Why am I passionate about this?

I read the books in my list decades before I started writing air war stories. My first novel was a sci-fi space opera about hot starpilots flying from what I called “spacecraft carriers” in an interstellar war. Over the years I’ve flown sailplanes, power planes, and logged time in the SNJ and the DC-3. Since I was never there, flying high-performance airplanes in combat, I try to read all the histories and memoirs and pilot’s manuals I can get my hands on, and study pictures of the people, time, place, and airplanes I’m writing about. 


I wrote

Everything We Had: a Novel of the Pacific Air War November-December 1941

By Tom Burkhalter,

Book cover of Everything We Had: a Novel of the Pacific Air War November-December 1941

What is my book about?

When the Arsenal of Democracy is only beginning to gear up for a world war, and the obsolescent and obsolete…

When you buy books, we may earn a commission that helps keep our lights on (or join the rebellion as a member).

The books I picked & why

Book cover of The Last Tallyho

Tom Burkhalter Why did I love this book?

This book was the first adult air-war novel I read, and it pulled me right into the world of naval aviation in World War II.

The protagonist was young, fresh out of flight school and barely qualified to land on aircraft carriers. The author was a navy fighter pilot during World War II, and he put this youngster’s hands on the controls during some tough flying and fighting. After that, I was hooked!

By Richard Newhafer,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked The Last Tallyho as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.


Book cover of Piece of Cake

Tom Burkhalter Why did I love this book?

This was one of the first books I read showing how, in 1939, no one knew how to fight a major air war. I didn’t know that meant the first year of World War II would be a series of bloody, deadly experiments.

This book brings out this uncertainty and the often-fatal consequences for a squadron of RAF pilots flying Hawker Hurricanes in defense of France. I’ve always loved the Hurricane, and wondered what it would be like to fly for the RAF in that time and place, to sit in the cockpit of a Hawker Hurricane, and be both hunter and hunted.

This book let me live the story, as much as any story can.

By Derek Robinson,

Why should I read it?

3 authors picked Piece of Cake as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

From the Phoney War of 1939 to the Battle of Britain in 1940, the pilots of Hornet Squadron learn their lessons the hard way. Hi-jinks are all very well on the ground, but once in a Hurricane's cockpit, the best killers keep their wits close. Newly promoted Commanding Officer Fanny Barton has a job on to whip the Hornets into shape before they face the Luftwaffe's seasoned pilots. And sometimes Fighter Command, with its obsolete tactics and stiff doctrines, is the real menace. As with all Robinson's novels, the raw dialogue, rich black humour and brilliantly rendered, adrenalin-packed dogfights bring…


Book cover of Twelve O'Clock High

Tom Burkhalter Why did I love this book?

This book came out a few years after World War II ended and became a movie and later a TV series.

I started watching the TV series when I was quite young, and in that impressionable time I was sure when I grew up I’d fly B-17s for General Savage and the 918th Bomb Group. This despite the fact that I was well aware of modern jet bombers like the B-52!

The book itself taught me a lot about what it’s like to command a bomb group during an air war. It contains one of the most detailed and exquisitely excruciating descriptions of a bomber mission ever written, in the present tense, as it was lived by the authors themselves, during their time with the 8th AF in 1943.

By Beirne Lay Jr, Sy Bartlett,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Twelve O'Clock High as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.


Book cover of Termite Hill

Tom Burkhalter Why did I love this book?

I’ve always loved the Republic F-105 Thunderchief. It’s one of those jets that look like it’s going Mach 2 sitting on the ground! 

I know people who flew the airplane during the Vietnam War. This book has the inside scoop, since Wilson flew F-105s during Vietnam. It’s one hell of a ride, in the cockpit and out.

I’ll probably take that ride again, soon, if only to prepare for future oral history interviews with Thud drivers.

By Tom Wilson,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Termite Hill as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

In 1966, the tide of the air war above North Vietnam is turning against the United States. F-105 Thunderchiefs, and the elite fighter pilots who fly them, are being slaughtered. To destroy the greatest array of sophisticated anti-aircraft weapons ever assembled, the Pentagon creates the Wild Weasel. The mission of Lt. Colonel Mack MacLendon's 357th Tactical Fighter Squadron is to fly these technological demons straight into the teeth of North Vietnam's deadly air defenses and destroy the SAMs and Soviet MiGs that have killed their friends, and now seek their death.


Book cover of Rolling Thunder

Tom Burkhalter Why did I love this book?

The first few pages are a great example of how to begin a story, right in the middle of the action, trying to land a shot-up F-100 Super Sabre.

You can see in your mind’s eye the concrete rectangle of the runway, feel the stick in your hand, see the gages showing that your engine and your hydraulic systems are bleeding out, and will you really make it to the runway? That’s a pretty good introduction!

Berent is a veteran fighter pilot with all sorts of stories to tell, not only limited to the cockpit in the air. 

By Mark Berent,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Rolling Thunder as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Rolling Thunder is an historical novel about the decisive role politics played during the Vietnam War. Its characters range from men in the field to the Pentagon and the White House. Fighter pilots and Special Forces warriors try to do their best but are hampered by President Johnson, Secretary of Defense McNamara, and their staff members who despise the military. Only one aging USAF general, who fought in Korea and WWII, is on their side. His clashes with his Commander in Chief, Lyndon Johnson, are epic in proportion and startling in content.

In Rolling Thunder, the time is late 1965…


Explore my book 😀

Everything We Had: a Novel of the Pacific Air War November-December 1941

By Tom Burkhalter,

Book cover of Everything We Had: a Novel of the Pacific Air War November-December 1941

What is my book about?

When the Arsenal of Democracy is only beginning to gear up for a world war, and the obsolescent and obsolete scrapings from the bottom of the barrel have been sent, then all that is left is the courage of individuals to face the enemy.

Those individuals must give everything they have to give to buy their country time to arm. Even if they give everything they have it will not be enough.

Book cover of The Last Tallyho
Book cover of Piece of Cake
Book cover of Twelve O'Clock High

Share your top 3 reads of 2024!

And get a beautiful page showing off your 3 favorite reads.

1,206

readers submitted
so far, will you?

You might also like...

What You Made Me Do

By Barbara Gayle Austin,

Book cover of What You Made Me Do

Barbara Gayle Austin Author Of What You Made Me Do

New book alert!

Why am I passionate about this?

Author

Barbara's 3 favorite reads in 2024

What is my book about?

Willem and Jurriaan have a miserable childhood thanks to their cruel, controlling mother—Louisa Veldkamp, a world-renowned pianist. Dad turns a blind eye. One day, Louisa vanishes without a trace during a family vacation.

Adoptee Anneliese Bakker survives a toxic childhood and leaves home, vowing never to return. While searching for her biological mother, she meets the adult Willem, and they fall in love. Pregnant and engaged, she moves into the family mansion, wanting nothing more than to create a loving family for her child. But the Veldkamps are cold and distant. And why is Louisa a taboo subject?

As Anneliese…

What You Made Me Do

By Barbara Gayle Austin,

What is this book about?

An expectant mother gets more than she bargained for when she marries into a seemingly perfect family in this gripping debut novel–a must read for fans of A. J. Finn and B. A. Paris.

After surviving a nightmarish childhood, Anneliese Bakker is on the mend and searching for her birth mother. But when she meets Willem, she falls madly in love and finally finds a safe place to land. Engaged and expecting her first child, she moves into the Veldkamp mansion on a stately, tree-lined avenue in Amsterdam. And yet, nothing about Willem’s family is as it seems. Instead of…


5 book lists we think you will like!

Interested in the Battle of Britain, the Vietnam War, and presidential biography?

The Vietnam War 242 books