To Fly and Fight: Memoirs of a Triple Ace

Anderson flew P-51 Mustangs in the WW II European theater and shot down 17 German planes. Writing with freelancer Hamelin, he here relates his spectacular aerial confrontations with Messerschmitts and Focke-Wulfs, defines (in understandable technical detail) what ``combat flying skill'' really means and conveys the unique mindset a fighter pilot needs in order to survive. Anderson, who became an Air Force test pilot during the postwar ``golden age of flight testing,'' recalls hair-raising incidents highlighting the challenge and risk of such work. After an onerous tour of desk-duty in Washington (``A colonel at the Pentagon is nothing but a glorified clerk''), he became one of the few fighter pilots to serve in combat both in WW II and Vietnam. This is an entertaining and instructive book for hardcore air combat buffs, who will find particularly interesting Anderson's comparisons between flying prop-driven Mustangs and high-performance jets in enemy skies. Photos. (Nov.)