Kirkus Review
As a former naval officer who served during Vietnam, Sears (Such Men As These: The Story of the Navy Pilots Who Flew the Deadly Skies Over Korea, 2010, etc.) brings an insider's knowledge of combat to this comprehensive history of the air war in the Pacific during World War II.The author begins with the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, so unexpected that tragically the only group of American fighters to take to the air was shot down by friendly fire. Sears juxtaposes that chaotic scene with festivities at a new Grumman Aircraft Engineering facility scheduled to open the next day. America had begun to prepare for war with an impressive buildup during the previous year. By the end of the war, Grumman had put about 30,000 planes in the air, including 12,000 advanced F6F Hellcats, which gave U.S. forces a significant advantage in the Pacificeven though at the start of the war, the Japanese Zero was a faster fighter plane with a better climb rate and turning radius. Sears also tells the less well-known, fascinating story of the fearless test pilots who risked their lives. They were employed by Grumman beginning in the 1930sbefore the 1941 boomin the aircraft industry, and many were killed testing the capabilities of dive bombers as well as the new generation of fighter planes. The author shows how American fighter pilots compensated for the early superiority of the Zero by developing new tactical formations that allowed them to outfly the enemy, and he goes behind the scenes to describe the high morale of American airmen.A lively depiction of America's development of superior air power.]] Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Booklist Review
The author of Such Men as These (2010) now presents an equally excellent volume on the navy's air war in the Pacific during WWII. The U.S. Navy began the war with fewer carriers and planes, fewer well-trained pilots, and inferior tactical doctrines. However, the men and planes we had, under such leaders as Jimmy Flately and Butch O'Hare, held the line into 1943. In that year, new carriers, the new F6F Hellcat, and a flood of new pilots began to redress the balance. In 1944, the balance swung solidly our way, as the Japanese were unable to either produce new planes or train new pilots in equal numbers and with equal skills. By 1945, the Japanese naval air arm was a ghost of itself, the victim of Japan's failure to plan for a long war and to protect its commerce from American submarines. The author has almost certainly created the best one-volume study of the subject; libraries, take note for WWII collections.--Green, Rolan. Copyright 2010 Booklist