THE STORY OF AIR FIGHTING

Characteristics

Description

‘A fascinating and absorbing account of battles in the air and the men who fought them by one of the greatest air fighters of them all’ – Daily Telegraph

Highly acclaimed as Full Circle when it appeared twenty years ago, and now brought fully up to date, this outstanding book by the great World War II fighter pilot, Johnnie Johnson, tells the story of fighting in the air from the First World War to the present day.

An enthralling “human” history, written around the fighter pilots themselves and the machines they flew, the book moves from 1914, when lone scouts in flimsy two-seaters spotted for the ground forces below and pilots duelled in the air with revolvers, to today’s jet and missile encounters. The author’s analysis of aerial strategy through the major conflicts of this century, and the achievements of the great fighter leaders on both sides, is full of thrilling first-hand stories of courage and accounts of such legendary aces as Oswald Boelcke, Manfred von Richthofen, Douglas Bader, Adolf Galland, Werner Mölders, Robin Olds, Don Blakeslee, and outstanding Israelis who, for security reasons, cannot be named.

Johnson examines the Vietnam War, which saw the introduction of a new generation of weapons and missiles; these profoundly altered the style of war both in the air and on the ground. He looks at the Arab/Israeli clashes, in which fighters and weapons from the great arsenals of the superpowers were tested in air combat. He also considers the recent encounters of our Sea Harriers in the Falklands, and, finally, the air battles of the future.

The top-scoring Allied fighter of the Second World War, who also fought with the United States Air Force in Korea, Johnnie Johnson is supremely qualified to write this graphic and absorbing account. Superbly illustrated with photographs and line drawings, his book is one of the most readable and authoritative works available on air fighting.