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Mustang. The Untold Story
A unique and highly illustrated portrait of one of the most famous U.S. aircraft of WW2, featuring all new analysis and rare images.
304 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 2020
2 people are currently reading
13 people want to read
About the author
Matthew Willis
28 books20 followersMatthew Willis is a writer of historical and speculative fiction, and non-fiction. He is the author of the 'Fortress of Malta' series of novellas from Sharpe Books (2019-21) and co-author of the 'Oath and Crown' novels of the Norman Conquest (2017). In 2015 his story Energy was shortlisted for the Bridport short story award.
'Mustang: The Untold Story', a major history of the early variants of the immortal P-51 Mustang fighter, was published in 2021 by Key Books.
Matthew studied Literature and History of Science at the University of Kent, where he wrote an MA thesis on Joseph Conrad and sailed for the University in national competitions. He subsequently worked as a journalist for Autosport and F1 Racing magazines, before switching to a career with the National Health Service.
His first non-fiction book, a history of the Blackburn Skua WW2 naval dive bomber, was published in 2007. He now has nine non fiction books published including the first biography of test pilot Duncan Menzies. He currently lives in Southampton and writes both fiction and non-fiction for a living.
'Mustang: The Untold Story', a major history of the early variants of the immortal P-51 Mustang fighter, was published in 2021 by Key Books.
Matthew studied Literature and History of Science at the University of Kent, where he wrote an MA thesis on Joseph Conrad and sailed for the University in national competitions. He subsequently worked as a journalist for Autosport and F1 Racing magazines, before switching to a career with the National Health Service.
His first non-fiction book, a history of the Blackburn Skua WW2 naval dive bomber, was published in 2007. He now has nine non fiction books published including the first biography of test pilot Duncan Menzies. He currently lives in Southampton and writes both fiction and non-fiction for a living.
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
July 26, 2021
(Note: I'm "new" to doing a review in "Goodreads" so the little box that I filled out, that had room for only a couple hundred characters, WAS where I had to write said review)
I'll try to expand on my "pre-review," as it were:
I have been a Mustangophile for over 60 years, going back to the 1950s when I was a boy in those post-WWII years. As the son of a USAAF radioman who served in the 20th AF on Guam for a year during the War, I was exposed to WWII aircraft in books that Dad had. I especially loved the P-51 Mustang. I also grew up working on gasoline engines, all the way from single-cylinder lawnmower engines up to, and including, large automobile V8 engines.
As I got older, I took time to pay attention to what was "under the hood" of the P-51 Mustang. Everything with the P-51 Mustang seemed (in retrospect) to revolve around the Merlin V1650 engine that powered the Mustangs. I did not even KNOW about the P-51s before the bubble-canopy P-51D came along - indeed, I did not even KNOW that there were earlier Mustangs powered by those low-power, low-altitude Allison V1710 engines until many years later.
I bore the readers of this review with this info, because as I grew older, graduated from college and could afford to buy books on the subject after learning abut the Allison Mustangs, I thought that they were all "P-51As" and were confined to training pilots to fly "real" Mustangs (ie, P-51Ds - I did NOT know about P-51Ks at this time), or fly low-level missions where speed was not important.
Fast-forward about 20 yrs after I graduated from college and I saw my first Allison Mustang: an A-36A that I thought was a P-51A, because of my ignorance about Allison Mustangs. More years passed, during which time I learned about the 5 models of Allison Mustangs that preceded the Merlin-powered P-51Bs (and P-51Cs a few months later). More and more reading in books, magazines, and trusted online sources "opened up" the wonderful world of Allison Mustangs to me, but there were still "holes" in the "Allison Mustang Story." I got interested in the A-36A because of its unique attributes as compared to any of the Mustang family aircraft before or after it.
I then considered the A-36A that I'd seen in 1995, at Lone Star Flight Museum, to be named "Apache" because that's what I read everywhere. Then I read that it was called "Invader" and probably about 10 years ago, I learned that its official name always was "MUSTANG." In the years following that, what with Facebook being a "thing," I fought a "name-game-battle" with folks in Facebook. I dug deeper, and with the help of a retired Boeing engineer and a current Boeing engineer both friends of mine, I developed an email correspondence with the Boeing Historical Archivist. He sent me scans of documents that further "nailed" the name of the A-36A as "Mustang," two weeks after an online article by me on the A-36A and its "Name Game" was published. I'm still fighting that battle.
Along comes Matthew Willis with his new book, "Mustang: The Untold Story" (Key Publishing). I heard an interview on a Matt Bone podcast, between Matt Bone and Matt Willis several months ago, and I knew that I had to get a copy of that book. When I finally received one, I read it over a several day period and learned so much that was, well, "untold" about Allison Mustangs and their unique niche in military aviation combat.
The history of the reason for the Mustang coming along when it did, the design, the building of a one-off prototype, the testing, etc is concisely told in the first part of the book. The production and the modification of existing aircraft that carried forward to the next model were also covered.
The "politics" of getting the aircraft funded and built, etc are covered.
The operational history of the Allison Mustangs is what surprised me the most: they were used from early 1942, right after the first ones were received by the RAF and up until at least VE Day, 1945. They served so many roles...from Tactical Recon, to fighter sweeps, to bombing the enemy, to mixing it up with Axis fighters, flying ground-attack strafing missions and even escorting bombers at medium altitudes (in the MTO and the CBI) and they flew until combat damage, airframe fatigue, etc mandated the curtailing of their missions.
I especially loved the stories about the A-36As and their pilots and ground crewmen. The human "players" involved in the Allison Mustang story were also well-covered by Willis for all variants of the Allison Mustangs.
The book includes a brief rundown, replete with drawings, of Allison Mustang components and systems.
I know that this is an overly-long review, but the book has so much in its pages - I know I've left a lot out, but rest assured, if you want a book that "reads well" and presents a very accurate assessment of things "as they were," this book is for you.
The only thing I would have wanted in the book, unless I just "missed" seeing it - would be an index. After about halfway through my read of the book, an index would've been helpful in my going back to a subject that I'd want to reread.
I'll try to expand on my "pre-review," as it were:
I have been a Mustangophile for over 60 years, going back to the 1950s when I was a boy in those post-WWII years. As the son of a USAAF radioman who served in the 20th AF on Guam for a year during the War, I was exposed to WWII aircraft in books that Dad had. I especially loved the P-51 Mustang. I also grew up working on gasoline engines, all the way from single-cylinder lawnmower engines up to, and including, large automobile V8 engines.
As I got older, I took time to pay attention to what was "under the hood" of the P-51 Mustang. Everything with the P-51 Mustang seemed (in retrospect) to revolve around the Merlin V1650 engine that powered the Mustangs. I did not even KNOW about the P-51s before the bubble-canopy P-51D came along - indeed, I did not even KNOW that there were earlier Mustangs powered by those low-power, low-altitude Allison V1710 engines until many years later.
I bore the readers of this review with this info, because as I grew older, graduated from college and could afford to buy books on the subject after learning abut the Allison Mustangs, I thought that they were all "P-51As" and were confined to training pilots to fly "real" Mustangs (ie, P-51Ds - I did NOT know about P-51Ks at this time), or fly low-level missions where speed was not important.
Fast-forward about 20 yrs after I graduated from college and I saw my first Allison Mustang: an A-36A that I thought was a P-51A, because of my ignorance about Allison Mustangs. More years passed, during which time I learned about the 5 models of Allison Mustangs that preceded the Merlin-powered P-51Bs (and P-51Cs a few months later). More and more reading in books, magazines, and trusted online sources "opened up" the wonderful world of Allison Mustangs to me, but there were still "holes" in the "Allison Mustang Story." I got interested in the A-36A because of its unique attributes as compared to any of the Mustang family aircraft before or after it.
I then considered the A-36A that I'd seen in 1995, at Lone Star Flight Museum, to be named "Apache" because that's what I read everywhere. Then I read that it was called "Invader" and probably about 10 years ago, I learned that its official name always was "MUSTANG." In the years following that, what with Facebook being a "thing," I fought a "name-game-battle" with folks in Facebook. I dug deeper, and with the help of a retired Boeing engineer and a current Boeing engineer both friends of mine, I developed an email correspondence with the Boeing Historical Archivist. He sent me scans of documents that further "nailed" the name of the A-36A as "Mustang," two weeks after an online article by me on the A-36A and its "Name Game" was published. I'm still fighting that battle.
Along comes Matthew Willis with his new book, "Mustang: The Untold Story" (Key Publishing). I heard an interview on a Matt Bone podcast, between Matt Bone and Matt Willis several months ago, and I knew that I had to get a copy of that book. When I finally received one, I read it over a several day period and learned so much that was, well, "untold" about Allison Mustangs and their unique niche in military aviation combat.
The history of the reason for the Mustang coming along when it did, the design, the building of a one-off prototype, the testing, etc is concisely told in the first part of the book. The production and the modification of existing aircraft that carried forward to the next model were also covered.
The "politics" of getting the aircraft funded and built, etc are covered.
The operational history of the Allison Mustangs is what surprised me the most: they were used from early 1942, right after the first ones were received by the RAF and up until at least VE Day, 1945. They served so many roles...from Tactical Recon, to fighter sweeps, to bombing the enemy, to mixing it up with Axis fighters, flying ground-attack strafing missions and even escorting bombers at medium altitudes (in the MTO and the CBI) and they flew until combat damage, airframe fatigue, etc mandated the curtailing of their missions.
I especially loved the stories about the A-36As and their pilots and ground crewmen. The human "players" involved in the Allison Mustang story were also well-covered by Willis for all variants of the Allison Mustangs.
The book includes a brief rundown, replete with drawings, of Allison Mustang components and systems.
I know that this is an overly-long review, but the book has so much in its pages - I know I've left a lot out, but rest assured, if you want a book that "reads well" and presents a very accurate assessment of things "as they were," this book is for you.
The only thing I would have wanted in the book, unless I just "missed" seeing it - would be an index. After about halfway through my read of the book, an index would've been helpful in my going back to a subject that I'd want to reread.
July 14, 2022
An excellent, in-depth history of the early versions of the Mustang. I learned a lot about things that I thought I knew a fair amount about. A-36, the early prototypes, the early British versions, the P-51A- all the Allison engine versions. Well-written and -edited. Many interesting photos, some famous, some newly discovered. Loads of information about missions, technical specifications, etc. Highly recommended.
July 22, 2021
Excellent and very interesting. Authoritative too. Only for those perhaps that really like this type of thing... the genuinely interested or enthusiast maybe.
October 11, 2023
This book is exceptional. It is now a permanent fixture in my collection about the P-51. The detail Willis goes into is absolutely fascinating particularly in explaining factually what is and isn't a P-51 (A Mustang 1 is not a P-51A)
It is always satisfying when an author's research is carefully crosschecked with other sources, as is the case here.
This is a masterful and eminently readable work on the birth of the Mustang through a deal between the British Purchasing Commission and North American Aviation and in which the USAAC had no involvement. It tackles in detail, many aspects of early Allison engined Mustangs and busts many myths about them also describing in detail their stellar combat record throughout the war.
If you want to have a factual account of how the Mustang in all its forms came to be, you really only need 3 books:
1 Willis's 'Mustang -the Untold Story' which gives an incredibly detailed account of the Allison engined Mustangs, its development and exploits
2 David Birch's 'Rolls Royce and the Mustang' (RR Heritage Society) which describes how the British experimented with putting the Merlin in the Mustang 1 (and contains copies of original communication between key figures in this story) and
3 Geoffrey Perret's 'Winged Victory' which covers all of the politics of creating long range escort fighters in WWII, in excruciating detail along with the painful and extended birth of a mighty bombing capability for the USAAC/AAF during WWII.
With these three books you will have a well rounded understanding of the technical development of this very famous aircraft.
I cannot recommend Willis' book highly enough.
Beware though- Avoid 'Wings of War' by David Fairbanks White and Margaret Stanback White. It has a similar looking cover but is a simply horrible book chock full of errors and misinformation.
It is always satisfying when an author's research is carefully crosschecked with other sources, as is the case here.
This is a masterful and eminently readable work on the birth of the Mustang through a deal between the British Purchasing Commission and North American Aviation and in which the USAAC had no involvement. It tackles in detail, many aspects of early Allison engined Mustangs and busts many myths about them also describing in detail their stellar combat record throughout the war.
If you want to have a factual account of how the Mustang in all its forms came to be, you really only need 3 books:
1 Willis's 'Mustang -the Untold Story' which gives an incredibly detailed account of the Allison engined Mustangs, its development and exploits
2 David Birch's 'Rolls Royce and the Mustang' (RR Heritage Society) which describes how the British experimented with putting the Merlin in the Mustang 1 (and contains copies of original communication between key figures in this story) and
3 Geoffrey Perret's 'Winged Victory' which covers all of the politics of creating long range escort fighters in WWII, in excruciating detail along with the painful and extended birth of a mighty bombing capability for the USAAC/AAF during WWII.
With these three books you will have a well rounded understanding of the technical development of this very famous aircraft.
I cannot recommend Willis' book highly enough.
Beware though- Avoid 'Wings of War' by David Fairbanks White and Margaret Stanback White. It has a similar looking cover but is a simply horrible book chock full of errors and misinformation.
March 29, 2024
Well organised, clear, informative and easy to read. Everything I want in a history book.
I'm a fan of the P-51D+ aircraft, but very much enjoyed learning about the Allison Mustangs.
I'm a fan of the P-51D+ aircraft, but very much enjoyed learning about the Allison Mustangs.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews