Aces High: The Heroic Saga of the Two Top-Scoring American Aces of World War II

by Bill Yenne

Provides detailed profiles of Medal of Honor recipients Richard "Dick" Bong and Thomas "Tommy" McGuire, the two leading ace fighter pilots of World War II, their rivalry, and their legacy in the arena of aerial combat.

Genres: Nonfiction, World War II, Aviation, History, Military History, War, American History

368 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1988

About the author

Bill Yenne is the author of several novels and over three dozen books on historical topics. He has also been a contributor to encyclopedias of both world wars.

The New Yorker wrote of Sitting Bull, his biography of the great Lakota leader, that it "excels as a study in leadership." This book was named to the number 14 spot among Amazon's 100 Best Books of the Year.

Library Journal observed that "enthusiastic World War II readers will be drawn to" his dual biography, Aces High: The Heroic Story of the Two Top Scoring American Aces of World War II.

Recently, his book Convair Deltas was named as Book of the Month by Air Classics, while his book Tommy Gun was named Pick of the Month by Shooting Illustrated.

His book Guinness: The 250 Year Quest for the Perfect Pint was listed among the top business books of the year by Cond Nast Portfolio Magazine, which rated Yenne's tome as its TOP pick for "Cocktail Conversation."

Yenne's Rising Sons: The Japanese American GIs Who Fought for the United States in World War II, was praised by Walter Boyne, former Director of the National Air & Space Museum, who called it "a fast moving... page turner," and the "best book yet written on the saga."

The Wall Street Journal wrote, when reviewing his Indian Wars: The Campaign for the American West, that Yenne writes with "cinematic vividness," and says of his work that it "has the rare quality of being both an excellent reference work and a pleasure to read."

The author lives in San Francisco, California, and on the web at www.BillYenne.com

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Reviews

[JD · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a very interesting story about the two top scoring aces of the USAAF who both flew and fought in the Southwest Pacific campaign in World War 2. The called it the "race of aces" and at the time the media gave it lots of coverage and these men were national heroes and both Medal of Honor winners. Though the book focuses mainly on Bong and McGuire, there are snippets of many other aces who were also in the "race" at different times. There is not a lot wrong with this book, and the author gives just enough historical background not to detract from the main story-line.

[Ivan · Rating 3 out of 5]

I didn't like some of the speculation toward the end, but the book was awesome facts. It was tough getting through some of the middle stuff, but when the airplanes started dropping I could fly through the book. The ending sucked (as in I didn't see Tommy's end coming). Caught me off guard same with Dick, they both died age 24, one out of theater and the other headed home in a month. It was cool to see some of the bases they spent time at. Writing style wasn't quite for me, but I enjoyed it all the same. And when they were racking up planes I couldn't put the book down.

[Relstuart · Rating 3 out of 5]

"Heroes are defined by their own heroism, but their legends are defined by those who celebrate that heroism." (Page 165)

I've heard Major Bong mentioned multiple times in my WWII aviation reading. But this is the first book recounting his exploits I've read. It follows the air war in the south pacific pretty well and uses Japanese ace Saburo Sakai's information as a supplement to talk about some of the encounters.

This book is a dual biography of Bong and Maj Thomas McGuire. Towards the end of the war they were both racking up air kills and the media ran with the story. Bong ended with an official count of 40 and McGuire was at 38. Both pilots were awarded the medal of honor for their skill and daring.

The book starts out talking about the boyhoods of each of the books and discusses their goals for learning how to fly one day. Then it talks about their training. Each of them had minor mishaps during training but survived. Interesting to think about their generation in war conditions were given some room to fail, learn, and recover.

There is discussion about the different airframes that the boys trained on and the aircraft in the war zone. Both Bong and McGuire were P-38 pilots and the capabilities of their airframe versus others available are discussed briefly.

McGuire was fortunate enough to fly with Charles Lindbergh and Lindbergh was able to show the pilots how to fly in such a way as to conserve fuel. This allowed the P-38 pilots to increase their effective range. Lindbergh was also able to fly several combat missions with the P-38 pilots. It must have been amazing to fly with your boyhood hero as a young man.

Overall the book was well written. This could make a good movie.

[John · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is a study of two Army Air Corps pilots stationed in the South Pacific during WWII and their race to become the top scoring American ace. The two pilots were Richard Bong and Tommy McGuire. Their stories are fascinating, indeed. I recommend this book to anyone who is interested in WWII history in general and the Pacific War in particular.

[Neil · Rating 3 out of 5]

I enjoyed reading this book. It was interesting to read about these two brave men and the other brave men with whom they interacted during their time in the service. It starts out by sharing about their respective lives as they grew up. It describes the impacts upon their lives, what turned them both towards flying (I thought it was interesting to learn how much of an impact Charles Lindbergh had upon Americans, especially young American boys. It seems safe to say he probably inspired an entire generation when he crossed the Atlantic on his own!). The book describes how both men attended college in order to be able to enlists as officers (as only officers could be pilots, and one had to have a college education in order to be an officer) and the "trials and tribulations" they went through during training. They had to learn how to fly various aircraft before 'graduating' to the P-39 Lightnings (of which both men fell in love with). It details their 'race' to become America's top-scoring ace in the Pacific and in the War. Sadly, neither pilot would live past the end of World War II. Tommy McGuire would die while still fighting in the Pacific, and Richard Bong would die on the same day the Hiroshima bomb was dropped; the aircraft he was test-piloting had some kind of engine failure and he was too low to the ground for his chute to open.

The book moves at a decent pace. It held my interest throughout the entire reading. While the book is somewhat biographical in nature, it comes across as being 'more factual in nature' as opposed to being filled with anecdotal stories about these two men. I did not feel like there was much 'character development' for these two men, to be honest. It was a bit dry, in that department. I do not know how to explain it; I just know that I have read other biographies that are more 'engaging' and draw the reader in, that help the reader to 'get to know' the person better about whom the book was written. This book felt more . . . "mechanical" in nature to me, in terms of the two men being written about.

I was surprised to read that Charles Lindbergh actually participated in some of the missions under Tommy McGuire's command! That was a shock to discover! I also enjoyed reading about how he taught the other pilots how to increase the range of their aircraft by some tricks he had learned to extend the range of Pan American Clipper airliners before the war. Some of the tricks involved raising the manifold pressure while lowering the engine's revolutions per minute. Another trick involved the fuel mixture. In any case, he taught the pilots how to dramatically improve the range of the P-38 so that it became a bigger force multiplier in battle.

There was one line that did stand out to me: "Heroes are defined by their own heroism, but their legends are defined by those who celebrate that heroism." (165) I thought it was applicable to these two men, as well as many other pilots discussed in this book.

On a more technical note, the copy I read had various errors in it. In most cases, a word or two was missing from a sentence (it tended to be the subject of the sentence; sometimes it was either a verb or I assume a pronoun). Other times, the wrong word was used or was misspelled. It was not every page, and it tended to happen at the start of the chapter, but it did happen enough for it to be noticeable.

Overall, I am glad that I read this book. Richard Bong's name sounded familiar to me, so I am sure I have read about him in other books where he was a part of the action. It is pretty amazing, on the one hand, reading about what these young men and women gave up during that time in history; on the other hand, it is no different than what men and women in the Armed Forces give up today, either, as they serve and protect this country.

[Brentman99 · Rating 3 out of 5]

I had seen mention of Dick Bong and Tommy McGuire in various WWII books, so when I saw this title, I thought I would give it a read.

The good news is that the book is a pretty easy read. I was basically able to go through it in my slow enjoy mode of reading in about four and a half days of reading time. The narrative flows well and the pictures were a nice addition. Also, the running score in each chapter was a good reference point as to where each man was at a given point in time.

The bad news is that while easy to read, some of the narrative is what I would call a bit "drippy" as the author obviously carried about the sacrifices made by his two subjects.

Is this a serious historical book for the hardcore historian? Not really. It is a good story about WWII Pacific airpower, backed up with lots of facts and research? Not really, as the references are a bit thin for 321 pages and there are no footnotes/endnotes. But none of that takes away from the entertainment value and readability of the book.

Overall, I recommend it for those interested in the subject and who are not hung up on the depth of research used for this book. It was worth the time spent reading it.

[Christian Roberts · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this. This part of the Pacific Theater does not get covered a ton, much less from the aviation side. As someone who reads more than their fair share of World War II books, I truly feel like I learned something. Besides being well researched, it was an easy read and once they reached combat it was easy to blow through because of how interesting the stories were, but also because the stories were told so well. Bill Yenne did a great job honoring Dick Bong and Tommy McGuire and I highly recommend this.

I gave this 4 because I felt like the beginning was fairly boring, although it did help the story. I felt this part could have been condensed a little bit. The accuracy is kind of a curse, too, as I felt like the descriptions could be overly technical or a little too much detail was put into things in the name of completeness, like providing the nicknames of American generals or the plane descriptions, which made it hard to remember which was a Japanese fighter, bomber, etc.

Overall fantastic and entertaining read!

[Andrew · Rating 5 out of 5]

Both of my grandfathers worked as airplane mechanics. One of them worked on P38s in Burbank, Ca. This book shares not only the stories of Richard Bong and Tommy McGuire, but also of the many, many others that served and fought for our freedoms and those of other countries throughout the world. It has given me a new found, greater appreciation and connection to my grandfather and his "greatest generation"!

The book gives great detail of the aerial warfare and the impact they had in the pacific theatre. Great book!

[Valzebub · Rating 4 out of 5]

This had a lot of potential and some really interesting sections, but there are also some parts that really drag and made me consider putting it down for a bit. I really love the P38 and that's why I grabbed this. I did learn a lot about the plane and the most successful pilots who flew it. there was a bit too much on their personal lives for me, but it certainly humanized them. Their wives are major characters in the book.

If you're into WWII and especially the Pacific theater, give this a read.

[Mark Braun · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great portrait of Bong and McGuire. Showed them to be real people. They died too soon.

[Vince · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a very well written and researched account of two of the highest scoring WW II fighter pilots.

[Luke Lane · Rating 5 out of 5]

Awesome book, the separate stories of the two pilots merging together made the book a fun read. The scenes of the pilots waxing poetic about fighter combat were some of the best moments in the book.

[Nic · Rating 3 out of 5]

I almost gave up on this book. The author's habit of switching from Bong to McGuire sentence to sentence and paragraph to paragraph felt like watching a ping pong match. I wish he had done one chapter on one and then one chapter on the other.
I stuck with it, and the writing improved once Bong and McGuire finally made it to their combat zones, and the book held my attention to the end.

[Blake · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was unfamiliar with the story of the two highest scoring American aces. I have read several accounts of fighter and bomber pilots and crew from WWII. Some were first had, some were not. This was not, and it left a little to be desired for me. The information seemed good but incomplete. I've read better written accounts of fighter pilots than this book offers. This short fall however does not take away from the great respect I have for these two great men.

[Bruce · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is the history of the two top aces in World War II. It was interesting. I had not heard of either one before. But I found the writing a bit "thin." I would recommend it though to anyone interested in World War II or in combat aviation.

[John · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a really interesting book. Lots of background on Bong and McGuire and their families. Then on to training and finally their time as the two top aces for the U.S. in WW2. Ultimately it was a sad ending for both but the book also includes a good epilogue. Highly recommended!

[Tom C. · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very good read. A bit of a summary of lists and statistics at times but for the most part very informative, well researched and entertaining. A fitting tribute to two of the greatest pilots ever to fly.

[George · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent read..much better than Race of Aces I read in 2020

[Jack Baillot · Rating 5 out of 5]

My review http://howeverimporbable.blogspot.com...

[Sebastian · Rating 4 out of 5]

It was interesting but some parts were very boring

[Leonard]

A great book, Yenne tells it like a true pilot. Both Bong and McGuire were natural combat pilots. Flying in the Pacific, the second theatre of WWII with limited equipment and supplies, they were great pilots. Both died before they turned 25 years old, what a tragedy!