I have had the pleasure of becoming friends over the years with three 357th FG pilots: Chuck Yeager, Bud Anderson, and Hank Pfeiffer. At the 1984 AFAA Convention, when all these marvelous guys were still young enough to drink me under the table, General Yeager and his best buddy Bud Anderson, did their duty and carried me out feet first. The 357th is one of the most interesting fighter groups to ever exist, as evidenced by all the different aftermarket decals available over the years. It is a pleasure to review this book.

Let's get the facts in order, as cited by author James Roeder: The 357th, in 15 months of combat, scored a total 595 air-to-air kills, third ranked in the ETO behind the 354th FG and the 56th FG. The 357th scored second in the Eighth Air Force in air-to-air kills, behind the 56th with 664.5, and ahead of the 4th FG with 504.5. Remember that the 4th was in combat 17 months longer than the 357th (and that 100 of their kills were carry-overs from the Eagle Squadrons), and that the 56th saw combat 11 months before the 357th. The 357th FG led the 8th AF in the number of fighter aces scoring most or all of their victories while flying with one group, with 42 - the 56th was second with 41, and the 4th third with 39. The 357th scored the all-time one-day record of kills in the 8th AF (55.5 on January 14, 1945) The group's record of 18.5 Me-262 kills was ahead of every other Allied fighter unit, none of whom scored in double digits. With 106.5 ground "kills", the group scored a total of 701.5, fourth highest in the 8th AF. (General Yeager, in response to my question as to why the group's ground kills were so low in comparison to other 8th AF groups said "we took a look at those German airfields and decided we could fly home at high altitude." This would make the 357th also the highest-IQ 8th AF fighter group, inasmuch as the 56th and the 4th suffered the majority of their losses due to German airfield AAA, and other groups suffered far worse.)

Roeder's book tells a series of individual stories of 357th pilots who he interviewed for the book. Given that several of these men have never been in any book previously, he breaks new ground here, and manages to convey a good feeling for the group as far as its membership was concerned. As a student of 8th AF Fighter Groups, I felt I was getting new information as I read this book.

Central to the quality of this book is the fact that the author obtained the support of Merle Olmstead. Olmstead served as a ground crew mechanic and nose art painter from 1942-46. More importantly, he went to war with a camera and took a lot of pictures. I well remember at the AFAA convention in 1984, aces from many groups told me that if I wanted to know what it was like to be in a World War II fighter group, I should talk to Merle Olmstead (an honored guest of the assembled aces). They were right: he shot pictures of guys working on airplanes, pilots talking to their crew chiefs, pilots feeling like they were "king of the world" when they got home in one piece, pilots doing low level "beat-ups", etc. And a lot of pictures of their airplanes. The history of World War II in the air would be the less if this Sergeant from Des Moines, Iowa and his camera had not been there. He loved those guys, and he remembered what he shot. Olmstead's photos have been seen for 40 years in various books, but here he brings out the shots no one else ever wanted, and in so doing gives us material never seen before. Don Greer's profiles, based on these photos, bring us information on airplanes never seen before. I hope we will see decal sheets in the near future based on this material. I have a whole slew of P-51 kits waiting!

This is a book well worth getting hold of for anyone who loves the P-51 Mustang, the air war of the ETO, the fighter groups of the 8th Air Force, or who just wants a better understand of what it was to be there. Go get it!

Review copy courtesy of: Squadron Mail Order

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