Customer Reviews

Wildcat Aces of World War 2 (Aircraft of the Aces)

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

 

 

If you don't know about the Osprey "Aces" series, it is a set of paperback books describing in great (and sometimes arduous) detail just about every sortie and every aviator who ever shot down another in the title aircraft. Lots of little B&W photos in the margins, these books aren't for everyone. In fact, when I picked up my first few, they went unread for many months.

Then, when I tired of the picture books with nothing to say and the "history" mags with their usually-uninspired writing and lack of good stories, and after I had read the same specs and summaries over and over... I re-discovered Osprey! Osprey is the motherlode... where you finally get to when your thirst for the details of the WW-II airwar can no longer be sated by the coffee-table glossies (exception: anything from the late Jeff Ethell) and the $5.00 mags from Borders.

And the Wildcat is a great place to start. This was the first type to see sustained action after Pearl Harbor, mostly in the Pacific, where it performed for literally all of the war.

Tillman has done some excellent research to find often first-hand information on every Wildcat ace and near ace of WW-II. He uses a chronological approach within the major Wildcat deployments: first USN/MC Pacific, then USN Europe and finally British Fleet Air Arm (FAA), with due relevance given each.

Beginning on Dec 7, 1941, we see the newly-deployed Wildcat get its sea legs, through Wake Is., Midway, Guadalcanal... We see all of the major campaigns, (good and bad but mostly focusing on the positive) culminating in VJ day and the poor guy who lost it strafing a Japanese carrier deck 3 hrs before the surrender; then we see how the Wildcats were used in the ETO - knocking out some ships up in Norway, or U-boats in the north Atlantic; and finally the Brits and their "Martlet", from pre-Pearl Harbor to their General Motors-made Martlet Mk VIs near the end of the war(again), when the Wildcat is relegated to the important but ignominious task of "forward observing" for Iwo and Japan-pounding naval artillery... and still knocking bogies out of the sky to and fro the combat area.

However with these Ospreys, the only vantage point is from a single type of aircraft - which you might find peculiar... some would say artificial. You certainly don't get the big picture of the war unless you read the other Ospreys of the major fighting types: Corsair and Hellcat for the Pacific; Mustang, Lightning and Thunderbolt for Europe. But this single aircraft look gives you one important perspective: that of the war as seen by these pilots and their support crew.

And taken with its brethren, you can get the big picture... of the air war anyway, and all the great reading you could want from this series - and I found Tillman's Wildcat issue is right up there with a story as important and interesting as the plane itself. Definately worth 4 stars.

Tillman does his usual superb job. He knows more about naval aviation history than anyone. I bought the book as a reference, but anyone will find it easily readable as well as complete. Superb illustrations as well.

Going from the Buffalo to the Wildcat in '41, pilots liked the Buffalo better than the Wildcat! The Wildcat was a more stable gun platform than the Buffalo, but the ex-Buffalo pilots liked the Brewster fighter better with it's small maneuverability (surprisingly). The Buffalo was being replaced by the Wildcat, however, and by '42 the Buffalo was history.
The F4F-3/-3A Wildcat had only 4 .50-cal. machine guns, but the F4F-4 had 6 `.50s'. Not all pilots liked the added armament, as you will read in the book.
The Wildcat was much out-classed by the A6M Zero, but many pilots scored heavily against the Japanese.

Barrett Tillman delivers a wonderful book, starting with the first Wildcat development, to the battles at the Solomons and Guadalcanal. I thought the information on the aces was nice. Color plates of the F4F-3 to the FM-2 (an updated version of the Wildcat). There are also color plates of six aces. There are a total of 96 pages in this book, but I do not list appendices in any books, so there are 88 pages of information on F4F, Martlet and FM aces such as Marion Carl, Ralph Elliot, Joseph Foss and many more.
There is a chapter on the FAA and the Martlets (British name for the Wildcat) it flew.
There is a section dedicated just to Joe Foss and Eric Brown, (but the latter did not become an ace), but it is nice to read about the FAA from someone who was apart of it.
Throughout the book Tillman list tables of air groups and aces and their scores, very helpful to see how successful an ace/air group did.
I found this book a pleasure to read, I'm sure you will too.

Very good for those of that era. Would have to be a historian, or WW2 Buff to understand it

Very good information on this aircraft and very usefull as background knowledge for one of my book projects