Flying Buccaneers: The Illustrated Story of Kenney's Fifth Air Force [Hardcover]

Steve Birdsall (Author)

Product Details

• Hardcover: 312 pages
• Publisher: Doubleday & Company; 1st edition (1977)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0385032188
• ISBN-13: 978-0385032186
• Product Dimensions: 10.4 x 7.3 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #723,055 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Complete Breakdown of the U.S.'s 5th Air Force during WWII, May 9, 1998

By 

[e-mail] (Tom Willeford) (Lafayette, IN, U.S.A.) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Flying Buccaneers: The Illustrated Story of Kenney's Fifth Air Force (Hardcover)

An excellent work detailing the operations of the Fifth U.S. Army Air Force during World War II, "Flying Buccaneers" will appeal to a wide audience. From the basement hobbyist looking to make a more realistic model to the serious aviation historian pulling together hard-to-find facts, this text contains an incredible aount of information about Gen. Kenney and his command.

Tapped on the shoulder by Gen "Hap" Arnold, Commander of the fledgling Army Air Force, Kenney was instructed to "hold off" the powerful Japanese until help could arrive (i.e., Hitler was beaten). However, Kenney did not want to be placed on the defensive and was determined to take the fight right to Tokyo, if necessary. He and his men developed weapons and tactics that allowed them to maximize their meager equipment and personnel while inflicting the greatest possible damage on the enemy.

Steve Birdsall's account of this never-say-die general and the back-breaking work that was performed to bring that part of the war to a conclusion is a great read. Also, the illustrations are meticulously detailed and the photographs are abundant. Many are rarely seen combat photos of aircraft modified in the field to perform a specific mission.

The one caveat to a whole-hearted, grade-A, two thumbs-up recommendation is that the book's construction did not match its content in quality. After merely two or three perusals, the pages began to fall out!

Overall, this is an engaging representation of the tremendous effort put on by the courageous pilots and crews of Kenney's Fifth.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Flying Buccaneers,a personal review, February 19, 2000

By 

Richard Baird (Fort Lauderdale,Florida) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Flying Buccaneers: The Illustrated Story of Kenney's Fifth Air Force (Hardcover)

If you are an aviation enthusiest then this by all means is the book for you. It is very well written and profusely illustrated and gives you an insight to Gen.Kinney,s style of thinking and also into his wartime inovations under extremely harsh conditions. For examples, His unit created the first gunships by installing 8 50caliber machine guns into the nose of a B-25 bomber and later installing a 75 millimeter cannon into them that when fired would stop the airplane for a split second,he invented the first parafrag bombs and also improved upon low level skip bombing tactics against Japanese shipping just to name a few things. I very highly recommend this book to everyone.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Flying Buccaneers: The Illustrated Story of Kenney's Fifth, August 23, 2000

By 

Larry Johnson (Dickinson, Texas United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Flying Buccaneers: The Illustrated Story of Kenney's Fifth Air Force (Hardcover)

I bought this book many years ago from the Military Book Club. I have read extensively about air fighting in World War II. This is one of the few books that I had kept through many moves while being in the U.S.Air Force. You can almost feel yourself flying for General Kenney. He would never say die, and unlike many other commanders in WWII, he didn't complain when he didn't get a job done, he took what he had, and made it work. If it didn't work, he would take the blame himself. He never spoke bad of his men, and that is why they were one of the best fighting units in the entire war. I was really touched. Now I can't find the book, I have to have another copy. Any help would be appriciated.