PACIFIC AIR: How Fearless Flyboys, Peerless Aircraft, and Fast Flattops Conquered the Skies in the War with Japan

摘要

David Sears' Pacific Air is a work with flaws that undermine the inherent interest and excitement that a book about aerial combat in World War II's Pacific Theater should generate. The book intertwines the development of the Grumman fighter and attack aircraft beginning in the early 1930s with the experiences of the prewar pilots who tested the planes and the wartime naval aviators who flew them into combat. Pacific Air is light on new knowledge about the Pacific campaign, but it offers a compelling, readable account of aerial combat based largely on memoirs and oral histories. Of interest is the development of tactical training among naval aviators, which allowed them to match and eventually surpass their Japanese foes.