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Dogfight: The Greatest Air Duels of World War II
Fighter pilots are the elite of the elite; it can take years of training to produce a fighter pilot and even longer to produce a plane that is worthy of their skills. Yet a dogfight can last only minutes. Drawing inspiration from The History Channel's popular show, "Dogfight" and the new Osprey DUEL series, Dogfight offers readers a chance to discover what it felt like to be a fighter pilot during World War II, flying some of the most iconic planes to have ever graced the skies during operations when man and machine were tested to the limit.
Meticulously researched digital artwork recreates the cockpit of each of these iconic fighter planes and accompanies a step-by-step explanation of the design and development of these warbirds, from prototype to combat. First-hand accounts and interviews with surviving pilots detail pilot training differences among the combatants as well as the equipment used in their preparations for war. Maps and diagrams reveal the wider strategic setting in which each dogfight took place.
From Spitfires battling Messerschmitts over the skies of southern England to Fw 190s desperately attempting to turn the tide against the advancing Mustangs of the 8th Air Force during the dying days of the war, discover the history of these amazing pilots and their aircraft in the awesome dogfights of World War II.
Special
• Illustrated throughout with digital illustrations of cockpits, side elevations, and battle scenes and filled with rare and never-before-seen photographs.
• Provides in-depth information on the flight characteristics and fighting capabilities of all of the most famous warbird types
• Includes brief biographies and kill tables of famous aces
Meticulously researched digital artwork recreates the cockpit of each of these iconic fighter planes and accompanies a step-by-step explanation of the design and development of these warbirds, from prototype to combat. First-hand accounts and interviews with surviving pilots detail pilot training differences among the combatants as well as the equipment used in their preparations for war. Maps and diagrams reveal the wider strategic setting in which each dogfight took place.
From Spitfires battling Messerschmitts over the skies of southern England to Fw 190s desperately attempting to turn the tide against the advancing Mustangs of the 8th Air Force during the dying days of the war, discover the history of these amazing pilots and their aircraft in the awesome dogfights of World War II.
Special
• Illustrated throughout with digital illustrations of cockpits, side elevations, and battle scenes and filled with rare and never-before-seen photographs.
• Provides in-depth information on the flight characteristics and fighting capabilities of all of the most famous warbird types
• Includes brief biographies and kill tables of famous aces
352 pages, Hardcover
First published May 24, 2011
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Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews
June 6, 2024
Because Hitler was a terrible war strategist--due in large part to the fact that he was a raving psychopath who was high on delusional thinking and badly prescribed stimulant drugs most of 1943-45--the Allies were able to catch up and overcome the Luftwaffe in only about about 3 years of earnest research & design engineering; along with crushing manufacturing resources that made German factories look crude by comparison. Germans had nothing like the P-47 Thunderbolt for instance, which dwarfed any German fighter plane in sheer size & firepower. The FW 190 was a good fighting craft, but we had 4-5+ of our planes for every one of those; and theirs were more fragile; and had no high octane gas. Were the Germans just a little more imaginative in recruiting pilots, they'd have had thousands more Luftwaffe pilots at their disposal--there were large numbers of sympathetic Eastern Europeans & South Americans to train--but German rejection of outsiders for anything but slave labor doomed them in this area as well. So German war time brutality was almost matched by their stupidity. The German imagination conversely ran wild in aircraft design, leading down many blind alleys. Their innovations were as attached to emotional aspirational thinking than practical engineering. The best example of that was the ME 262 jet, whose leading edge innovative design & manufacture was a gigantic waste of time & money by 1944. Germany never had the metallurgy expertise to build a reliable, durable jet engine, so 3-4 combat missions was about it for the Me262. The Brits were ahead of them in jet engine technology. For the same expenditure of resources devoted to the Me262, the Luftwaffe could have had at least 3,000 more FW 190's and the pilots to fly them. Thank heavens they didn't. And so it went until April of 1945.
March 27, 2017
Good compilation of previous VS books into one handy hardbound volume. The firsthand accounts were particularly of interest to me.
April 5, 2017
Reads like a stitched-together version of shorter books about individual aircraft, which is apparently what it is. The book is poorly edited: it contains occasional misspellings and a number of redundancies, including an explicable repetition of a couple of pages, with the repeat beginning in mid-sentence. The choice of which planes to include is neither comprehensive nor always intuitively sound (why compare the Zero with the Seafire rather than with the Hellcat or Corsair?). Long parts act more like reference manuals than like general-interest reading.
But there's a lot of nice art. And there are two real strengths. The background on the development and refinement of each plane is highly informative about the intense and endless engineering that went on for military aircraft during the Second World War. The descriptions of overall tactics and dogfights are also informative: tactics were largely determined by each aircraft's capabilities (often discovered in combat); ambushes were preferred in order to stack the odds; many fights lasted mere seconds.
But there's a lot of nice art. And there are two real strengths. The background on the development and refinement of each plane is highly informative about the intense and endless engineering that went on for military aircraft during the Second World War. The descriptions of overall tactics and dogfights are also informative: tactics were largely determined by each aircraft's capabilities (often discovered in combat); ambushes were preferred in order to stack the odds; many fights lasted mere seconds.
March 30, 2014
An interesting read. For me the choice of aircraft was interesting as were some of the "errors" made during the course of the war and prior to (e.g., delayed use of drop tanks for Spitfire, failure to truly evolve beyond the Zero for Japan). As I said, interesting to not see any real reference to other aircraft like the P-38 or the Hellcat.
I enjoyed the overview not only of the aircraft but of crew training and personalities as well.
I enjoyed the overview not only of the aircraft but of crew training and personalities as well.
April 15, 2023
Why do I keep reading these bargain bin airplane books from the Barnes & Noble cover to cover and reviewing them on Goodreads? It's because I'm broken, and for some reason one of my favorite ways to disassociate is to read about old planes shooting at each other.
Anyhow, like other similar books I've read, this one is a mixed bag. Each section is by a different writer and some are better than others. The Warhawk vs Oscar and Seafire vs Zero sections are by far the most interesting because they're parts of WWII that don't get talked about very often.
Anyhow, like other similar books I've read, this one is a mixed bag. Each section is by a different writer and some are better than others. The Warhawk vs Oscar and Seafire vs Zero sections are by far the most interesting because they're parts of WWII that don't get talked about very often.
September 27, 2017
got this on clearance at Barnes & Noble. Excellent text, photographs and writing make this a terrific intro to the history of military flight during WWII. Highly recommend it.
December 22, 2018
Got bored with the technical comparisons and lack of actual pilot accounts.
December 3, 2014
"Dogfight" is not light reading and it is not a book about fighter pilots, rather it is more a reference work. Several pairs of WWII fighters are detailed with most of the book describing the technical aspects of each plane. There are a few stories about the pilots who flew them in each section. The pairs of planes are: Spitfire vs. Bf 109E, Thunderbolt vs. Bf 109G/K, P-40 Warhawk vs. Ki-43 "Oscar," P-51 Mustang vs. FW-190 and Seafire vs. A6M Zero. There are some profiles of the various planes and some decent photographs throughout. If you like knowing what kind of engine of what horsepower went into a plane or that they switched out a certain caliber of machine gun for a different caliber on a certain aircraft then you'll find this book useful. I can understand some of the pairing but the Seafire vs. Zero left me scratching my head. The Seafire was just another version of the Spitfire which was already covered and saw combat far too late in the war to be decisive. No Russian plane was mentioned (yes there were some very excellent fighters produced in Russia during the war) nor were there any from any belligerents other than German, the US, Britain and Japan. The most glaring omission was that of any US Navy fighter. The F4F Wildcat vs. the Zero or, even better, the legendary F6F Hellcat vs. the Zero would have been far more interesting.
April 26, 2015
Tony Holmesin "Taistelu ilmojen herruudesta : toisen maailmansodan parhaimmat hävittäjät" (Gummerus, 2012) kerää yhteen viisi Osprey-kustantamon Duel-sarjaan kuuluvaa kirjaa, joissa vertaillaan kahta toisistaan mittaa ottanutta sotakonetta.
Lentokoneiden ominaisuuksien lisäksi kirjassa käsitellään myös eri maiden ilmavoimien koulutusta, tunnettuja lentäjiä ja myös itse taistelutoimia tiettynä ajanjaksona.
Lentokoneiden valinnassa on päädytty osin itsestäänselviin pareihin (Messerschmitt Bf 109E vs. Spitfire, P51 Mustang vs. Focke Wulf 190), mutta hieman hämmästelin viimeisen luvun kaksintaisteluparia Seafire vs. A6M Zero, joista ensiksimainitulle olisi ehkä löytynyt relevantimpi vaihtoehto.
Kiinnostavimmiksi osioiksi kohosivat mielestäni ehkä Aasian ja Tyynenmeren sotanäyttämöä käsittelevät luvut, ehkä siksi että aiheesta on tullut luettua selvästi vähemmän kuin vaikkapa taistelussa Englannista.
Luettavuudeltaan kirja ei ole ehkä jännittävin mahdollinen, ellei sitten ole hillittömän kiinnostunut teknisistä tiedoista. Pientä toistoakin esiintyy.
Valokuvista ja maalauksista koostuvasta kuvituksesta on annettava täydet pisteet, samaten kuten eri koneiden ohjaamojen ansiokkaista esittelyistä.
Lentokoneiden ominaisuuksien lisäksi kirjassa käsitellään myös eri maiden ilmavoimien koulutusta, tunnettuja lentäjiä ja myös itse taistelutoimia tiettynä ajanjaksona.
Lentokoneiden valinnassa on päädytty osin itsestäänselviin pareihin (Messerschmitt Bf 109E vs. Spitfire, P51 Mustang vs. Focke Wulf 190), mutta hieman hämmästelin viimeisen luvun kaksintaisteluparia Seafire vs. A6M Zero, joista ensiksimainitulle olisi ehkä löytynyt relevantimpi vaihtoehto.
Kiinnostavimmiksi osioiksi kohosivat mielestäni ehkä Aasian ja Tyynenmeren sotanäyttämöä käsittelevät luvut, ehkä siksi että aiheesta on tullut luettua selvästi vähemmän kuin vaikkapa taistelussa Englannista.
Luettavuudeltaan kirja ei ole ehkä jännittävin mahdollinen, ellei sitten ole hillittömän kiinnostunut teknisistä tiedoista. Pientä toistoakin esiintyy.
Valokuvista ja maalauksista koostuvasta kuvituksesta on annettava täydet pisteet, samaten kuten eri koneiden ohjaamojen ansiokkaista esittelyistä.
October 29, 2015
Dogfights
Dogfight by Tony Holmes is a descriptive, and informational about all the different air battles in the European theater and the south pacific during World War II. The book tells you all about, the planes and all the information about them, the tactics, and it describes the pilots feelings inside the plane. The book also informs you about all the variants of the planes and their modifications. The Book gives you a performance rating on all of the aircraft from speed to armament. I would recommend this book for people who like history or informative books.
Dogfight by Tony Holmes is a descriptive, and informational about all the different air battles in the European theater and the south pacific during World War II. The book tells you all about, the planes and all the information about them, the tactics, and it describes the pilots feelings inside the plane. The book also informs you about all the variants of the planes and their modifications. The Book gives you a performance rating on all of the aircraft from speed to armament. I would recommend this book for people who like history or informative books.
November 1, 2013
A combination of Holmes' personal choices and detailed technical information on each plane doesn't make for smooth reading. This is not to say those with a love for the details of the war in the air won't find somethings to love.
For me, the History Channel's visual reconstruction of those dogfights and others was clearer and more satisfying. Or, perhaps my rating was because the P-38 "Lightning" wasn't showcased here.
For me, the History Channel's visual reconstruction of those dogfights and others was clearer and more satisfying. Or, perhaps my rating was because the P-38 "Lightning" wasn't showcased here.
April 16, 2012
A compilation of five smaller books published by Osprey publishing in their Duel series. I found the book mildly interesting, but not especially engaging. The final chapter about the Seafire was the most informative in that it describes Royal Navy carrier activities in the Pacific very late in WW2.
Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews