corregidor fell, nearly half of them were captured and many died in captivity
Patrol Wing Ten was the only U.S. Navy aviation unit to fight the Japanese in the early weeks of World War II, and the daring exploits of its PBY scout-plane pilots offer a dramatic tale of heroism, duty, and controversy. Poorly equipped and dead tired from flying back-to-back patrols with no fighter cover, the men lost sixty-six percent of their aircraft in just eight weeks as they took on an enemy that outnumbered them nearly 1,000 to one. This forceful narrative places the reader right in the midst of their courageous battle. Dwight Messimer's aggressive research on the topic has resulted in a work that provides moving details to their desperate but valiant acts against the seemingly invincible Japanese juggernaut that swept across the southwest Pacific at the opening of the war.
By Christmas Day in 1941, Patrol Wing Ten was forced to split into two groups, one fighting an air and sea campaign in Java, the other fighting as infantry on Bataan and Corregidor. Moving back and forth between the two groups, Messimer skillfully interweaves their experiences with the major events of the overall war. He uses material from the fifty survivors he managed to track down and deftly captures their ability to maintain a sense of humor in the face of overwhelming danger. The more than one hundred personal and official documents uncovered during years of research reveal new information relating to technical points about the planes, facts verified by the PBY crews that do not agree with popularly accepted ideas. To those who believe the wing accomplished nothing--and this group includes many pilots--Messimer argues that while attempts to bomb the Japanese fleet proved futile because the PBYs were unsuitable for such a task, the wing's rescue and evacuation missions saved many lives. The airdales themselves were not so lucky. When Corregidor fell, nearly half of them were captured and many died in captivity
Jim,
I just received this one from a friend today but it might interest you. Not sure what to expect of it but scanning a quick browse through it was it was written by Mack Morriss who was a Yank Correspondent who was a 24 year old sergeant who wrote for the Yank, army Weekly in house paper. Reported the war from the ridge known as Sea Horse on Guadalcanal to flying night missions to bomb Japanese targets in a B-17.
I just received this one from a friend today but it might interest you. Not sure what to expect of it but scanning a quick browse through it was it was written by Mack Morriss who was a Yank Correspondent who was a 24 year old sergeant who wrote for the Yank, army Weekly in house paper. Reported the war from the ridge known as Sea Horse on Guadalcanal to flying night missions to bomb Japanese targets in a B-17.
Oh, worth a look! Thanks for both posts.
No problem!!
Wildcat
Major
Nice Paul! The PatWing 10 book has been on my want list for a while now..
Thanks Andy, just need time to catch up on reading.
- Thread starter
- #5,671
good stuff Paul....
Thanks Wayne!!!
Book finally came today and have been browsing it for the last 20 minutes. Paper quality is really good. Nice hard cover book. Pictures are sharp but in some aspects I am disappointed in the book. It seems to be more of an over view of the B-25 at least to me. Talks about history. Talks briefly of other countries that flew it along with different branches of the US history. Everything is very brief and leaving the reader wanting more.
I don't think there was one picture that I had not seen before on the B-25. A lot pictures of employees doing different tasks in the company but I was hoping for more break down pictures of different stages of assembly of the B-25. The book shows lots of things such as a woman checking the stock room or an employee checking out a jig from tooling department, using a drill press or lathe. You can go to LIFE magazine and get some of the same photos for free including the name reference in the pictures for bigger sizes than you can in the book
There is no performance info in the book, no three D diagram's. When you do get to the pictures of the b-25 being assembled most of the pictures are an inch high and maybe an inch to two inch's long. The last 22 pages of the book to me are useless. They contain pictures from magazine, advertisments and articles on the B-25 but none of them are complete. Just a page here and there. Three pages of the book just show pictures of different aircraft manuals for the aircraft but that's it.
There is lots of potential for the book but to me its lacking in lots of aspects. If you want a pretty good book on the B-25 I recommend William Wolfs book. It's still missing info but way more complete on the B-25 of similar layout to this one. Its more money but to me well worth the cost. I will dig deeper into it but really what I was hoping for was bigger pictures of the assembly of the aircraft itself, maybe a few factory drawings. The manual pictures are just a tease. Just a pictures of what each version of the B-25 was per manual. No pictures of installation of the top or bottom turrets on early models or any models for that matter. No bomb site pictures. Very few internal pictures.
Hope this helps.
All the best
Paul
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Like my friend above I am way behind on my reading, so I can't critique this book yet, but my initial impression is this:
1) Attack aircraft is used in the broadest sense. It seems every plane that has ever carried a bomb is included, not just "A" types.
2) Contents include up to early JSF.
3) More of an encyclopedia in the fact that the aircraft are listed by manufacturer than chronologically by dated of manufacture or entry into service.
I give it a thumbs up, especially since it was an old library book and I paid less than half price for it. Will likely tuck into it tonight for a more in depth peruse or as a sleep aid. Oh, and I ordered it before the Jan 1 moratorium!
I might be wrong about 3) above. Seems I missed the fact that the book is divided in half by services...
