| Duels in the Sky World War II Naval Aircraft in Combat written by Captain Eric M. Brown, RN may be a book you might want to check out. The books author was a test pilot in the Royal Navy and at the time this book was written held the record for the flying the greatest variety of aircraft (487) and for completing the greatest number of carrier landings (2,400). In the book he compares how certain aircraft would have matched up in combat and ends book with his call on the greatest fighter of WWII, greatest naval fighter of WWII, most effective dive bomber of WWII and top torpedo bomber of WWII. Book covers not just naval aircraft, but land based planes too. He throws in some odd matches like Coursair versus Fw 190A-4 and F6F Hellcat versus Messerschmitt 109G-6 are a couple of examples. French, Italian, German, British and United States aircraft are covered in this writing (No Soviet aircraft for some reason?). This book definitely makes for some fun reading. |
Funny enough, when I read dragon53's initial post, I was gonna suggest EXACTLY the same book (which I've had for around 14 years now), but, scrolling down, Cruver, you've beat me to it !!!!!!!!!!!!