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Rating: 
Summary: Don't be put off by the cover artwork!! This is a fine book.
Review: I have been a student of the 4th Fighter Group for some 30 years now and I thought that I had read just about all there was to read on the subject, but Frank Speer has come up with a winner and is to be congratulated on his unique approach to the subject. It's nice to hear someone reaffirm that there were more than half a dozen fighter pilots in the Fourth Fighter Group. What a splendid book.
Rating:
Summary: A Great Historical Record of the 4FG
Review: I too have been studying the Fourth Fighter Group for almost 20 years, it all started when I accidentally picked up a copy of 'Death Squadron' by Grover Hall at Moron Air Base in Spain in the early 80's. It looked like a ficticious WWII novel due to the hockey title, but when I started flipping through it (I was really desperate for something to read), I realized there were pictures and that this was actually a historical work! Twenty years on, I still enjoy reading it, although it is barely held together by tape and the pages are yellow and crumbling. It is for this reason that I bought Frank Speer's 'The Debden Warbirds.'Anyone who has read Hall's work, or any of the other books on the 4 FG ('Tumult in the Clouds' by Jim Goodson, 'Spits, Thunderbolts, and Warm Beer', and 'Donald's Story') might be a bit put off by the logbook-style format of Speer's book, but it does show you there were a lot more men in the Group than just the more noteworthy pilots, and Speer tells their story as much as anyone else's. 'The Debden Warbirds' is more of a historical record of the 4FG than a novel, and compliments the other works about the Group; but the best reason to buy this great book is the section on nose art in the end. Speer's inclusion of Don Allen's stunning works of art on the noses of the 4FG Mustangs (in color,no less!) is worth the price of the book alone. Frank Speer himself was an ace with the Fourth, as well as a POW, and was awarded the DFC and Air Medal (with three OLCs). He is part of a vanishing breed of heroes that our generation just recently started to recognize and appreciate, and he is to be commended not only for his efforts in capturing the history of the Fourth Fighter Group, but also for his contributions to it. Major Michael H. Moore, USAF
Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe
Belgium
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