Customer Reviews

Clash of Wings: World War II in the Air

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4 star:		(4)
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Walter Boyne knows his aviation. He may be rightly called the Dean of aviation writers. A former military pilot and former Director of the National Air and Space Museum of the Smithsonian in Washington, DC, he is an author that I would recommend anyone who has an interest in aviation should read. Not only has he produced historical books about aviation, he's also written some very fine novels about the early days and progress of commercial and military aviation called Trophy for Eagles,Air Force Eagles and Eagles at War. He has also written a great book on the Air Force called 'Wild Blue'. These I also highly recommend. In this book, Boyne gives a good overview of the air war in WWII. He covers all theaters, recounts the classic air battles in the Pacific and in Europe, describes the planes that were used and tells of the men who flew them. In fact, the book is so spare that it almost feels like there needs to be more. For someone who wants a well-written, well-researched overview, this is the book to read about the air war in WWII and I recommend it.

Many books on this topic tend to get too detailed and readers tend to lose sight of the larger context of the war. I found this book to be good in that area- giving the reader a better overall view of the situtaion and circumstances that led to particular stratergies or equipment being developed in the course of the war. Its meant more for those interested in military avaition during WWII but do not want to get bogged down in the technical details.

Col. Boyne's book is certainly written in a readable style, but it is yet another strategic history of air warfare, a genre overpopulated with the strategic and tactical at the expense of the operational. Thankfully, Col. Boyne takes more of a look at the operational level of war than most air authors, but it's still a glimpse limited mostly to correlation of forces tables. However, some of Boyne's strategic insights are refreshing, particularly his revelations about how the cycle of aircraft and technology development impacted the different air forces, and the size and strategic mobility of the Luftwaffe and the Japanese Naval Air Force. Unfortunately, in the end, Col. Boyne is lead astray by his own background, wandering off course in the Pacific due to a poor understanding of naval air power. Naval Aviation's pioneers and their struggle to establish the arm that won the great battles of the Pacific war receive short shrift, as does the whole campaign. Boyne focusses excessively on the role of land based aviation, particularly the 5th Air Force and the B-29 bomber campaign. The former's Bismarck Sea massacre of a Japanese convoy is a highly overrated event, and the later was largely a matter of beating a dead horse. The Japanese recognized their military defeat at the Battle of the Philippine Sea, in June 1944 before a single B-29 launched from the Marianas. The only reason the war continued past that point was cultural pride and stubbornness. Clash of Wings is a good starting point, but I recommend the following books to people who really want to understand the Pacific war: Miller's "The Naval Air War," Hezlet's "Aircraft and Sea Power," Reynold's "The Fast Carriers," and Allen and Polmar's "Code-name Downfall." The B-29 campaign was rescued from a historical verdict of ineffectiveness, pointlessness and inhumanity only by the staggering shock of the atomic bomb, something Boyne appropriately calls "true air power." In the end, only nuclear, biological and chemical weapons are capable of achieving Guilio Douhet's vision of air power.

In "Clash Of Wings", the renowned air power expert, Col. Walter Boyne, brings World War II air power to life. Covering all theatres and major combatants, the reader is treated to a thorough introduction to the strategy, personalities and equipment involved.

Col. Boyne has again written in a very engaging and easily understood manner. Much of this writing consists of description of aircraft, including their strengths and weaknesses. My knowledge of aircraft has generally been limited to the models I had assembled in my youth, several of which I enjoyed reading about. I have never studied aircraft in sufficient depth to really follow their ins and outs, but Col. Boyne writes in such a way that I never became bored. I appreciate the way he weaves the story of the air war into the bigger story of the overall war. I finished this book with a feeling that I had a better understanding, not only of the air war, but of the ground and naval wars also. I was pleased to find some of my lingering questions about World War II, such as why Japan attacked the U. S. and European colonies to the south rather than trying to finish off the Soviet Union first, and what would have happened if they had attacked the U.S.S.R., addressed in this narrative.

This book is great! I really cannot say much more. Read it and understand what I mean.

History books are pretty difficult reading for me, I have to force myself to read them. This one, however, is quite enjoyable. Packed with facts and well organized it's also well written with a good amount of cynicism and sarcasm thrown in. The book covers all the major air battles in WWII and it does this with an excellent flow and honesty.

Col. Boyne has produced a very readable history of the air war in WW2, but his USAF roots betray him in the end. Chief among Boyne's strong points is his recognition of the impact of the aircraft technological development cycle on the combatants. It goes a long way toward illuminating why the Luftwaffe and Japanese Naval Air Force peaked early, only to stagnate later. Boyne also delves into certain strategic and operational level facts not often addressed. His revelations about the small size, but significant strategic mobility of the Luftwaffe and JNAF are quite interesting, as well as his correlation of forces tables. But alas, Boyne is of USAF origin and wanders into questionable assetions about the largely naval Pacific campaign. He trots out the tired, tragic and questionable feat of Colin Kelly (saying the target was really the cruiser Ashigara, not a battleship), glosses over the abject failure of land-based air at Midway, and positively glories in the small, and largely over-rated massacre in the Bismarck Sea. The role of the pioneers of Naval Aviation (such as John Towers) is largely ignored. Boyne is also a little light on his criticism of a number of USAF and RAF figures involved with the strategic bombing campaigns. Overall, Col. Boyne has written a readable, concise and insightful history of the air war, but it is decidedly skewed and anyone truly interested in the air campaigns of WW2 must read beyond him.

It's not easy to get all of WW2 aviation combat into one volume, but Boyne gets credit for doing so and creating a very solid read on the war in the air. He blends in historic review of the strategic objectives of each major power, along with tactical considerations and the role both played in the development of Allied and Axis aircraft. Included in this impressive coverage are appendices listing the major aircraft types and statistics.

Eleven chapters review each of the major theaters or phases of the war. As a former USAF pilot, Boyne has an ability to summarize the strengths and weaknesses of the weapons, tactics and strategies used by the combatants. I particularly liked the conclusions & summaries at the end of each chapter. As always, readers will clamor for more maps (there are none), more photos, more emphasis on this or that theater. There are some B&W pictures to give a representation of the planes used, but this book could not include every plane.

Four stars - while I found the book to be accurate, fair and even handed, I did not think it broke any new ground. But this is an excellent overview of the air war, perfect for young historians, those who want to see a more global perspective and how vast the scope of combat truly was. An ambitious reach, well done.

Walter Boyne, at one time the curator of the famous Air and Space Museum in Washington DC, spins an engrossing tale of the evolution of air power over the course of World War II. From the Japanese overreach and over reliance on a small cadre of irreplaceable carrier pilots--who demise spelled certain doom for their overextended empire--to the fulfilling of FDR's prescient claim of America's intent to build 100,00 aircraft, Boyne lays out a vast canvass that touches on many aspects of the aerial WWII. Russian aircraft are also given proper attention, including their redoubtable ground support aircraft the Sturmovik--a sort of armored flying bathtub that gained the enemy's respect as evidenced by its German nickname "Schwarz Tod" (i.e. Black Death).

Other surprising revelations include the fact that the B-29 Superfortresses, which dropped the atomic bombs that annihilated Hiroshima and Nagasaki, were actually more expensive to develop than the atomic bombs themselves. Also interesting was the strategic decision of General Curtis LeMay (the model for George C. Scott's character in "Dr. Strangelove") to use the B-29 in the incendiary bombing of Japanese cities because conventional bombing required low-level flying that resulted in the downing of too many American aircraft.

German aircraft like the Stuka and the Me 109 are seen to have given Germany an early advantage, but were soon to be matched and then overtaken by American and British efforts that resulted in the Spitfire, P-51, and P-47--with allied long range bombers making their German counterparts seem like mere toys by comparison. Later German efforts such as the Folkwulf 190 fighter and the Me 262 jet aircraft are shown to be too little to late. German complacency early in the war idled German aircraft production while the British, American, and Russian factories were working 24-7 to churn out the fighters and bombers that blackened the skies of the Axis with their ever-increasing numbers. Likewise, the all-too-flammable Japanese Zero (later dubbed "The Flying Cigarette Lighter" by its own beleaguered pilots) was eventually undone by the American carrier-born Hellcat and Corsair. Nor were the Russians shown to slackers--as their fielding of excellent fighter aircraft drove the Germans from their skies--despite that fact that much of the superstructure of such aircraft relied on plywood construction.

There are a lot of books on the air war in WW II. This has to be one of the better ones. Retired Air Force Col. Boyne brings a lot of experience to the subject and the opinions he expresses make good sense. I enjoyed the TV show and the book.

jingoism , and high-school (an american one, unfortunately) level vocabulary DO get in the way. i do not regret buying, but barely.