Featuring photographs throughout, an illustrated history of the 49th FG, sent to Australia in early 1942 to help stem the tide of Japanese conquest in Java. Too late to save the island, the group went into action in the defence of Darwin, Australia, where the Forty-Niners' handful of P-40E Warhawks were thrown into combat alongside survivors from the defeated forces that had fled from the Philippines and Java. This book assesses the outstanding performance of the 49th FG, pitted against superior Japanese forces. By VJ-Day the group had scored 668 aerial victories and won three Distinguished Unit Citations and ten campaign stars for its outstanding efforts.

With the 50th Anniversary of Victory in World War II comes PROTECT & AVENGE: The 49th Fighter Group in World War II.\nAfter six years of research, author and illustrator S.W. Ferguson, Along with 49ERS Association historian William K. Pascalis, have recreated the war-years odyssey of the famous 49ERS, the most successful fighter group in the war against Japan. Flyers Paul Wrutsmith, Bob Morrissey, Ernie Harris, Gerry Johnson, Bob DeHaven and leading American ace Dick Bong, are but a few of the men who contribute to the 49ERS legend. \nFrom their desert air strips of Northwest Territory, Australia, through their jungle camps of New Guinea and the Philippines, to the final moment of victory on the Japanese homeland, all are detailed in this new volume. Derived from the diaries and logs of 49ERS veterans, the groups official USAF history and the U.S. National Archives, the story chronicles more than thirty aces and their crews who achieved over 600 aerial kills in three years of continuous combat.\nThe text is highlighted by more than 600 black and white photos, six compaign maps, and twenty-four color profiles of select P-40s, P-57s, and P-38s.\nS.W. Ferguson lives in Colorado Springs where he has pursued his teaching, writing and art career for the last ten years. His interests are American writers and history of the 20th century, and swift waters that yield trout. \nBill Pascalis is a veteran aircraft mechanic of the 49ERS Selfridge AFB cadre and served through the New Guinea campaign of mid-1943. After the war, he established a long career with Tranworld Airlines. He now lives with his wife in retirement in Florida, enjoying golf, his grandchildren and research in the 5th Air Force archives.

The Allied invasion of North Africa in November 1942 included the USAAF's Lockheed P-38 equipped 14th Fighter Group. Flying long-range, high-altitude escort missions as well as low level ground support sorties, the 14th engaged in three months of grinding attrition. Another squadron arrived from the U.S. along with new P-38s and the revitalized 14th returned to the Mediterranean air war in May 1943 where they flew combat for another two years battling the German, Hungarian, Rumanian, and even the Russian air forces.

The World War II fighter-pilot story On the very first day of the invasion of Sicily, three months into his combat career, Allan Knepper flew his P-38 Lightning fighter in a squadron sent out to sweep the island and interdict German ground targets. Retreating German infantry unexpectedly pounded the American flyers. Knepper was one of two shot down; he was never found. Knepper’s story is the story-in-microcosm of thousands of American fighter pilots in World War II. Richardson recounts Knepper’s experiences from training through combat and uses them to discuss the aircraft, tactics and doctrine, training, base life, and aerial combat of the war. This is the intimate account of one pilot at war, but also the anatomy of the fighter-pilot experience in World War II.

The epic story of one of the highest scoring fighter units in the southwest Pacific. Aces included McGuire, Loisel, MacDonald, Roberts and Bong.