Wings of War by David and Margaret White (Wings of War (bookshop.org), details the development, deployment and combat effectiveness of the North American P-51 Mustang. It is my considered opinion, and the opinion of a great many others, that the P-51 was the greatest fighter to fly in WWII. It is arguable that it is one of the greatest airplanes of all time. It’s certainly one of the most beautiful.
Wings of War is divided into two sections. The first section is about the three men who were instrumental making the Mustang a reality: the creator, the crusader and the warrior, who birthed the fighter that, if nothing else, saved the lives of countless American bomber crews.
The second section covers the Mustang in combat. I’ll get into that part later.
Overall, I really enjoyed this book. It was a breezy read and I learned a lot about the people behind the scenes, and the obstacles they had to overcome to bring the P-51 to the front lines.
The Good
The book starts with the creative genius who conceived and willed the P-51 into existence. Edgar Schmued was born in Germany in 1899. At the age of 8, upon seeing a plane in flight, he determined that his future was in aviation. He was a self-taught engineer, who held several patents in Germany.
After WWI, with Germany’s economy in ruins, he left for more promising pastures. After a stint in Brazil, he eventually made his way to Southern California, where he signed on with North American.
When Britain, fighting for its survival during the Battle of Britain, came calling to the US to purchase fighter planes, Schmued offered them an alternative to the P-40 Warhawk. After a feverish 4 months, Schmued and his design team produced the plans of the nascent masterpiece. The rest, as they say, was history.
Schmued would later help design the F-86 Sabre fighter jet. He ranks right up there with Kelly Johnson, the designer of the P-38 and the SR-71.
Next
The rest of the first act concerns two people: the man who overcame all obstacles to force US Army Air Corp into accepting the version of the P-51 that was married to the British made Rolls-Royce Merlin engine, and the man who led Mustangs into combat over Germany.
Tommy Hitchcock, a scion of a very wealthy family, served in the Army Signal Corp in WWI. Later he became an internationally renowned polo player. When WWII started, he attempted to join the Army Air Corp as a pilot but was rebuffed because of his age. Instead, he became the chief booster of the Merlin equipped Mustang, realizing early on its potential in protecting the bombers flying over German held territories.
Finally, we come to Lt. Colonel Donald Blakeslee, the fighter pilot who fought to have the P-51 taken out of a ground support role and used instead to protect the bombers of the 8th Air Force. Blakeslee was a fighter pilots fighter pilot. He ended the war with over 500 missions and 1000 combat hours.
Now, the not-so-good
As I said, Wings of War is a good book. But it could have been better. I’ll paraphrase the words that so many of my schoolteachers put in my report cards: it fails to achieve its potential.
- First, the authors tend to overstate the impact of the raids on Germany’s industrial centers. They rave on and on at how the bombers were laying waste to Germany’s industrial might. Most WWII historians now believe that the strategic bombing of military manufacturing was a failure. The authors even admit later in the book that Germany was able to produce more aircraft in the final year of the war than it made in the first two years of the war combined.
- They are on stronger ground when it comes to the impact the destruction had on the oil fields in Romania, and on the synthetic oil factories in Germany. By wars end, Germany’s oil reserves were practically non-existent.
- The second half of the book covers the P-51 in combat. Amazingly, the “action” portion of the book becomes repetitive and dull. The authors made their point that the P-51 was a good dogfighter in the first 25 anecdotes. This section feels like filler and padding, because it is filler and padding.
- Finally, we come to the melodramatic adjectives and exaggerated metaphors, AKA “purple prose”. This overwrought writing is distracting and annoying, and it takes the reader out of the book. Here are some examples of the type:
“There now unfolded across an immense area 833 square miles in size…a spectacular tarantella of combat that filled the skies with fire…“. I had to look that up. According to the google machine, a tarantella is a “lively folk dance of southern Italy”. The authors could have easily used “a deadly dance” and still got their point across.
“There were dodges closer than a matador’s cape in a bullring; there were passes slicker than silk”.
My personal favorite: “Moments flew past, seconds ejected like bullet slugs”. WHAT THE HELL DOES THAT EVEN MEAN?!?
In Conclusion
As I said, for all its flaws Wings of War is a good book. I learned things about this amazing aircraft, and the men who created it, that I didn’t know before. That’s a win right there.
However, I feel it could have been a better book had it gone into more detail on the men, and the obstacles they overcame, to make the P-51 Mustang a reality. I’ll have to reseach and see if anybody has written a biography of Edgar Schmued.
——————————-Intermission————————————
——————–What’s next of the nightstand————————-
The Revolutionary Samuel Adams by Stacy Schiff was given to me as a birthday present by a very old (“old” as in I’ve known him for a long time. Well, he too is in his 60s, so I guess technically he is old) and dear friend who felt it was something I would be interested in. And he was right! When I purchased Wings of War, I had been debating whether or not to get The Revolutionary Samuel Adams instead. I went with Wings of War and put Samuel Adams on my “to buy later” list.
Synchronicity in action, yes?
Interesting character, Mr. Samuel Adams, a real firebrand. He was the driving force behind the Boston Tea Party. Even his cousin John Adams, who was seen by many as an as a pain in the ass in his own right (watch this scene from the classic 1776: But Mr. Adams Clip), felt Samuel was a tad extreme.
But outside of the Tea Party, Samuel Adams is also something of a historical cipher. After the Revolutionary War begins, Samuel almost completely disappears from our historical consciousness and national mythology. John Adams was part of the Congress that drafted the Declaration of Independence, served as an ambassador to France during the war, and eventually became President. Samuel Adams? Who knows?
Without looking at the interwebz, can you think of anything (besides the Boston Tea Party) that Samuel Adams is famous for? Today, the name Samuel Adams is known to most Americans as a craft brewing company based in Boston.
I can hardly wait to dig into this biography. Thank you, Bernie!
