Sharks Over China (H)

In 1942 the 23rd Fighter Group of the U.S. Army Air Force replaced the American Volunteer Group (``Flying Tigers'') in China, inheriting their famed shark-mouthed P-40s as well as their difficult mission. Short of pilots, planes, fuel and ammunition, based at primitive airfields vulnerable to the Japanese, the 23rd developed special tactics to become the highest-scoring aerial unit in the China-Burma-India theater, achieving 594 aerial victories while destroying some 400 Japanese aircraft on the ground. Drawing on interviews, diaries, letters and unit histories, Molesworth (Wing to Wing) has stitched together a chronicle of a gutsy, resourceful outfit whose tasks included escorting bombers, bombing bridges, strafing troop trains and raiding enemy airfields. Absorbing reading for WWII aerial-combat buffs. Illustrations. (Dec.)