Whip [Hardcover]

Martin Caidin (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 1976

WHIP breathes will all the action and pace and accuracy that made THE LAST DOGFIGHT such a tremendous success. He tells this tale of the men and machines that made war in the air with undiminished vividness, but with a new sense of the tremendous personal price these modern gladiators - even the victors - had to pay. MARTIN CAIDIN is the versatile and prolific author of MAROONED and CYBORG (THE SIX-MILLION DOLLAR MAN).

Product Details

• Hardcover: 262 pages
• Publisher: Houghton Mifflin (T); First Edition edition (March 1976)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 039520707X
• ISBN-13: 978-0395207079
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 5.8 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,028,149 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Fabulous WW2 airwar novel., April 5, 2005

By 

Ronald Brackney (Santa Clara, CA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Whip (Hardcover)

WHIP is Whip Russel, the hero of this excellent WW2 novel. He

is an unforgettable character - real hellraiser and fearless

bomber pilot who takes huge risks in confronting the Japanese.

The Americans are trying to stop the Japanese advance in the

South Seas and they construct a secret base from which to launch

attacks. There is drama between Whip and his old friend, Lou

Goodman, and Japanese military characters are portrayed as well.

Martin Caidin authored over 80 books, both fiction and non-fiction, on military, space and science fiction subjects and was a pilot himself so he knows the subject matter expertly.

It is hard to put this book down - I loved it.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Great Oldie, December 3, 2001

By 

Andy (New Ulm, MN, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Whip (Hardcover)

If you like read exciting, action-packed, suspense filled books, you will just love Whip. It is an awesome read for anyone looking to reveal the mysteries of what goes on within airplanes and crews in aerial combat. It will make you think about a lot of things while leaving you craving the next page.
I love to read war related books. I have never flown in an airplane before, and this book made me feel like a pilot. It fills you with detailed descriptions and on-the-edge-of-your-seat scenes. It makes you question and think about your life- how fast it could end and how you live it. Everyone wants to life their life to the fullest and Whip further pushed me to that urge.
I highly recommend this book for anyone who enjoys an older book that will still leave you breathless with the mysteries of aerial war-fare.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Oldy but a goody, December 1, 2008

By 

M. Schroeder (Kansas) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Whip (Hardcover)

I bought this book years ago, and read it while I was home for Thanksgiving. I had already read both books I ordered from Amazon, so I pulled this out of the Garage.

This is the story of "Whip" Russell, a Captain in the US Army Air Force in 1942, commanding a squadron (the 335th Bombardment Squadron) of eleven B25 Mitchell bombers. The novel starts of with their arrival in Australia for refitting. The reason that Whip takes the Squadron in Australia, is because his old friend from his biker days is running the depots there. Whip and Colonel Lou Goodman had been bikers, and Lou taught Whip to fly. Whip and his squadron changed their B-25's from bombers to strafers by taking out the Bombardier's green house and replacing it with between 6 and 10 Mah Deuces (M2 .50 BMG) Machine guns. The squadron starts taking out the Japanese shipping at Rabaul and elsewhere in Papua New Guinea and the Bismarck Sea. Eventually, the Japanese get a little smarter, the generals get a little dumber, and of course, much of the squadron ends up dead.

The front of the book states that Whip was a real person, and that the 335th was based on a real US bomber squadron from the war. The scene-setting seemed to be realistic, but I don't know much about conditions in Papua New Guinea and the fighting that went on there between the Aussies and the Japs. Martin wrote great descriptions the bush airstrips that Whip flew from. All in all it's a book that you'll enjoy if you like well-written and soundly-crafted novels of the air war in the Pacific in WW2.I almost certainly bought this at the Book Emporium back in the 1970's.