Help!! Looking for an air combat novel / WWII fiction

[Broncazonk]

Hey All:

I'm racking my brain trying to remember the name of a WWII air combat novel published in the 1970's.

The story was about a P-38 ace going up against a Japanese ace in the Solomons, one on one, repeatedly, as in an really personal aerial duel.

The P-38 ground-crew stripped out the armor (except for the back plate) and otherwise specially modified the bird to make it turn better.

Can't remember the name..

Anyone??

Thanks!! Bronc

 

[timshatz]

I think it was "The Last Dogfight".

 

[Captain Dunsel]

Sounds like it, timshatz. The writer was Martin Caidin.

CD

 

[Jerry W. Loper]

Hey All:

I'm racking my brain trying to remember the name of a WWII air combat novel published in the 1970's.

The story was about a P-38 ace going up against a Japanese ace in the Solomons, one on one, repeatedly, as in an really personal aerial duel.

The P-38 ground-crew stripped out the armor (except for the back plate) and otherwise specially modified the bird to make it turn better.

Can't remember the name..

Anyone??

Thanks!! Bronc

Yes, like tim said, that book was "The Last Dogfight" by Martin Caidin. The American pilot's name was Mitchell Ross and the Japanese pilot's name was Shigura Tanimoto. (For the first half of the book, Ross flew a P-40 instead of a P-38.) The paperback's cover carried the common boast, "Soon to be a major motion picture!" - but sadly, that never materialized. Caidin also wrote a companion volume titled "Whip," which was about a crack B-25 unit in the South Pacific - Whip Russell was the name of the main character.