Rolling Thunder: Jet Combat from WWII to the Gulf War

For those critical reviewers who nit pick at this book by saying it has technical inaccuries, have missed the point. This isn't supposed to be a reference book with every statistic and nuance of each aircraft. This is an overview of air combat in the jet age. The author traces air combat from 1916 to the first gulf war. What I liked was the historical review of all of the wars from WW1 - 1991 and also how technology has changed over the years, but the basic concepts of air war created in 1916 have been passed down from generation to generation with little or no change since they are so fundamental. I found no bias on the part of the author. He gives excellent review of the Falklands war as well as Arab-Isreali conflicts as well as WW1, WW2, Korea,Vietnam, and comments on the future of combat aviation. Also of interest, the use and experiments with drones/unmanned aircraft in the 1970's. Photos and maps would have been helpful, but again, those are available elsewhere. For a short, thoughtful, readable history of air combat, this is a very good book for all levels of aviation buffs.

For me one of the more difficult books to pull off is the general history type book. The reason being is that it is always the case of not being able to please all of the people all of the time. With a general middle of the road type book compromises have to be made and it is the good author that can bridge the gaps that these choices leave. This author tried to give the reader both a general overview of jet fighter development and descriptions of actual jet fighters in combat. Based on what I was looking for the author provided me just the right mix. He was very heavy into descriptions of all major jet fighter combat experiences over the last 60 years and a bit light on the development process. This authors talents lay with his ability to describe combat. I became more impressed with his writing skill with each new battle he covered. He brought a nice combination of straight shooting facts and the type of drama that is appropriate for a non fiction book. I learned the most from his descriptions of the wars the Israelis have fought and some nice details on both the first Gulf war and the Korean war. My only negative comment on his war coverage was that it was always one sided. Again choices had to be made and I am sure obtaining written accounts of either the Soviet, Arab or Korean battles is not as easy as getting American and British versions. Plus the winners were the versions he used and we all know the winners write the history. I did not buy the book to get into a deep and well researched account of jet fighter development, and because of this the book gave me just want I was looking for. The author covered the devolvement as a bit of an after thought and you could tell by the writing style that this author was more excited about the combat then the design room. Overall I liked the book. It was easy to read and had a lot of nice detail about many jet fighter combat incidents. If you are looking for a nice overview of jet battles over the past half decade then this book will give you a nice start. If you are after a detailed account of jet development then keep looking, there is just not enough detail of this type to keep you engaged.

This book analyzes the evolution of jet air superiority warfare from the German Me-262 of 1944-45 through the mid-1990s. More than being a mere compilation of aircraft performance statistics, photographs and macho war stories (all of which are somewhat lacking), Rolling Thunder analyzes the major jet air superiority campaigns to date - late-WWII, Korea, Cold War bomber-intercept development, Vietnam, Israel's 1960s-80s conflicts, the Falklands, Desert Storm and post-Desert Storm in the Balkans and the Iraqi "no-fly zones".I do NOT agree with other reviewers who compare it unfavorably to more narrowly focused books or complain about focus on the U.S. Air Force (there's a lot about German, British, Israeli and non-Western air forces) And let's face it: the U.S. Navy did not have good enough jets to maintain air superiority in Korea and in Desert Storm the Navy only downed two Iraqi jets compared to 30 for the USAF (and half of THOSE were accounted for by one unit!). The number of misspellings, typos and date errors is relatively minor and NOT distracting from the overall book quality.Besides well-written complex narratives explaining how tactics and weapons use evolved over time, Rendall emphasizes the importance of human factors in achieving battlefield air superiority. While it's important to have the highest quality aircraft and weapons, it's still - to date, at least - pilot ability and tactical leadership make the ultimate difference. This is most strongly illustrated by Israel's ability on many occasions to establish air superiority - with air-to-air kill ratios of 50-to-1 - even with comparable aircraft and Britain eventually beating back Argentine aircraft that outnumbered them by more than 6-to-1.One of Rendall's most thoughtful insights is the fundamental advantage of Western culture's celebration of individual excellence, competition and initiative. Non-Western air forces, most significantly the Soviet Union, relied heavily on central ground control of large numbers of aircraft and mediocre pilots rather than letting a small number of superior pilots and air warfare leaders act with individual initiative. Soviet training showed its spectacular weaknesses in the annihilation of its client states' air forces, most notably Egypt, Syria and Iraq.There's a fascinating description of declining Soviet pilot skill levels during the 1970s-80s due to their leftwing obsession with a form of pilot "affirmative action". Rendall says that to ensure weaker pilots would not be "left behind", and thereby reflect badly on the pilot selection/training establishment, the Soviets systematically reduced pilot training standards. They had many outstanding pilots, but their average pilot skill level steadily declined even as their aircraft performance and weapons quality increased.At the end of the book I understand how Western - especially American/Anglo - air forces came to dominate their actual and potential adversaries. However the incredible cost

I used this book in researching my Air War College paper on Vietnam. It was useful in its description of tactics and the deployment of aircraft. The book's focus is primarily on the application of (jet) air power. It does not dwell on the overarching strategic decisions or the overall campaigns/conflicts. A reader would be well served by having a historical familarity with the conflicts before reading this book - but it isn't essential. It is an enjoyable read with good information and photos. (But, I agree with the earlier reviewer - the name for the book carries some strongly negative connotations - at least in the States.) Try it.