Whirlwind The Air War Against Japan, 1942-1945

Advance Praise for WHIRLWIND "Sweeping and authoritative, Barrett Tillman's Whirlwind puts the reader in the cockpit as Allied and Japanese airmen battle to the death in the broad skies of the Pacific, but never loses sight of the larger strategic issues and perspectives of the war, nor of the human cost that it extracted." --Richard Hallion, former chief historian of the U.S. Air Force "Barrett Tillman's Whirlwind is a concise, rigorous and authoritative miracle of military history. It's also a great read. I couldn't put it down." --Stephen Hunter, author of I, Sniper and The 47th Samurai "Whirlwind is the most authoritative account ever of the terrifying American air war against Japan, which both forced Tokyo's surrender and saved countless lives in the long run. This powerful book should put an end to the misguided moralizing to the contrary." --Andrew Nagorski, author of The Greatest Battle "Whirlwind has the critical elements to separate it from the pack of cockpit and command aviation histories: it is vivid, lucid and human. But it is something much more: it provides the essential foundation for the examination of the impact of conventional airpower as a fundamental cause of Japan's surrender." --Richard B. Frank, author of Downfall: The End of the Imperial Japanese Empire "A sparkling tale of one of the most fascinating battlefronts of World War II. Tillman pulls together the aerial battles, planning sessions, kills and sacrifices into a coherent narrative that will leave readers pondering the fate of nations and individuals in war, when the call is often to perform the impossible and the call is met with surprising frequency." --Robert W. Merry, author of A Country of Vast Designs "This is a story of great heroism and of technological triumph on a grand scale—the building of the B-29 alone is worth a book—and of the vindication of air power as the ultimate weapon of war. Whirlwind is full of extraordinary stories of courage, sacrifice and good, old-fashioned American know-how, a book every aviation enthusiast should read." --Michael Korda, Author of With Wings Like Eagles "The definitive history of the United States' war-winning aerial assault upon Japan. No one interested in World War II aviation can afford to be without this book." --Walter J. Boyne, Colonel, USAF (Ret), former Director of the National Air & Space Museum "Barrett Tillman, one of America's finest World War II historians, has provided a great public service by writing Whirlwind. Highly recommended." --Douglas Brinkley, Professor of History at Rice University and author of The Boys of Point du Hoc