Here are 100 books that The Mustering of the Hawks fans have personally recommended if you like
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I have been fascinated by stories of aerial warfare for as long as I can remember. I can still recall picking up They Fought for the Sky in a bookshop while on a family holiday one year, and I devoured it. The tales of bravery and innovation were all new to me, but that book sparked an interest which has lasted a lifetime. I’ve read dozens of books on the topic and visited air museums to see the aircraft for myself. I’m still reading books on this topic today, and I still marvel at the new perspectives which can be put on this most wonderful and most dreadful period of history.
I saw the movie The Blue Max many years ago and really enjoyed it. In my opinion, the book is even better.
It was one of the books which drove my deepening interest in World War 1 aviation, and it revealed a gritty side to the conflict. I could never quite make up my mind whether to admire or loathe the leading character, which made the story even more fascinating.
Bruno Stachel is a nobody, a newly recruited junior officer in a First World War German combat squadron. But he is determined not to remain a nobody for long. He has his sights on the Blue Max - the most coveted of all German decorations - and he will do anything to get it. From the very moment he shoots down his first plane, everything he does is aimed in that direction: bedding his commander's wife, courting publicity at every turn, even arranging the deaths of his competitors...Jack D. Hunter's novel is a brilliant study of a pilot tortured by…
A moving story of love, betrayal, and the enduring power of hope in the face of darkness.
German pianist Hedda Schlagel's world collapsed when her fiancé, Fritz, vanished after being sent to an enemy alien camp in the United States during the Great War. Fifteen years later, in 1932, Hedda…
I have been fascinated by stories of aerial warfare for as long as I can remember. I can still recall picking up They Fought for the Sky in a bookshop while on a family holiday one year, and I devoured it. The tales of bravery and innovation were all new to me, but that book sparked an interest which has lasted a lifetime. I’ve read dozens of books on the topic and visited air museums to see the aircraft for myself. I’m still reading books on this topic today, and I still marvel at the new perspectives which can be put on this most wonderful and most dreadful period of history.
I have read lots of books about World War 1 aviation. This is the most authentic novel I have read on this topic.
It was written by someone who actually flew and fought in WWI, but I think that only helps the fictional narrative. It’s a tale of friendship in the midst of horror, and I loved the descriptions of how the young pilots behaved when not flying.
There is no bitter snarl nor self-pity in this classic novel about the air war of 1914-1918, based very largely on the author's experiences. Combat, loneliness, fatigue, fear, comradeship, women, excitement - all are built into a vigorous and authentic structure by one of the most valiant pilots of the then Royal Flying Corps.World War 1REVIEWS 'Beautifully written with a poet's eye as well as a pilot's eye.' Southern Evening Echo'The only book about flying that isn't flannel.' Anonymous Fighter Pilot'Not only one of the best war books but as a transcription of reality, faithful and sustained in its author's…
I have been fascinated by stories of aerial warfare for as long as I can remember. I can still recall picking up They Fought for the Sky in a bookshop while on a family holiday one year, and I devoured it. The tales of bravery and innovation were all new to me, but that book sparked an interest which has lasted a lifetime. I’ve read dozens of books on the topic and visited air museums to see the aircraft for myself. I’m still reading books on this topic today, and I still marvel at the new perspectives which can be put on this most wonderful and most dreadful period of history.
For me, this is the book that began my interest in World War 1 aviation. It’s a factual book rather than a novel.
I read it again recently, and while it perhaps makes the combat more glamorous than it should, and some of the interpretations of events might be challenged nowadays, I still enjoyed it.
It is a terrific introduction to the topic, detailing key events in the development of air warfare and in the moments in the lives (and deaths) of the aces who took part.
This book is an elegiac meditation on the will to survive. Tor, a beluga whaler, and his wife, Astrid, a botanist specializing in Arctic flora, are stranded during the dark season of 1937-38 at his remote whaling station in the Svalbard archipelago when they misjudge ice conditions and fail to…
I have been fascinated by stories of aerial warfare for as long as I can remember. I can still recall picking up They Fought for the Sky in a bookshop while on a family holiday one year, and I devoured it. The tales of bravery and innovation were all new to me, but that book sparked an interest which has lasted a lifetime. I’ve read dozens of books on the topic and visited air museums to see the aircraft for myself. I’m still reading books on this topic today, and I still marvel at the new perspectives which can be put on this most wonderful and most dreadful period of history.
This is another factual book, and I loved the amount of detailed research the author put in.
He has examined the famous final fight of the German ace, Werner Voss, against several British pilots. The storytelling is excellent, and the amount of information this book gave me was incredible.
Nineteen-year-old Werner Voss was a legend in his own lifetime and the youngest recipient of the Pour le Merite, Germany's highest award for bravery in World War I. At the time of his death, he was considered by many, friend and foe alike, to be Germany's greatest fighter ace. Had he lived, he would almost certainly have overtaken Manfred von Richthofen's victory total by early spring 1918. Voss is perhaps best remembered for his outstanding courage, his audacity in the air and the prodigious number of victories he achieved before being killed in one of the most famous dogfights of…
I had finished The Bluebird Trilogy, three novels that centred on the first half of the Second World War, and I heard echoes of the Great War ringing faintly in the egos of my older characters. I started to read more of the history and was drawn to the aerial maelstrom that befell the RFC over Arras in 1917. I was also interested in working with a larger cast of characters, many transients, and telling their stories over a short stretch of time. The result was Major Claypole and Jackdaw Squadron, Glory Boys every last one.
Barely a decade after The Wright brothers’ first tentative take-off, flying machines were thrown into the scorching crucible of war in Europe. The men who flew them were pioneers, members of what many saw as a military flying club. But the flying club soon developed into a bear-pit of mortal combat, fought behind synchronised machine guns without the solace of a parachute. Levine paints his pictures with the personal accounts and anecdotes of the pilots that fought these battles, seeking to understand the feelings and motivations of the young men who volunteered to risk all in the frightening new theatre of aerial warfare. These truths, are in many instances, stranger than fiction, forged, as they were, on the cutting edge of the new aviation technology.
Rewriting the rules of military engagement and changing the course of modern history as a result, the pioneering airmen of the First World War took incredible risks to perform their vital contribution to the war effort.
Fighter Heroes of WWI is a narrative history that conveys the perils of early flight, the thrills of being airborne, and the horrors of war in the air at a time when pilots carried little defensive armament and no parachutes.
The men who joined the Royal Flying Corps in 1914 were the original heroes of…
Born in London at the height of the Blitz I am a retired NHS Director with a lifelong interest in military aviation. My first journal article, on the Suez Campaign, was published in 1965 since when I have written some 90 articles and eight books and have contributed chapters to several more. Most of my books are triggered by a challenge and I always try to cover ground hitherto ignored so that my books become a unique reference. Works in progress include a history of the RAF involvement in Greece from 1940 to 1950 and the work of the RAF between the wars. I live in Sherborne, Dorset, England.
Thomas McKelvey Cleaver is a screenwriter of some considerable experience and it shows in his writing. Of late he has been a prolific writer, especially on aspects of the air war in the Pacific and post-war in Korea.
His work is a combination of authoritative research and verbatim accounts collected firsthand from those who were there. His writing is highly readable, without being patronising, and in this volume he describes the contribution of naval air power to the United Nations' fight against North Korea.
A characteristic of all of Cleaver’s writing is that he looks beyond the United States: thus in this book he includes a full description of the part played by Britain’s Fleet Air Arm.
Naval and air power were crucial to the United Nations' success in the Korean War, as it sought to negate the overwhelming Chinese advantage in manpower. In what became known as the 'long hard slog', naval aviators sought to slow and cut off communist forces and support troops on the ground. USS Leyte (CV-32) operated off Korea in the Sea of Japan for a record 93 continuous days to support the Marines in their epic retreat out of North Korea, and was crucial in the battles of the spring and summer of 1951 in which the UN forces again battled…
Tina Edwards loved her childhood and creating fairy houses, a passion shared with her father, a world-renowned architect. But at nine years old, she found him dead at his desk and is haunted by this memory. Tina's mother abruptly moved away, leaving Tina with feelings of abandonment and suspicion.
I’ve been a writer most of my life, moving from high-school essays to working for newspapers to creating novels. One way or another, I’ve also spent much of that time exploring Canada's back roads and smaller communities. Those places and the people living in them have a pungent reality that I often find missing in the froth of modern urban society. The places and their people are interesting and inspiring, and I always get drawn back to reading and writing about them.
The descriptions of interpreting aerial reconnaissance photos during the Second World War were interesting. But the real hook for me was the compelling portrayal of small-town Saskatchewan life in the 1940s. The heroine—and the book does have a streak of chick lit about it—sounded like the real people I met while working as a reporter in Saskatchewan during the mid-1970s. Her hometown was recognizable, too. I keep hoping some of the spirit of these places and their people will survive well into the 2000s.
A Toronto Star Bestseller! Rose, a Canadian intelligence officer in Britain in World War II, struggles with conflicting feelings about the war and a superior's attention.
Rose Jolliffe is an idealistic young woman living on a farm with her family in Saskatchewan. After Canada declares war against Germany in World War II, she joins the British Women's Auxiliary Air Force as an aerial photographic interpreter. Working with intelligence officers at RAF Medmenham in England, Rose spies on the enemy from the sky, watching the war unfold through her magnifying glass.
When her commanding officer, Gideon Fowler, sets his sights on…
I lived in London for eighteen years and acquired an abiding affection for my nation’s capital. I wanted to write a sequel to Bluebirds and jumped at the chance of giving Bryan Hale an adventure where he could walk the streets that I knew and loved. The scars caused on the fair face of London by sticks of Nazi bombs landing in ragged lines across the streets and terraces may still be discerned from the incongruity of the buildings that have since risen to fill the gaps. London heals and thrives. Ultimately, I believe every English writer harbours an ambition to write a London novel. I did, and I did.
British Radio Direction Finding stations (RDF), later to be dubbed Radar, with their iconic arrays of masts along England’s south coast, contributed greatly to the RAF’s success in the Battle of Britain by detecting approaching raids and giving early warning. Both sides in the European war possessed similar technologies operated from ground stations. The race to miniaturise RDF sets for airborne interception, once realised, would have devastating consequences for intruding bomber crews facing A.I. equipped night fighters over Britain and Germany. Price takes an even-handed approach in relating the development of these technologies in Britain, Germany, the US, and Japan, making this an absorbing and enjoyable read that demystifies an aspect of the war that is usually only mentioned in passing.
The rapid evolution of radio and radar systems for military use during World War II, and devices to counter them, led to a technological battle that neither the Axis nor the Allied powers could afford to lose. The result was a continual series of thrusts, parries, and counter-thrusts, as first one side then the other sought to wrest the initiative in the struggle to control the ether. This was a battle fought with strange-sounding weapons-"Freya," "Mandrel," "Boozer," and "Window"-and characterized by the bravery, self-sacrifice, and skill of those who took part in it. During the war, however, and for many…
I am an aviation historian and writer, a defense analyst, and a retired, combat-experienced, Marine Corps fighter pilot. I am one of the lucky ones. Since early childhood, I wanted nothing more than to become a fighter pilot. It was a combination of good fortune, hard work, and a bit of talent that made it possible for me to realize that dream. I was inspired by the memoirs and recollections of World War II fighter pilots, and I read every book on the topic that I could find. Following my military service, I transitioned from a reader to a writer; my experience as a military pilot helps to make my books real and credible.
The odds of completing a full combat tour as a bomber crewman with the Eighth Air Force over Europe during 1943 were about twenty percent. John Comer, a B-17 flight engineer and top turret gunner, arrived in England during that time and his descriptions of air combat are well worth the read. Perhaps just as valuable are his descriptions of the relationships between his comrades, the non-combat aspects of his life as a combat crewman, and the sheer, mental and physical exhaustion that such duty exacted on the men.
What People Are Saying About Combat Crew: “I find your remarkable book, Combat Crew, engrossing. It’s one of the best records of aerial combat in World War II I’ve ever read, and I want to tell you how impressed I am.” -Charlton Heston, actor “Combat Crew was a very special experience for me to read. You certainly put it down the way it was.” -James Stewart, actor “The author flew on many of the most violent air raids flows by the United States 8th Air Force during World War II. Combat Crew gives the reader an accurate, dramatic, and firsthand,…
The Duke's Christmas Redemption
by
Arietta Richmond,
A Duke who has rejected love, a Lady who dreams of a love match, an arranged marriage, a house full of secrets, a most unneighborly neighbor, a plot to destroy reputations, an unexpected love that redeems it all.
Lady Charlotte Wyndham, given in an arranged marriage to a man she…
Roger Hermiston is a writer of contemporary history books that are underpinned by rigorous scholarship, enhanced by a journalist’s eye, and driven by exciting storytelling. One of his books – All Behind You, Winston – Churchill’s Great Coalition 1940-45 told the story of the often-overlooked men (and two women) who helped steer Britain to wartime victory on the Home Front. But two of his other books – The Greatest Traitor and, just out, Two Minutes to Midnight – explore the early years of the Cold War, in the 1950s. In both the Korean War features prominently – in the first, from the perspective of a group of ‘high value’ prisoners held captive by the North Koreans, and in the second, from the view of President Eisenhower and his colleagues as they contemplated using tactical A-bombs to hasten the end of the conflict.
The best novel ever written about the Korean War by one of America’s greatest-ever stylists. Salter himself was a USAF fighter pilot in the conflict, flying over a hundred combat missions. His beautiful, crystalline prose captures the taut atmosphere of those dangerous days, and the central dilemma of the main character, Captain Cleve Connell – how to combine the daring required to shoot down Soviet MIGs with the sacred duty of the ‘wingman’ in ensuring the safety of his comrades.
Captain Cleve Connell arrives in Korea with a single goal: to become an ace, one of that elite fraternity of jet pilots who have downed five MIGs. But as his fellow airmen rack up kill after kill - sometimes under dubious circumstances - Cleve's luck runs bad. Other pilots question his guts. Cleve comes to question himself. And then in one icy instant 40,000 feet above the Yalu River, his luck changes forever. Filled with courage and despair, eerie beauty and corrosive rivalry, James Salter's luminous first novel is a landmark masterpiece in the literature of war.
