B-17 At War

In the latest installment from Zenith Books' "At War" series, author Bill Yenne provides a nice summary of the Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress in World War Two. While there are quiet a few books that deal with the subject matter, few offer a balanced look at the aircraft from its pre-war development through its post-war service and still provide an interesting perspective to its development and operations through the war in all theaters of operations. In fact, the author deals with the subject a year at a time.

Take a look at the table of contents:

• Introduction
• Introducing and Building the Flying Fortress
• B-17 Operations in 1941
• B-17 Operations in 1942
• B-17 Operations in 1943
• B-17 Operations in 1944
• B-17 Operations in 1945
• The Flying Fortress After World War II

For each year, the author provides operational highlights from Europe, the Mediterranean, and the Pacific. The title is also well-illustrated with a good mixture of period color photographs, a few contemporary color photographs, and numerous black and whites from combat photographers. Some of the photos have appeared in other titles, but there are some nice shots in this book that I haven't seen available previously. There is a nice shot of an RAF-equivalent of a B-17E with a 40mm gun in the nose and the bombardier's position relocated in a canoe under the nose.

This is a well-written book that will provide a unique look into some operational history and some interesting statistics of this historic symbol of American air power during World War Two.

This title is highly recommended!

My sincere thanks to Motorbooks International for this review sample!