Sinking the Rising Sun: Dog Fighting & Dive Bombing in World War II: A Navy Fighter Pilot's Story

This book is a page turner. Not many Naval pilot autobiographies and this is one of the best. I really loved it. Thank you Mr. Davis for writing it and sharing your experiences with us.

A very human, humorous, and often poignant account of a young man going to war. Some may be put off by the fact that more than half the book is preparatory to actual combat in the South Pacific. If you are one of those people, I would ask you to reserve judgment as the long prelude makes this fabulous story (to paraphrase what Davis says in this memoir "we began to believe in John Paul Jones' 'we have not yet begun to fight'") all the more empathetic and gut-wrenching when the combat actually comes. Davis is the "real deal"; a Navy Cross recipient who helped sink the Japanese carrier Zuikaku (the last surviving carrier from the Pearl Harbor attack). An unforgettable memoir that I'm so pleased its author decided to share.

"Sinking the Rising Sun" is an excellent inside look at what it was like flying fighters in the Pacific during WWII. This book is a page turner, at times funny, and touching in the insights into the fears, hopes and sacrifices these men made. An easy read, the book takes you from the initial flight school experience, through to the final battle and return home. A great book!

Autobiographies of World War II Navy fighter pilots are pretty rare. In this 2007 volume from Zenith Press, William Davis, an F6F Hellcat pilot who served in the Pacific, offers a rare, from-the-cockpit look at carrier combat in the latter stages of the war. Fans of the Hellcat and the Pacific air war will enjoy his engaging memoir. Davis joined the Navy in early 1942. After various misadventures in Training Command, which are detailed in the book, he joined VF-19, commanded by Hugh Winters, in August 1943. In the typical hurry-up-and-wait military tradition, the eager Hellcat pilots of VF-19 weren't sent into the war zone until July 1944, embarked on USS Lexington. In the coming months VF-19 saw much hard combat, resulting in the squadron claiming 155 air kills and almost 200 ground kills. Davis' share of the action included scoring a bomb hit on the Japanese carrier Zuikaku, being shot down off Luzon and scoring a number of kills. In the book Davis claims at least seven kills but apparently only four were officially confirmed, his name not being found on any USN Aces list. Air Group 19 returned stateside in December 1944, Davis subsequently working for Bell Aircraft in the postwar period. SINKING THE RISING SUN is exciting and fun reading. Davis writes in an easy, engaging style, detailing the funny, exciting and boring events that made up the life of a Navy fighter pilot in the mid-war years. Recommended.

This is an excellent book on the flyer's of the U.S. Navy during WW II and gives a great enhancement to the books I have already read on this period of History.