This detailed work encompasses a degree of historical accuracy on airplane biographies not previously achieved in writings pertaining to any U.S Air Force of World War Two, a claim not lightly made. The sources of this work have been drawn together from a diversity of worldwide historical material, including private photos, Japanese, US and Australian records, log-books, microfilms, and the author's network of more than 3,000 individuals and historians with Fifth Air Force connections. Only primary source material was consulted.

Airplanes were not necessarily selected because they were famous. Of course some are betterl-known, however most were chosen to reflect the life and times of the ordinary men of the Fifth who flew, serviced and supported this diverse Pacific air force, or because of an intriguing human interest factor behind the airplane. In every case the author has traced the complete history of each airplane until its final demise, in some cases even including photos of the wreck site as it exists today. Most Fifth Air Force units are represented, and the biographies cover the entire gamut of the war - the retreat from the Philippines to the Japanese surrender. Most types flown by the Fifth are represented, click here to view the chapter list for more complete information. If you would like to read a sample Chapter (without photos), click here to read the History of BIG EMMA, one of the first B-24D Liberators to serve in the SWPA.

A small sample of the contents of this mammoth work include topics such as how the 8th Fighter Group entered combat led by Buzz Wagner (and how two P-39s lost on this Lae mission were salvaged from the New Guinea coast five months later), how a U.S airman became MIA in Australia's outback, why a downed Mitchell crew in China were forced to evade Chinese Communists as much as the Japanese, details of a midnight collision on Horn Island between two Fortresses, the history of a C-46 wreck in New Guinea which crashed just after war’s end, the tragedy of a US army chaplain who survived a C-47 crash sixty days in New Guinea jungle but died the day he was found, why a Liberator which made an emergency landing was unwelcome because it interrupted a General's publicity campaign, enjoy the argument as to why the United State's most famous Fortress should not be Memphis Belle of the Eighth Air Force, but the Fifth's very own The Swoose, (half swan half goose), the jinxed background to a Fortress shot down by a Japanese night-fighter over Rabaul (and what the Japanese had to say about it), the history of the 'Moresby shipwreck' used for target practice by the Fifth's strafers, the two lives of two airplanes converted from strafers to biscuit carriers, the unique activities of the liaison squadrons, why General George Kenney rejected the Douglas A-26 in favour of the A-20, the ongoing search for a younger brother MIA in New Guinea for fifty-five years, and the unpredictable results of field modifications to the Fifth's aircraft.

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