Blue Devils, The

When America was plunged into war in the wake of the surprise attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, the first aircraft to take the fight to the Japanese were manned by naval aviators flying from Pacific Fleet aircraft carriers that had miraculously escaped the carnage in Hawaii. Escorting bombers attacking the Imperial Japanese Navy, a handful of Wildcats succeeded in fending off attacks by the superior A6M Zero-sen fighter. The pugnacious Grumman fighter held the line in the Pacific until the arrival of better aircraft in the shape of the Corsair and Hellcat during 1943. Both types duly proved more than a match for their Japanese counterparts to the point where the Hellcat was dubbed the ‘ace maker’. The exploits of the Wildcat, Hellcat and Corsair are all detailed in this exhaustively researched volume, combining Aircraft of the Aces 3, 8 and 10 in a great value special edition.