Pacific Hawk

Ballantine's Illustrated History of World War II / the Violent Century: Weapons Book #14

by John Vader

Operations took them to the arctic cold, torrid desert heat, torrential tropical rains and steaming swamps. Often enough they toiled into the air with a thousand pound bomb and four forty pounders. Their pilots recklessly hurled them against Zeros, Me 109s, Fw 190s, and with unexampled courage, overcame. Seldom has an aircraft had a more varied career.

Genres: History, Military Fiction

160 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published July 1, 1970

Reviews

[spike marlin · Rating 2 out of 5]

One of the most poorly written books that I have read in this collection. This book explores the P-40’s contribution mostly in the Pacific against the Japanese. Out classed by the Zero it was able to survive and hit back hard against the Japanese and became the work horse of the RAAF. This book sometimes goes off topic but there are some interesting tidbits of information that can be gleaned from the book. It especially concentrated on the attempt to stop the Japanese on New Guinea.

[George Kasnic · Rating 3 out of 5]

Lavishly illustrated with a few maps, this book does not come together. Feeling more like a disjointed collection of anecdotes - mostly quotes from actual after-action reports, there is no real overall theme or flow, which is disappointing. The author waxes from technical details, to personal narrative of combatants, flitting from the Pacific to North African, to Mediterranean theatres and back again, but to no effective purpose. I appreciated the stories, but a conscientious editor would have given it a major rework prior to approving for publication.

[Hilmi Isa · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is about P-40 Warhawk/Tomahawk/Kittyhawk,a legendary fighter (later in World War II (WWII),fighter-bomber) aircraft. Used by major Allied countries such as United States of America (USA),British,Autralia,New Zealand,China,and Soviet Union. Even though,thought to be inferior compared with premier Axis fighters,such as Me-109 and Zero,with cunning,experience and bravery of the pilots who flew the venerable aircraft,often brought success in dogfights against the former.

However,the main focus of this book is to discuss the usage of P-40 (known by its nickname as Kittyhawk) in British and Commonwealth countries (especially Australia and New Zealand) in various theaters of combat operations such as North Africa,Mediterranean and Pacific. But,of course,several stories of combat experiences by American forces is sometimes mentioned on several pages of this book. Apart from air combat stories,the history of P-40 is also discussed. It's very interesting to read evolution of the aircraft,from fighter into fighter-bomber,thus turned it as a multi-role aircraft in WWII. Often overshadowed by P-51 Mustang,but,P-40 played a very crucial role in defending the skies (as a fighter) and bring destruction to the enemy on the ground (as a fighter-bomber),especially in early stages of the war.

I'm not considering this book as an ultimate guide to P-40. However,it certainly an add up to P-40 enthusiasts' collection of reference of the legendary aircraft,with a useful information of P-40's history.