49th Fighter Group: Aces of the Pacific (Aviation Elite Units, 14)

Rating:
Summary: P-40's & P-38's in the South Pacific
Review: Osprey Publishing has done a series of small books like this on Elite aviation units. The 49th Fighter Group certainly qualifies as an elite unit. Less than a month after Pearl Harbour they were sent to the South Pacific flying P-40's in the defense of Darwin, Australia. They fought up the island hopping campaign until the wars end in 1945 when they were preparing to move to Okinawa for the invasion of Japan itself. Beginning at the end of 1942 the P-40's were gradually replaced with P-38's and P-47's. The most famous Ace of the 49th was Richard Bong - 40 victories. By the end of the war, the 49th as a whole had scored 668 aerial victories.

About half story and half photographs, the book is profusely illustrated with wartime photographs of the aircraft, people and the places where the 49th operated. The written story of the 49th is by William Hess, the official historian of the American Fighter Aces Association.