Wings of War: The World War II Fighter Plane That Saved the Allies and the Believers Who Made It Fly

The P-51 Mustang was “the World War II fighter plane that destroyed the Luftwaffe and made D-Day possible,” according to this polished chronicle. Married historians David (Bitter Ocean) and Margaret White explain that in the summer and fall of 1943, the Allied aerial bombing of Nazi-occupied Europe suffered unsustainable losses of men and airplanes. But that changed with the arrival of the Mustang, “the swiftest, most nimble aircraft the U.S. Army Air Forces had yet developed.” Originally built in California by the North American Aviation Company at the request of Britain’s Royal Air Force, it was designed by Bavarian immigrant Edgar Schmued, “a visionary designer with an almost narcotic passion for flight from boyhood.” Powered by Rolls Royce Merlin engines, the Mustang worked its way through the labyrinth of tests and approvals beginning in 1940 and had to overcome bureaucratic resistance and “anti-British prejudice” before U.S. commanders ordered “full steam ahead on Mustang production” in late 1943. The authors enrich the technical details with vivid character sketches and dramatic accounts of the Battle of the Bulge, when Mustangs helped launch a deadly “air cavalry charge” that “froze the Germans in place,” and other campaigns. Aviation buffs will cheer this high-flying saga. (Dec.)