One of the first American fighter groups to get into the European war was the 57th. Launching from the deck of the USS Ranger  off the coast of what is now Ghana in Africa, the group slowly made its way across the continent to arrive in Palestine by August of 1942, where they then worked up. During this time, some pilots spent time with active RAF units that were chasing Rommel across North Africa until the group was able to schedule and perform its own missions a bit later that month. By October of 1942, the entire group had become operational, scoring its first aerial victory just a few days later.

From then on until the Germans were pushed out of Africa, the 57th worked with the RAF and the British 8th Army as it moved from base to base.  During this time there was considerable contact with both German and Italian forces, with the biggest success day coming during the famed 'Palm Sunday Massacre' of April 1943 when the group caught a huge group of German Ju-52 transports. This is the subject of the book cover. The Germans transports and several of the escorts were shot down at a prodigious rate by the 57th and their RAF Spitfire escorts. From there, it was on to Sicily, Italy, Corsica and back to Italy where the group finished the war.

During this time, they converted to the P-47 Thunderbolt, much to the delight of most pilots. The 57th spent much of the last two years of the war performing ground attack missions as there was precious little in the way of aerial opposition. The P-47 performed this mission with distinction, the air cooled engine and rugged construction of the aircraft keeping many badly flak-damaged planes in the air long enough to return or at least give the pilot the opportunity of bailing out to safety.

Author Carl Molesworth is well regarded from his authoring of a number of books for Osprey and others. This one is just as superbly written as the others, bringing the experiences of the group's pilots and ground crew to the reader in a very interesting and easy to read fashion. Like all of Osprey's Aviation Elite Units books, this one has superb period photos, a great selection of color profiles as well as appendices that cover group statistics.

It is a book that I found fascinating to read and I know you will as well. It is one that I can highly recommend to you, especially if you are a P-40 or P-47 fan and want to read about one of the lesser publicized groups of the war.  

May 2011

Thanks to Carl Molesworth and Osprey for the review copy. For more on the complete line of Osprey books, visit www.ospreypublishing.com. In the US, it is Osprey Direct at 44-02 23rd St, Suite 219, Long Island City, NY 11101., where you can get a catalogue of available books.

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