P-51: Bomber Escort

Ballantine's Illustrated History of World War II / the Violent Century: Weapons Book #26

by William N. Hess

The American fighter plane that flew escort with the big bombers. A small manageable plane that was the long range escort fighter but did so much more.

Genres: History

160 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1971

Reviews

[Martin Koenigsberg · Rating 4 out of 5]

A really fun little book. Hess uses the classic Ballantine's 160 page format to the fullest to tell the great WWII story of the p-51 "Mustang", the best American fighter plane of the war. And what a story it is. The British Government approaches the North American Aircraft company to make P-40s, a proven but aging design, under license, since they are desperate for fighter aircraft at the time of the Battle of Britain. North American refuses, saying it thinks it can produce better plane themselves. In 6 months they develop a prototype that is already better than the P-40. But the Allison engine they use means the plane can't really perform at higher altitudes, although its a peach of a ground attack plane- and it sure seems to be able to fly a long way.....
Then some bright spark (its in the book- read it) thinks to try an American version of the same Merlin engine that powers the Spitfire in the airframe- and the drop tank is perfected at the same time. Suddenly the Army Air Corps has a 800 mile range escort fighter. And that pretty much was it for the Luftwaffe. When American bombers could be escorted all the way to Berlin, and the P-51 could fight over the enemy's capital at their leisure, the German fighter arm was largely destroyed in three months of intense fighting in 1944. The book is filled with stories from those missions and you can feel the testosterone and high octane in every second. Stories, too, from the China/Burma front, the Mediterranean theater, and even the raids from Iwo Jima that ended Japan's war.
This is a great introduction for the junior reader, as this was one of the main audiences for these abbreviated histories when they came out. For the Gamer/Modeller/military Enthusiast, this is a wonderful amuse bouche that will give enjoyment, but really whet the appetite for more. Its more on background, but scenarios and dioramas may be improved by reading this and looking at some the great b/w picture that cover almost every page. A good book- but you might get hooked on Mustangs!

[Robert Hepple · Rating 3 out of 5]

Published in 1971, 'P-51 Bomber Escort' is one of a Pan/Ballantine series of military books from that period. In this volume, a rather muddled account of the development of, probably, the best fighter combat aircraft of WW2 with some brief mention of post-WW2 use. The text is accompanied by many illustrations, mainly photos plus a few artwork profiles. Most of the photos are well selected, but they do have captioning that is often uninformative and occasionally totally incorrect. The profile artworks are a worthless selection, and vary from mediocre to terrible. Nevertheless, some interesting anecdotal tales within the text.

[Michael Bistrica · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is part of Ballantine's History of World War 2 and they are some of the best books written about the war. I read this book back in the mid 1970s. For those that don't know the covers were color coded. For P-51 the cover was blue. Blue meant that the book covered a specific weapon or weapon system. P-51 gives the reader incite on how and why the P-51 was developed, the drawbacks of the early models and improvements made during the course of the war. The book then covers operation of the P-51 in the war and how the Allies employed it in battles and its successes against the Germans. The book has numerous photos of the P-51 as well the difference between early models and late war models.

[Martin Mundt · Rating 3 out of 5]

The book contains a wealth of information, all of which is fascinating, and much of which I didn't know before I started reading. Unfortunately, it's not written or edited particularly well, which just makes it difficult to read. Overall, though, I liked it, as I have most of the books in the series I have read.