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The Big Show

The Greatest Pilot's Story of World War II

By Pierre Clostermann

(3)

| Mass Market Paperback | 9780304366248

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Book Description

Pierre Clostermann was a Free French fighter ace whose incredible account of the air war over Britain and France has become one of the most famous memoirs of the Second World War.

Over the course of five years Clostermann engaged in hundreds of dog-fights, shot down scores of Luftwaffe planeContinue

1 Review

Best WWII pilot's story ever!

This is probably the book that, some decades ago, started my passion for aviation and in particular for WWII aviation.
Clostermann was likely the most talented writer amongst those WWII pilots that, after war, put their memoirs into a book.
It's said that William Faulkner defined it as "the fines ... (continue)

This is probably the book that, some decades ago, started my passion for aviation and in particular for WWII aviation.
Clostermann was likely the most talented writer amongst those WWII pilots that, after war, put their memoirs into a book.
It's said that William Faulkner defined it as "the finest aviation book to come out of World War II".
Flights, fights, fear, danger, tragedy, history and regrets: this book has it all.
Moreover, it's also a very good account of some not so widely known phases of air warfare in WWII, especially the final year of war in Europe: no Battle of Britain in this book but years from 1942 until the fierce battles against a desperate but still extremely dangerous Luftwaffe in 1944-45.
Clostermann points out an often forgotten truth, i.e. that "the average standard of German fighter pilots was much higher at the turn of the year 1944-45 than at any other time since 1940". Last years' Luftwaffe was formed by a lot of rookie-to-average pilots but 15-20% of them were almost invincible aces, survived since the beginning of the war and flying every day, with no breathing space (unlike Allied pilots). And those German pilots had at their disposal some of the best warplanes of those times.
Allies opposed to them average pilots, with many rookies, and some aces too (Clostermann was one of them).
Regarding planes, Allies replied with very good machines, in some cases exceptional, such as the formidable Hawker Tempest, a plane almost unknown to general public (for whom "British fighter" is synonym of "Spitfire") but likely the best low-medium altitude fighter-bomber of the war.
It has to be said that Clostermann books and public standings on several issues has often raised a lot of criticism against him.
Clostermann has been sometimes severe (also in this book) when judging quality of US pilots and this alienated a lot of sympathy on American side of Atlantic.
But he also expressed solidarity to a group of Argentinian pilots (that were pupils of his son, an Armée de l'Air Mirage pilot) a at the time of Falkland's war (against British RAF!) and this raised outrage in UK.
Those things led to many personal attacks, even involving doubts casted on the real number of his air combat victories.
Clostermann, correctly, always answered that he just asked for the recognition of the 23 air victories that was officially credited to him by RAF, just has been for any other RAF pilot (and therefore with the usual degree of uncertainty always present in victory accreditation, no more, no less).
Is somewhat ironically that, also relying on some minor inaccuracies (some of them corrected into the last version of the book, the 2004 version here commented), from time to time someone accuses Clostermann of unreliability whereas, in last years, some generally unreliable "memoirs" have surfaced and have been printed, such as the "war tales" of the German pilot Willi Reschke (written many years after the war resting upon memories only, and not documents, and in some parts denied by witnesses).
So, if you hear harsh criticism against Clostermann raised by some doubtful details (for example an unlikely "yellow Focke-Wulf") I advice you not to care about it too much.
Just like in any other books of this kind, there are inaccuracies and probably bad memories but, on the whole, this is one of the most realistic, likely the most realistic, account about pilots' life and European fighters air warfare in WWII.
A must-to-have for any aviation enthusiast.

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Voltaire said on Aug 28, 2010 | Add your feedback