Fighter Combat World War Two

Ride along with the fighter pilots of WWII as this book puts you in the cockpit during some of the most critical and exciting air combat action of the war. Learn the secrets of how success or failure occurred in WWII fighter combat. Why did faster fighters dominate more maneuverable ones? How did pilots use their guns to destroy enemy planes? What fighter formations were effective and why? The stories of historic dogfights are told and carefully examined using modern terminology and tactical scrutiny. With over sixty new, vintage inspired, custom illustrations of fighter maneuvers and formations, plus the first truly comprehensive explanation of fighter gunnery available since WWII, Fighter Combat WWII will provide a fresh and innovative perspective on one of the most fascinating events in world history.

This book is about WWII, daylight, fighter-versus-fighter combat. There are four main parts: Fundamentals, Gunnery, Formations, and Dogfighting. Each part begins with a historic story that introduces the subject. Much of the book uses actual combat experiences from memoirs or WWII vintage combat reports to provide tactical examples which are carefully examined and illustrated. In the world of fighter aviation there are only two types of aircraft: fighters and targets. Bombers and other targets of day fighter aircraft are covered only in the peripheral sense of how their unfortunate roles as flying targets influenced the development of fighter tactics, armament, or gunnery methods.

Whether you’re well read on WWII fighters and fighter pilots, new to the subject, or just trying to win more often in WWII combat flight sims, you will come away from this book with a much-improved understanding of what the fighter pilots of WWII did, and how they did it.

Steve began his career as a professional aviator because he was inspired by the fighter pilots and fighter planes of WWII. Their influence propelled him along a journey from fledgling aviator, to flight instructor and aerobatics instructor, to 25-years as a corporate pilot. At work he flies a Phenom 300 and King Air 350. For play he flies a Vans RV-4 that he calls "The Pretendastang". It's marked as if it were a P-51 Mustang from WWII. In it, he's had some of the most exciting and rewarding moments of his life, simulating the air combat experiences of WWII with a small and highly disciplined group of other pilots.