Awarded the Navy Cross, Lieutenant William Davis, III, of the United States Naval Reserve was cited for "extraordinary heroism" while serving as pilot of a carrier based fighter aircraft on 25 October 1944. "Flying through intense anti-aircraft fire," the citation read, "he made an aggressive attack on a Japanese carrier, first strafing and then delivering a well placed bomb from low altitude. After this attack the carrier was left burning and subsequently sank." The burning carrier was the Zuikaku, the last Japanese carrier afloat that had taken part in the Pearl Harbor attack.
In this gripping memoir, Davis gives us a fighter pilots view of World War II. Recreating the life-and-death drama of dog fighting and dive bombing over the Pacific, Davis recounts how his squadron shot down 155 enemy planes while losing only 2 of their own in aerial combat. No torpedo bomber or dive bomber they escorted was ever downed by an enemy aircraft. His is a story of "courage and skill . . . in keeping with the highest traditions of the United States Naval service," as his citation noted. It is also a rare true-life account of what such heroics feel like behind a cockpit, in the face of a deadly enemy.
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Book Description
Editorial Reviews
Review
The Independent, June 21, 2007
“War may be central to our cultural consciousness these days, but for Montecito resident Bill Davis, it’s more than a concept – it’s a vivid memory.”
USNI Proceedings, August 2007
“These stories illustrate devotion to duty, a certain nonchalance toward danger, and incredibly fun-loving attitudes – all of which sustain my long-standing admiration of military aviators … comedian and former Marine Jonathan Winters puts Davis in the ranks of America’s foremost aviators. While I cannot judge that, I can heartily recommend this autobiography as engaging and delightfully absent of ego.”
Santa Barbara News-Press, July 8, 2007
“Navy fighter pilot and Santa Barbara-resident William E. Davis offers up this harrowing tale of his sinking the Zuikaku, the last ship afloat to have attacked Pearl Harbor. An invaluable testament by one of the last survivors of those hellish years, detailed with forthright simplicity and verve.”
Pacific Flyer, July 2007
“William E. Davis' recounting of his life as a young man before World War II and his subsequent adventures as a student pilot – and, eventually an F6F Hellcat fighter pilot in the Pacific – is an astounding tour de force … Davis writes prose that is absorbing, witty, droll and occasionally, both tragic and hilarious … Davis, himself, seemed to be living a charmed life – superb pilot, excellent gunner, a dogfighting ace, incredibly lucky at war and with women, he presents his story as he remembers it but with the skill and finesse of a professional novelist. This is one of those books that will preoccupy your spare time, one which you'll promise yourself, ‘just one more chapter,’ and soon find it's 2 a.m. and where did the evening go? ... Davis doesn't dwell on the minutia of his experiences, concentrating instead on the bigger picture and the characters around him … Throughout the book, his retelling of the day-to-day life of a Hellcat pilot on the USS Lexington is engaging and almost free of technical error; every sentence, paragraph and page is a joy to read … In sum, a beautifully written, insightful and well-told tale of one man's war in the violent battles for aerial supremacy in the Pacific.”
Warships International Fleet Review (UK), December 2007
“Written with great verve by Davis, his story reads like a Hollywood movie, full of great characters, humor, romance and tragedy. Beautiful scenery contrasts with the ugliness and brutality of war, with death accepted as inevitable for some unlucky members of this Band of Brothers. The action-packed war-fighting takes place in the final third of the book, but like a good movie, it is well worth the wait and the humor and warts-and-all style makes the pages fly by. A superb account of one man’s war.”
Book Description
In this gripping memoir, Lieutenant Bill Davis gives us an ace fighter pilot’s view of World War II. Recreating the life-and-death drama of dog fighting and dive bombing over the Pacific, Davis recounts how his squadron shot down one hundred, fifty-five enemy planes while losing only two in aerial combat; and how they sank the Zuikaku, the last Japanese carrier afloat that had taken part in the Pearl Harbor attack. His is a story of “extraordinary heroism,” as his citation for the Naval Cross noted, and of “courage and skill . . . in keeping with the highest traditions of the United States Naval service."
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
14 of 15 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A Hellcat Pilot in Action!,
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This review is from: Sinking the Rising Sun: Dog Fighting & Dive Bombing in World War II: A Navy Fighter Pilot's Story (Hardcover)
Autobiographies of World War II Navy fighter pilots are pretty rare. In this 2007 volume from Zenith Press, William Davis, an F6F Hellcat pilot who served in the Pacific, offers a rare, from-the-cockpit look at carrier combat in the latter stages of the war. Fans of the Hellcat and the Pacific air war will enjoy his engaging memoir.
Davis joined the Navy in early 1942. After various misadventures in Training Command, which are detailed in the book, he joined VF-19, commanded by Hugh Winters, in August 1943. In the typical hurry-up-and-wait military tradition, the eager Hellcat pilots of VF-19 weren't sent into the war zone until July 1944, embarked on USS Lexington. In the coming months VF-19 saw much hard combat, resulting in the squadron claiming 155 air kills and almost 200 ground kills. Davis' share of the action included scoring a bomb hit on the Japanese carrier Zuikaku, being shot down off Luzon and scoring a number of kills. In the book Davis claims at least seven kills but apparently only four were officially confirmed, his name not being found on any USN Aces list. Air Group 19 returned stateside in December 1944, Davis subsequently working for Bell Aircraft in the postwar period. SINKING THE RISING SUN is exciting and fun reading. Davis writes in an easy, engaging style, detailing the funny, exciting and boring events that made up the life of a Navy fighter pilot in the mid-war years. Recommended.
10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Great read!,
This review is from: Sinking the Rising Sun: Dog Fighting & Dive Bombing in World War II: A Navy Fighter Pilot's Story (Hardcover)
"Sinking the Rising Sun" is an excellent inside look at what it was like flying fighters in the Pacific during WWII. This book is a page turner, at times funny, and touching in the insights into the fears, hopes and sacrifices these men made. An easy read, the book takes you from the initial flight school experience, through to the final battle and return home. A great book!
5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
Social History,
By Max Edison "Max Edison" (Denver) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Sinking the Rising Sun: Dog Fighting & Dive Bombing in World War II: A Navy Fighter Pilot's Story (Hardcover)
The book is well written, but the author is more interested in telling about parties in Hawaii and goofy conversations with other pilots rather than talking about the airplanes, tactics, or combat. He recounts lengthy conversations from more than 50 years ago that sound too good to be true. Interesting from a social perspective, but little insight into fighting in the Pacific.
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entire air group, mess treasurer, air group commander, field carrier landings, photographs ever taken Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
Pearl Harbor, San Diego, United States, Hugh Winters, Ensign Davis, World War, Bill Masoner, Naval Air Corps, New York, Jack Wheeler, Hawaiian Islands, Southern California, Brewster Buffalo, Pete Sprinkle, Knobby Felt, Joe Kelley, New Jersey, Harry Bensen, Army Air Corps, Los Angeles, Uncle Harry, The Zuikaku, Iwo Jima, Hong Kong, Skip Hensen Browse Sample Pages:
Front Cover | Table of Contents | First Pages | Back Cover | Surprise Me!
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