This is a book written by Lt. Gen. (ret) George Loving, USAF, former USAAF pilot of Spitfires and P51 on Med theatre. Really a good thrilling book, written in a good and non difficult to read English.
George Loving - Woodbine Red Leader - A p-51 Mustang ace in the Mediterranean theatre - Ballantine Books, 2003 - ISBN 0 89141 813 X
I bought it in Germany for 6,25 Euro.
You can easily find it on amazon.co.uk or amazon.de
I copy and paste herewith after just one page, in order to give you the feeling how the book is interesting. (a good reading both for trainees and T/O’s, and why not for seasoned EAF pilots too…)
I remember my first Spitfire flight with clarity. I was airborne in a Spitfire Mark V on a local orientation flight. As I tooled around at about 1,500 feet to get acquainted with the surrounding countryside, a P-39 Airacobra, an aircraft relegated to rear-area service and much scorned because of its marginal performance, rocketed past me from the rear and then pitched up sharply in front, leaving me rocking in his slipstream as he zoomed up to 5,000 feet or so. Bouncing, or mock attacks on other fighters, was a favourite sport of fighter pilots, and to get caught as I did was something we never liked to admit. But that first bounce wasn’t the end to it.
The P-39 pilot was determined to give me a working over and there wasn’t much I could do to prevent it be¬cause he had caught me in a very vulnerable position, at low altitude with low airspeed. As he winged over to initiate another attack, I jammed the throttle full forward, hoping to get my airspeed up, and watched until he reached firing range, at which point I broke (turned sharply) into him to spoil his aim. Once again he zoomed by me and chandelled (used his momentum in an abrupt climbing turn) back to 5,000 feet or so.
It was like a cat toying with a mouse. I was in a dismal situation. Each time he bored in for an attack, I had to break into him, which bled off the airspeed I’d gained between attacks. Without altitude to trade for airspeed I was in a no-way-out situation. Had this been a real encounter with an enemy fighter, assuming I survived the initial attack, I may well have escaped from such an encounter because of the Spitfire’s turning capability, assuming my fuel held out, but it wasn’t something I ever wanted to put to the test. After four passes, the P-39 pilot, having taught me the powerful lesson of not tooling around at low altitude at low cruising speed, rocked his wings and took off for parts unknown.
