Library Journal Review

An ace is a combat flyer who has downed at least five enemy planes. There have been many American aces, and there are many books describing their exploits. Hammel, a distinguished military historian, has interviewed 25 aces who fought in the Pacific. None of them are professional writers or historians, and their first-person accounts of their exploits are unaffected and honest. No PR hype or dry-as-dust historian's prose here. Hammel allows his flyers to tell their own stories in their own way--from Lieutenant Frank Holmes's tale of flying an obsolete P36 over Pearl Harbor on December 7th to the desperate battles of Midway and Guadalcanal to final victory over Japan. Exciting stuff aviation and World War II buffs will love. Volume 2, Aces Over Germany will be published in spring 1993. For most public libraries.-- Stanley Itkin, Hillside P.L., New Hyde Park, N.Y. (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.