Wings of War - Fighting WWII in the Air

Naval Institute Press 1994

This book is about a young man's experience of World War II as a pilot in the United States Air Force. It tells the story of Jeffrey L. Ethell's experiences as a fighter pilot in the European and Pacific theatres of World War II. Ethell has gathered a unique collection of 181 rare colour photographs from former US pilots and ground crews from a myriad of fronts. Their experiences, captured on vintage Kodachrome, counterbalance the newsreel footage, photojournalism and photographic archives that have contributed to WW2 being pictured in black-and-white. Amongst the images are open cockpit biplanes used in training, Catalinas, B-17 Flying Fortresses, and B-29 Superfortresses, (including the Enola Gay, which dropped the atomic bomb on Hiroshima), C-47 Skytrains (Dakotas). A-36 Invaders, B-24s, B-26 Marauders, P-38 Lightnings, P-40s, P-47 Thunderbolts, P-51 Mustangs, F4U Corsairs, F6F Hellcats (the first US planes to beat the Japanese Zeros), Briitsh Spitfires with American insignia, and many of the other planes that saw action. These exceptional images are accompanied by first-person narratives involving the men and machines during the war. Each photo has a personal story behind it, with anecdotes from veterans...