Attack & Conquer: The 8th Fighter Group in World War II

by John Stanaway, Lawrence J. Hickey

The 8th fought the best Zero pilots, and took the war to the enemy with P-38s over Rabaul and Hollandia.

320 pages, Hardcover

First published October 1, 1995

Reviews

[Jeff · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the second book I read by Mr. Stanaway. He continues to present another 5th Air Force Group history. Like "Possum, Clover, and Hades" this book tells the story of another fighter group in WWII, the 8th Fighter Group. The 8th's history begins in USA and moves to New Guinea. The 8th is one of the first groups to fight the Japanese. Mr. Stanaway again provides colorful descriptions of aerial combat, this time with the P-39 and P-40. He also makes comparison of the pluses and minuses of the P-39 and P-40. Good reasoning for retaining the P-39.

What I liked about his book is when a character is introduced, the author gives a sneak peak of upcoming events in their contribution to the group's history. It also gives, small concise summary of the New Guinea campaign showing the big picture before drilling down into the group's contribution to the campaign.

The 8th Fighter later transitions to the P-38 and P-47. The actions involving the P-38s are repeats from Mr. Stanaway's book on the 475th Fighter Group. Unfortunately, there is little about the exploits of the P-47.

The book is full of photographs. I suspect most of them from unit members. It is too bad there are no photos of actual combat from the plane's cameras.

[Patrick Foley · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a wonderful piece of history. Great research, marvelous photographs and very enjoyable writing. It also struck a nice balance between official histories and personal remembrances from both the pilots and the guys on the ground. The only reason I didn't give the book a resounding five stars is that the editing is horrible, and this I blame more on the publisher than the authors. In one of the early chapters two complete paragraphs are repeated and not right after each other but at completely different points in the chapter... this was very confusing because it obviously didn't fit into the flow of the narrative, so first you try to figure out what's going on, then you go... "wait a minute, didn't I already read this?"... yes you did. I can only guess that this was someone cutting a pasting to fit the text around the many photos. But, while it's annoying don't let that stop you, this is history well worth reading!