WWII and/or aviation

[NickyWithNook]

My husband would like some recommendations. His favorite author is Paul Brickhill (The Great Escape, Reach For the Sky, etc.) He also said he likes W.E. Johns and Robert Westall, although those might have been authors of books he read when he was a kid. He's Australian and is very interested in WWII stories with an Australian or British hero, though I imagine he'd like anything, particularly if there are airplanes involved (especially Spitfires and Mosquitoes.) He's currently reading a non-fiction book called Down to Earth, about a WWII Mosquito pilot, but he likes the idea of some fiction books similar to those by Paul Brickhill.

I'm hoping someone here has similar tastes and an idea of what he might like.

[Apache]

Lords of the Sky: Fighter Pilots and Air Combat, from the Red Baron to the F-16 by Dan Hampton. I just started it and it starts with of WWI and shows how pilots, aircraft and the tactics that evolved from nothing to modern day strategies. They are still very similar to what was developed during The Great War.
Apache

[bfisher]

Flight of the Intruder by Stephen Coonts (Vietnam)
Battle of Britain by Len Deighton
The Bridges at Toko-ri by James Michener
No Highway by Nevil Shute - crash investigation novel
The Most Dangerous Game by Gavin Lyall - bush flying and espionage in Finland
Over to You: Ten Stories of Flyers and Flying by Roald Dahl - Dahl was a RAF flyer in WW2
Fighter Boys: The Battle of Britain, 1940 by Patrick Bishop
A Dawn Like Thunder: The True Story of Torpedo Squadron Eight by Robert J. Mrazek - Battle of Midway
Wing Leader by J.E.Johnson (RAF WW2 ace)
First Light by Geoffrey Wellum - one of the few to whom the many owe
No Moon Tonight by Don Charlwood - RAAF navigator in Bomber Command WW2
The Wild Blue: The Men and Boys Who Flew the B-24s Over Germany 1944-45 by Stephen Ambrose
With Wings Like Eagles by Michael Korda - Battle of Britain
Dauntless by Barrett Tillman - divebombers at Midway
Hellcats (sequel to Dauntless)
On Yankee Station by Barrett Tillman - naval aviation in Vietnam
The Aviators: Eddie Rickenbacker, Jimmy Doolittle, Charles Lindbergh, and the Epic Age of Flight by Winston Groom (author of Forrest Gump)
High Road to China by Jon Cleary - post WW1 flight from Europe to China - sort of aerial African Queen

Many of these are older books I read as pbooks; sorry, I'm not sure how many of these are available as ebooks.

[bfisher]

Sorry, how could I have forgotten
North Cape by Joe Poyer - Cold War spy plane
Firefox by Craig Thomas - Cold War "Grand Theft Jet"

[SteveEisenberg]

To me, this one is a classic, and it seems to have just come out as an eBook six days ago:

Samurai! - The Personal Story of Japan's Greatest Living Fighter Pilot by Saburo Sakai

http://www.amazon.com/Samurai-Sabur-...ur%C5%8D+Sakai

[bfisher]

Piece of Cake by Derek Robinson (also dramatized in an excellent mini-series)

[rkomar]

Edit: Removed redundant suggestion.

[Apache]

Japanese Destroyer Captain by Tameichi Hara (Author), Fred Saito (Translator), Roger Pineau (Contributor).
http://www.amazon.com/Japanese-Destr...=UTF8&sr=&qid=

This highly regarded war memoir was a best seller in both Japan and the United States during the 1960s and has long been treasured by historians for its insights into the Japanese side of the surface war in the Pacific. The author was a survivor of more than one hundred sorties against the Allies and was known throughout Japan as the Unsinkable Captain. A hero to his countrymen, Capt. Hara exemplified the best in Japanese surface commanders: highly skilled, hard driving, and aggressive. Moreover, he maintained a code of honor worthy of his samurai grandfather, and, as readers of this book have come to appreciate, he was as free with praise for American courage and resourcefulness as he was critical of himself and his senior commanders.

Apache

[Apache]

Not British or Australian, but Pacific Glory by P T Deutermann is a great historical fiction book about a destroyer captain in WWII. P T Deutermann's father was a serving Naval Officer in the Pacific in WWII. P T Deutermann served 26 years in the US Navy and commanded destroyers. A very good read. I gave it 5 stars and plan to read it again at the end of this year.
Apache

[Mike L]

If he likes Paul Brickhill, I'm sure he will like Airey Neave's They Have Their Exits. It's a (true) WWII escape story, written in a very personal style.

Airey Neave was one of the very few people to escape from Colditz Castle. He later became a leading member of Margaret Thatcher's party, and would have been a member of her government, but he was assassinated just after (or just before?) the 1979 election.

Mike

[NickyWithNook]

You have all exceeded my hopes! There are lots of books that he hasn't read that sound good to him. Thanks!

[Jim-Bo]

Many of the books by Nevil Shute would fit what you are looking for. One of my all time favorites authors.

[mvo]

I very much enjoyed "Lost in Shangri-La: Escape from a Hidden World" by Mitchell Zuckoff.

The book tells the true story of a 1945 mission to rescue three service men and women (folllowing a plane crash) from a New Guinea jungle.