book recommendation needed
 

hey guys.
once more my girlfriend wants to buy me a book about wwII aviation for my birthday....at x-mas she bought me spitfire on my tail, and i really enjoyed reading it.
now i would like to hear book recommendations from you, and maybe if possible with a brief summary of the content.

what i would really like to read, would be a book which really focuses on the actual air combat.spitfire on my tail is really interesting to read, but this time, i would like to read more about dogfights,tactics and maybe about the technical aspects of the planes(the strenghts and weakness of each craft and therefore the resulting tactics), instead of the overall picture of the period.
i
btw, i would prefer books which focus on the evil side of that time.so books about the luftwaffe, their pilots, maybe another biography of an ace.....

thx for your help and information in advance

I have actually just ordered a book called First Light by Geoffrey Wellum.

Product Description
Two months before the outbreak of the Second World War, seventeen-year-old Geoffrey Wellum becomes a fighter pilot with the RAF . . .

Desperate to get in the air, he makes it through basic training to become the youngest Spitfire pilot in the prestigious 92 Squadron. Thrust into combat almost immediately, Wellum finds himself flying several sorties a day, caught up in terrifying dogfights with German Me 109s.

Over the coming months he and his fellow pilots play a crucial role in the Battle of Britain. But of the friends that take to the air alongside Wellum many never return.

First Light or Bomber. One true, the other so filled with details and atmosphere it seems real.

Binky9

The best book I've ever read on BoB is this one:

Gun Button To Fire
Tom Neil

249 Sqd. Hurricanes

I liked First Light too but with this one you get a blow by blow account of each day really with all the little details that matter to us simmers. Tom was able to use the letters he sent home to his parents daily to provide interesting details and dates that probably would have otherwise been forgotten. Amazing read. All the emotions he felt really come through strongly.


http://www.amazon.co.uk/s/?ie=UTF8&k...l_6ig8j741xc_e

hmm...your input has conflicting parameters.

If you want to learn air combat: Fighter Combat - Tactics and Maneuvering by Robert Shaw

If you want nice late night reading "from the evil side" you can buy any of the hundrends of books written by veteran WWII pilots.


~S~

Geoffrey Wellum's " First Light" is excellent! So is Al Deere's "Nine Lives". Brian Lane's "Spitfire" is very good, too. "I Flew for the Fuhrer" by Heinz Knoke has no evil in it, but a good account of flying 109's in WW2.

Snapper agree Al Deere's "Nine Lives" is a fantastic read also really enjoyed "My part of the sky" by Roland Beaumont,these books are so cheap on amazon i find myself buying 2-3 a month.Also these threads are very helpfull to check up on the titles before buying.

Cheese

All these are gold plated IMHO, read and re-read many times:-

Nine Lives, Al Deere, RAF
Wing Leader, Johnny Johnson, RAF
The Big Show, Pierre Closterman, RAF
Tumultuous Clouds, James "Goody" Goodson USAF
First Light, Geoffrey Wellum, RAF
I flew for the Fuhrer, Heinz Knoke, LW
Messerchmitts over Sicily, Macky Steinhoff, LW
First and Last, Adolph Galland, LW (very hard to find)
The Final Hours, Macky Steinhoff, LW
Samurai!, Saburo Sakai, IJA
Flying Start, Hugh Dundas (hard to find, Pen & Sword do a repro copy but with poor photos)

and more on my bookshelves downstairs if you run out of ideas :)

Are all these books based off real people? Or are some of them fiction? I'm in reading mode right now and always looking for some great ww2 aircraft books. I've read a few of the Steven Ambrose books.

Bomber sounds pretty cool.

Found two that I recently read that might fit the bill. First was "The German Aces Speak". I especially enjoy reading the section on Walter Krupinski. He talked a lot about the 109 which is my favorite. The other is "The Blond Knighgt of Germany" about Eric Hartmann. Although not an Auto Bio he was extensively interviewed by the authors and give some really good insight about how he fought his aircraft. The Hartmann book is a little long on his Soviet captivity btu its a good read none the less.

http://www.amazon.com/SPITFIRE-Exper...084545-8479824

This book was written by Brian Lane. He was a fighter pilot in the BoB. The book was published in 1942.

Brian Lane was shot down and killed right after his book was published.

It was kind of spooky reading this, knowing the author would be killed a few years later.

It is a short read however, only 200 pages or so if i remember. But still a good book to pass an afternoon.

"Bomber" (by Len Deighton) is the best book that I have ever read!!
I have hardly ever read fiction, but this book reads loke non-fiction. Deighton's research into the workings of the German night-fighter op's & the those of RAF heavy bomber squardons is a real eye-opener - I learnt loads about Freya radar, bomber & night fighter strategy etc etc!!

I can thoroughly recommend this book - I'm sure you, like me, learn a lot when reading it.

In all fairness, he was a PoW a lot longer than he was a fighter pilot.

All of the books I listed are first hand auto-biographies (written by the person themselves).

If you would like to know more about the Battle of Britain specifically I highly recommend 'The Most Dangerous Enemy' by Stephen Bungay.
I have read an awful lot of books on the BoB and Bungay's book is the best IMHO. It strips away many of the myths but in doing so makes the events more profound and in many cases deeply moving.

Regards Mike

thx guys so far for your answers!!
though i have to say, that i didnt expect so much different recommendations.
i thought i will see a few suggested multible times.

+ 1

Mazex

I am reading: Messerschmitts Over Sicily: Diary of a Luftwaffe Fighter Commander

http://www.amazon.com/Messerschmitts.../dp/0811731596

Based on the author's personal World War II diary
An unflinching look at Luftwaffe combat, tactics, and leadership during the campaign for Sicily
A concluding chapter assesses the war's lessons for air forces
In an account of unusual power, Luftwaffe ace Johannes Steinhoff recounts the final days of the German air force on Sicily in June and July 1943. Facing crushing odds--including a commander, Hermann Göring, who contemptuously treated his pilots as cowards--Steinhoff and his fellow Messerschmitt 109 pilots took to the skies day after day to meet waves of dreaded Flying Fortresses and swarms of Allied fighters, all bent on driving the Germans from the island. A captivating narrative and a piercing analysis, this book is a classic of aerial combat.

Don't know much about the evil side but I would recommend the following: "Feindberührung" by Julius Meimberg. Lese ich zurzeit selber, und es ist eines der besten Bücher. Verlag 29-6.

What sort of comment is that may i ask?

Is it a good read?

Helpful that is!!!!

Cheese

thx foobar.
that sounds really interesting.

The German Aces speak - world war 2 through the eyes of four of the Luftwaffes most important commanders - not a very catchy title but a good book. It's Krupinski, Galland, Neuman and Falck talking about the whole Air War from their individual points of view.

a little short but a fascinating read.

It's on Amazon and is also available in digital format, I have it on my iPad.