James Williams Marshall

This book is a superb technical history of a war-winning weapon system, without which the daylight bombardment concept used against Germany might have failed. The authors make a strong case for calling the Merlin-engined Mustangs the finest fighter aircraft in World War II, although I must also say that only slight mentions are made of comparisons with the Navy's F6F Hellcat, granted by the authors as the one aircraft capable of matching or exceeding the Merlin Mustangs in performance. All other comparisons with other U.S. and German aircraft are those found in the European Theater of Operations only.

All is not milk and honey with this volume, however. This book is not the easiest to read. One of the problems that result from having access to a whole bunch of primary source material is how to separate the wheat from the chaff and how to organize the material. These authors chose a chronological approach; however, they chose to intersperse technological development, World War II history, competitor aircraft development, and operational history as discrete elements within the overall chronology. I feel this organizational choice is confusing to the reader, especially of they may not have a strong background in aviation technology history. I think a better choice would have been to completely cover a topic to a specific point in time, then move on to a new subject chapter, then repeat, as has been done successfully in other books of this type.… (mehr)

This has been by far the most enjoyable book I’ve read this year and should be a cornerstone of any library covering the air war in Europe, WWII fighter development, the 8th Air Force, and so on.
It’s also a seminal, must have book on the P-51 Mustang.
Reading through the acknowledgments, the author literally lists direct contributions of material and photographs from people who have been dead since the mid to late ‘90’s which is the first clue of how deep this book dives into the Mustang.
The author writes very much in the style of Warren Bodie in that contemporary events are cleverly woven into the story as it progresses to allow the reader to understand the events and developments that were impacting on the development of the Merlin Mustang. This means the reader gets brief paragraphs on not only the RAF, but myriad other subjects from Wright Field to operations of the 8th and 15th Air Forces and of course what the Germans were up to.
This also includes brief discussion of the concurrent development of the P-51F and P-51D and other Mustang variants interspersed throughout the text. What that boils down to is that while the preponderance of material covers the “B” model Mustang, there’s information here that covers military aviation and operations in the US and Europe from the 1930’s up to and including the XP-51J Mustang. (Not listed in index, but mentioned on page 229 in respect to engine and fuselage fuel tank development.)
The appendices, bibliography, and footnoting also are particular standouts and worth spending some time with themselves. (Particularly the performance charts.) The are enough technical illustrations and data here to keep the technically minded satisfied as well.
The author will raise a few hackles in his treatment of Wright Field and his less than glowing coverage of the P-38 use by the 8th Air Force. (Interestingly enough a table in Appendix C on page 332 showing USSTAF fighter kills from 11/43 to 06/44 shows the P-38 in a much more complimentary light.)
There are a few nits, to pick. The RAF Specification is listed as F.18/29 instead of F.18/39. From an editing standpoint there’s a few places where the text was revised without follow-up editing to remove the duplicate words later in the text.
Modelers will not be well served by this book. Nor, was this book intended for them.
This book is unequivocally recommended for Mustang enthusiasts and anyone interested in air operations during WWII. It is a must buy.… (mehr)