Fighter Group: The 352nd "Blue-Nosed Bastards" in World War II - Softcover

Stout, Lt Col Jay A.

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0811736539 ISBN 13: 9780811736534

Publisher: Stackpole Books, 2018

Synopsis

Jay A. Stout breaks new ground in World War II history with this gripping account of one of the war's most highly decorated American fighter groups. Stout combines the storytelling gifts and careful research for a seasoned historian with the combat experience of a former fighter pilot to tell the remarkable story of the 352nd Fighter Group. This isn’t just the story of a single fighter group; it’s the story of how the United States won the air war over Europe.

About this title

From the Back Cover

"Jay Stout the historian has teamed up with Jay Stout the fighter pilot to produce a first-class combat history of a first-class World War II fighter group."
                                                        --Eric Hammel, author of "The Road to Big Week"

"'Fighter Group' reminds us there is still much to be recorded about the Second World War, and Stout has established a level of expertise that will be hard to match."
                                                        --Barrett Tillman, author of "Whirlwind" and "Enterprise"

"A page-turning read about young men in high-speed air-to-air combat.  Who better to tell a tale about fighter pilots than a fighter pilot?  Jay 'Guinness' Stout is just that and has done just that with 'Fighter Group.'  His no-nonsense style of describing aerial combat only makes the incredible flying by the young pilots on both sides that much more realistic."
                                                       --Lt. Col. Brick Eisel, author of "Beaufighters in the Night"

From the Inside Flap

In this follow-up to his award-winning Men Who Killed the Luftwaffe, Jay A. Stout focuses on one of the best and most decorated American fighter groups of World War II.  Stout combines the storytelling gifts and meticulous research of a seasoned historian with the combat experience of a former fighter pilot to tell the remarkable story of the USAAF's 352nd Fighter Group, the "Blue-Nosed Bastards of Bodney."  By war's end, this group of pilots--an assembly of true American characters--had flown 420 missions, logged nearly 60,000 combat hours, destroyed 776 enemy aircraft, and produced 29 aces, including George Preddy, the top scorer in the P-51 Mustang.

Stationed at Bodney, northeast of London, England, for most of the war, the 352nd Fighter Group flew as part of the famed U.S. Eighth Air Force, primarily as escorts for the B-17 and B-24 bombers that pounded Germany.  In the process, the group's P-47 Thunderbolts and P-51 Mustangs struck crippling blows against the Third Reich's fighter force, helping to render the Luftwaffe incapable of defeating Allied bombers and protecting the homeland from devastation.

Drawing on interviews with veterans of the 352nd Fighter Group, their letters home, and the unit's after-action reports, Stout reconstructs the experiences of World War II fighter pilots, from boyhood dreams of flight to wild dogfights in which milliseconds made the difference between life and death.  This isn't just the story of a single fighter group; it's the story of how the United States won the air war over Europe.

About this edition

• Publisher: Stackpole Books
• Publication date: 2018
• ISBN 10: 0811736539
• ISBN 13: 9780811736534
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 464