The current USAF is really big on keeping alive as much of its history as it possibly can. Just about all of that history comes from World War II and one of the units that has managed to stay alive all these years of unit disbandings and base closings has been the 52nd which is now the 52nd Fighter Wing operating out of Spanghdalem Germany. Of course, it no longer has its original squadrons; the 2nd, 4th and 5th, but those have managed to stay alive as well.

The 52nd is one of those units that gets darn little press in either books (this is probably the first extensive history of its WWII exploits) or from the modeler fraternity. Face it, the 52nd didn't exactly get the glory job that others were fortunate enough to have. Though it first went overseas to the UK, it was soon chosen to be one of the two US fighter groups (along with the 31st FG) to deploy to North Africa to assist in the Allied landings in late 1942. While there, it had the opportunity to enjoy some success against the Luftwaffe and the Italians during the North African campaign.

However, fate was not kind to the 52nd. While the 31st went on to enjoy more success in the Sicily campaign and moving up the Italian peninsula, the 52nd had the bad luck to be attached to Coastal Command and spent nearly a year on convoy protection and not on shooting down bad guys. During this time, they flew Spitfire V and IX versions, an aircraft they very much enjoyed, but was so short ranged that any sort of long range missions in terms of fighter sweeps over long expanses of water was pretty much out of the question. They also had their Spitfires equipped for ground attack and after finally getting out of the grips of Coastal Command, performed this task during the Corsica operations.

In 1944, after moving to Corsica, they finally were able to transition to Mustangs and had the range they needed. They then moved to mainland Italy where enemy aircraft by this time were very scarce and they spent the last year of the war moving a lot of mud and doing the odd bomber escort. During the full course of the war, only 21 pilots in the entire group were made aces; several of these pilots having attained a few of their kills with other groups.

The authors take us from training in the US through their trials and tribulations; sharing with us the thrills and the boredom that were part and parcel of fighting a war. There are over 250 photos and superb color profiles of the aircraft of the 52nd. Included are some very rare period color photos as well. One really gets the sense of being with the unit. There are the usual pilot stories as well as tales from the ground crew and we get to see the conditions under which these men fought and lived.

This is really an outstanding read as the authors take what can easily turn into a long rote listing of events and makes into something very readable and interesting. It is a book I enjoyed (and yes, I read every page) and one that I know you will as well. Highly recommended.

October 2005

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