John Stanaway (1942–2019)

John Stanaway, when he was writing for Osprey, was essentially "Mr. Lockheed P-38" for that publisher, and if you're interested in the units equipped with that plane this booklet is still worth having. The 479th would be interesting if only by being the last USAAF fighter group to be deployed to the ETO, but also for featuring the presence of two men who were exemplars of the mass of U.S. fighter pilots: Hubert Zemke and Robin Olds. That Stanaway had access to Brig. Gen. Olds before he show more passed on makes this a valuable resource.

Apart from giving the reader almost the day-by-day chronicle of the 479th, Stanaway also wades into the issue of the value of the Lockheed P-38 versus the North American P-51, essentially making the argument that while the P-38 didn't achieve its true potential (due to aerodynamic issues) until late in the war, in the hands of a good pilot it was still very estimable. The problem is that at high altitude the Mustang was peerless, and it was a lot more forgiving for the new pilot. show less

P38 lighting Aces 1942-1943 by John Stanaway. The most beautiful conventional aircraft of WWII. The only similarly configured aircraft was the German Focke-Wulf Fw 189 a reconnaissance airplane. The Lighting was one of the few aircraft to see action in all the theaters of operation. Stanaway’s book concentrates on the men who flew it into combat and downed 5 or more enemy aircraft in air to air combat were thus known as an ace. While the premise of the book sounds fascinating, Stanaway show more does a poor job of executing it. The book reads like a poorly written history text, dry and without passion, What should be exciting air to air duels is rendered as dull as white bread. Stanaway does not include pictures of enemy aircraft nor does he include diagrams of the battles. Color diagrams and pictures of the enemy aircraft would greatly improve the readability of the narrative. The books 6 chapters cover in a brief fashion the development of the Lightning, its performance in various theaters of operation it fought in, and an appendices covering the names of the pilots,and a history of the particular aircraft flown.The book is only 90 pages and should be read with supplemental information from Wikipedia. show less