Customer Reviews

Crimson Sky: The Air Battle for Korea

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

If you enjoy reading gritty, in your face, first person accounts of pilots in life and death struggles then this is your book.

As I was reading this book it became clear to me that the author had spent a tremendous amount of time in research and conducted extensive interviews with Korean War pilots and it shows in the detail and depth of his accounts.

I read a great deal of history and it is always refreshing to find a historian who explores new angles and ideas. As a real bonus Bruning makes this an exciting book to read, I laughed at some parts and nearly cried in others.

If you have an interest in the air war over Korea or just in air warfare in general do not hesitate to add this book to your library. I certainly enjoyed this book.

The author stated that he wrote "Crimson Sky" to remember Korean War aviators as the United States approached the 50th anniversary of the conflict's beginning. Mr. Bruning has done a good job. He has interviewed veterans and put their stories into the book in a fast-paced, you-are-there style. Bruning used episodes from the war to point out important chapters in the history of military aviation. For example, Bruning's first and second chapters are entitled "The First Jet Kills" and "The Birth of Combat SAR," respectively. Particularly worthwhile is the author's penultimate chapter, which deals with Soviet involvement in the Korean air war.

At times, Bruning's episodic approach causes the narrative to seem disjointed. In addition, the author could have said more about the night air war, and some mention might have been made of UN pilots who were not American. Those things are the worst things that can be said about "Crimson Sky," however. The book is well-thought out and well written--well worth four stars.

The first person accounts of the action are riveting. Being new to studying the Korean War the book helped me get a better understanding of the conflict and what our pilots faced. If you like first person accounts, then this would be a good book for you. The only disappointment I had was not enough "big picture" information and I felt that at times the book skipped through the war, just focusing on a few random battles. It left me wanting more, which is both good and bad.

First, I commend the author for writing a book about a little explored topic. Many books tell of the land warfare in Korea, but few detail the air battles involving Mig 15s and Sabrejets F-86s. This book attempts to do this, and I think suceeds in showing the violence of the air war. The author breaks his book into chapters detailing the exploits of individuals waging this battle. Unfornatunately, it tries to cover too much in a very short book. One gets a good sense of the first year of the air battles, but nothing of the last two years.
This is a good, though average read. The material covered is unique. I just think the author tried to be too broad in his historical approach and personal stories, and didn't do either very well. An average read about a little written part of the Korean War.

This book is a scholarly and detailed examination of the many aspects of aviation in the Korean conflict. It was interesting and informative, but lacked emotion and any real human energy or excitment. The author appears not to be an aviator and lacks some understanding of the difficulty and complexity of air combat, therfore no real emotional connection is made.

It filled in some knowledge gaps and clarified others (Dambusters navy lore is completely different, so this explaination was worth the price of the book for me).

I would recommend this book for aviation history buffs, but not necessarily for those looking for aviation combat stories with gut churning reality and emotion.

The Korean war was revolutionary in many ways, especially in air combat. Jets and WWII prop planes on straight deck carriers, radar directed anti-aircraft weapons against both prop and jet engine aircraft, soviet air force pilots flying in the cockpits of North Korean MiGs, and the first African American Naval Aviator, Jesse Brown. The author dedicates a separate chapter to Brown's heart wrenching story revealing details even those who are aware of Brown's story may not know. And rather than focus on the well known aces and personalities, the author focuses on the typical average pilot and how they lived, flew and too often died using millions of dollars worth of state of the art combat aircraft to destroy a rail line that would be repaired overnight and back in business the next day.

The narrative is well done, and the information provided is well researched. Very good read about a war that was revolutionary in so many ways.

This is a good book, filled with small details that make reading it engaging and very interesting. Sometimes the writing is a little "One-sided", and the author seems to forget that were other nations, besides the USA, fighting from the UN side.

This is a great book that gives you a good idea about what the aerial combat over Korea was.
It is not a very extensive book anyway, but I think it covers all the main aspects and events on the air war over Korea.
The writing is very good.

This book reads like a novel, although the very nature of its subject is compelling: the Korean Air War is a largely untouched subject in history. Records are difficult to get, they are sketchy or poorly sorted or... have been destroyed since the war.
The book is written out of these long and numerous, although mostly and long forgotten aviators' personal archives and records, dug out from their rusty and dusty storage areas from 60 years ago and brought back to light with obvious talent by the author.
The merits I see in this book are numerous. First, the author traces the story of the air war in parallel with the story of the war itself, in a chronological fashion. It becomes very easy to follow the narrative, because it is put in context with the overall war itself. Second, all types of air operations are covered in the book: CAS & strafing, dive bombing, medium and heavy bombing, interception, air superiority, CAP, escort... you name it, the book has it! The specifics of these different types of operations are narrated from the standpoint of those who personally lived through them and testified afterwards. There is no cliché, no generalities, no waste of time. Third, with a rare insight into these specific air operations, the author skillfully managed to give crystal-clear depictions of these often complex operations. With dozens, or hundreds of aircraft sometimes up in the air at the same time, recalling this kind of operation requires a thorough understanding of timing, sequencing and air combat tactics...which very obviously this author does have. Also, last but not least, the author provides a few Communist pilot's testimonies, a rare feature considering the difficulty of coming across these, even today...
In short, this book is a must-have, a vivid testimony of these unique, uncommon and long-forgotten times, when pre-WW2, propeller-driven, soviet-made PO2's had to deal with the then top-notch F-86's, when Skyraiders had to drop torpedoes to blow-up water dams by flying below anti-air attack nets, when MiG-17s wiped the air clean of B-29's... Readers won't escape this feeling of pity for the doomed F-84, La-9, B-29 or Corsair pilots... all pilots of astounding WW2 machines... that were up against massively superior adversaries. And still, they soldiered on despite all odds. Absolutely mesmerizing...

I really liked how this book covers the entire air war and not just a specific few units. I have read lots on specific units but this really helped me understand what was going on overall. This is a MUST read.