Customer Reviews

Sinking the Rising Sun: Dog Fighting & Dive Bombing in World War II: A Navy Fighter Pilot's Story

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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.

"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!

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.

Reviewed by me in navalhistory.org, December 3, 2010

In October of 1944, a young Navy lieutenant nosed over his F6F Hellcat and began a dive towards a Japanese aircraft carrier below. "I screamed down on the carrier which now completely filled my gunsights," the pilot wrote in his memoir Sinking The Rising Sun . "I rested my finger on the bomb release button. I kept going."

And go he did. U.S. Navy fighter pilot William E. "Bill" Davis had no idea of it then but he was just seconds from taking his place among the many great Americans that have worn a Navy uniform. The ship filling his gunsights was no less than the Japanese carrier Zuikaku, the last of the fleet that had participated in the attack on Pearl Harbor.

Unlike today, back in 1941 no one sent out a fleet directive to hunt down those ships but every sailor had a mental list and as each ship was sunk, one name was checked off. Zuikaku was the last. With his F6F Hellcat insanely past the redline, Davis triggered the release, pulled back on his stick, and promptly slumped down into unconsciousness. No, he never saw his bomb but it squarely hit its mark, the beginning of the end for the Zuikaku, closure you might say, but Bill had little time to think about any of that. When his eyes fluttered open, his off-the-charts F6F was headed squarely into the side of the light cruiser Oyodo.

I met Bill Davis in 1972 at the Los Angeles Tennis Club and we became instant friends. Bill and I were of course avid tennis players but in the greatest of all coincidences we were both from the same very small suburb of Philadelphia and in fact had grown up just blocks apart, albeit with 40 years in between us. Bill had gone to the University of Pennsylvania as had my father and we were both pilots, too, but that's where the comparisons ended. Bill was the recipient of the Navy Cross, a fighter ace in the Pacific with seven kills, the first in a gaggle of fighter pilots that would drop the bombs that would sink the last Japanese carrier that had attacked Pearl Harbor. Militarily at least, the final revenge for Pearl Harbor would come here.

Today, 69 years after Pearl Harbor, Bill's bombing run may be the last untold story of Pearl Harbor. He managed to pull his F6F above the gunwales of the Oyodo and he flew through an impossibly small space between the forward gun turret and the bridge; he remembers the white uniform of a Japanese admiral and perhaps he saw his life flash before his eyes as he twisted his plane into a 500-mile-per-hour knife-edge pass and cleared the destroyer. Of course this is the stuff of the Navy's highest honor but none of this had anything to do with why Bill nosed over into a hail of anti-aircraft fire and held steady until his bomb found its mark. Neither honor nor glory rode that Hellcat down to the deck, just duty. Bill did his duty and the reward he fought for was the reward men in World War II wanted more than any medal or ribbon. They wanted to go home. That Bill could do that and provide a measure of closure for the sailors that went down on December 7th was merely the added satisfaction of a job exceptionally well done.

I don't recall who recommended this book to me... I just knew it was supposed to be good. I was not disappointed. It was not easy to put down once I started. The first two thirds of the book describes the process of training naval aviators and the author's seemingly endless journey getting to "the fight". His tales of "off base" parties and "on base" hyjinks are wonderfully chronicled and make for addictive reading.

The last third of the book describes, in gripping detail, the viceral realities of Naval air combat. Each mission costs the lives of close buddies. Each mission hardens the resolve of our surviving pilots to crush the enemy. Each mission has a humorous side that will have you giggling with tears in your eyes.

This is a story of WWII carrier pilots, or "tailhookers". It describes those warriors as well as any other book I have read. I recomment it highly.

I was hoping this book would discuss the dive bombing and dog fighting tactics used by American fighter and bomber pilots against the Japanese. Instead, I got 200 pages of author and pilot William E. Davis' indoctrination into naval aviation. Only the last 1/3 of the book deals with actual combat. The beginning of the book is devoted to Davis' experiences in joining the Navy, waiting for assignment, and organizing large squadron parties. Granted, these can be considered "important" activities, but I was hoping for more recollections of actual combat.

Not to take anything away from Mr. Davis; he did turn out to be a fine pilot and he ended up conducting a successful bombing against the Japanese carrier Zuikaku (the last surviving Japanese carrier from the Pearl Harbor attack). He also shot down several Japanese planes. But, I just couldn't get into the story of Davis' per-war training and his time spent on Hawaii waiting for active combat duty.

I rate this book as only average. While I did find Davis' story of his pre-war training somewhat interesting, I was disappointed with the overall content of the book. There are other books available which do a much better job of describing the actual war in the Pacific than this one. If you enjoy reading about a pilot's training and other exploits, then this book is ok. But, if you want to read about the actual air war in the Pacific, then find something else.

This book is a page turner. Not many Naval pilot autobiographies and this is one of the best. I really loved it. Thank you Mr. Davis for writing it and sharing your experiences with us.

A very human, humorous, and often poignant account of a young man going to war. Some may be put off by the fact that more than half the book is preparatory to actual combat in the South Pacific. If you are one of those people, I would ask you to reserve judgment as the long prelude makes this fabulous story (to paraphrase what Davis says in this memoir "we began to believe in John Paul Jones' 'we have not yet begun to fight'") all the more empathetic and gut-wrenching when the combat actually comes. Davis is the "real deal"; a Navy Cross recipient who helped sink the Japanese carrier Zuikaku (the last surviving carrier from the Pearl Harbor attack). An unforgettable memoir that I'm so pleased its author decided to share.

This is an excellent book on the flyer's of the U.S. Navy during WW II and gives a great enhancement to the books I have already read on this period of History.

SINKING THE RISING SUN: DOG FIGHTING AND DIVE BOMBING IN WORLD WAR II comes from a Navy fighter pilot and is a pick recommended for any World War II specialty library specializing in memoirs and first-person experiences. Bombing experiences over the Pacific are recounted by one whose squadron shot down nearly two hundred enemy planes while losing only two of their on in aerial combat. A gripping memoir.