Escort Pilot - Guarding The American Bombers Over Europe In World War II

The names of the Aircraft are legendary as are the men and women who flew them, names like Spitfire, Mustang, Lightning, Thunderbolt on the Allied Side, and on the Axis side there were the Fw190, Me109, JU88, and Me110.

This reissued title by Aviation Author and Photographer Philip Kaplan and Andy Saunders concentrates mainly on the experiences of the USAAF, and to a lesser degree the RAF's, in the role of fighter escorts to AAF heavy bombers all across Europe. Nicknamed as 'Little Friends' by the bomber crews, this aviation history covers the AAF's daylight bombing campaign of 1942-45 from the point of view of the fighter pilots escorting them. 

It also contains sections which detail amongst others the experiences of: USAAF Groundstaff on the Airfields that the fighters flew from and the tactics that they developed and used when airborne; British Civilians who resided near these American Airbases who would often adopt these American men and women so far from their homeland, and in turn the Americans who became particularly fond of the children in those villages and often spoilt them by 'stealing' from their own ration packs such delicacies as chocolate and fresh fruit in a time where some of those children had not seen such things in years; Women Air Transport Pilots who delivered those fighters and bombers to England from the American factories producing them (WASP) and their UK based equivalent (ATA); Luftwaffe Fighter Pilots battling against the Allied Fighter Pilots day after day, in their attempts to get past the Allied escort groups in order to attack the vulnerable AAF bombers that the bombers escort were doing their level best to prevent. Escort Pilot is illustrated with both Archival and more modern photographs which in the latter case were taken by Philip Kaplan who also designed the look of the book and is painstakingly researched by both Authors.