The Fight in the Clouds

The Extraordinary Combat Experience of P-51 Mustang Pilots During World War II

By: James P. Busha

Narrated by: Adam Grupper

Length: 8 hrs and 32 mins

Publisher's summary

Get as close as you’ll get to a World War II-era P-51 Mustang without flying one yourself with this spellbinding collection of tales from the men who actually flew the planes into war.

The North American Aviation P-51 Mustang first started appearing in real numbers in 1943, at the climax of the Allied campaign in World War II. Able to fly long ranges, it was the perfect escort, keeping bombers protected all the way from Allied bases in Europe, the Mediterranean, and the Pacific to a variety of Axis industrial targets and military installations and back. The Mustang would go on to provide pivotal air support on D-Day, and by the end of the war, the P-51 would be responsible for nearly half of all enemy aircraft shot down.

In The Fight in the Clouds, aviation writer and EAA Warbirds of America editor James P. Busha draws on interviews conducted with dozens of veteran P-51 pilots to trace the progress of war through the men’s exciting, chronologically organized experiences. You’ll encounter:

• Mustangs tangling with Soviet-built Yaks
• A Mustang ace shooting down an Me 262 Stormbird
• An epic long-range battle over the Pacific Ocean
• And a score of other riveting accounts underscoring the P-51’s versatility and its vital importance to the Allied victory

Bolstered by Busha’s own commentary and historical analysis, The Fight in the Clouds offers a cockpit-seat view of one of WWII’s most celebrated aircraft and the men who bravely flew it into harm’s way.

©2014 James P. Busha (P)2022 Zenith Press

Critic reviews

“Just when you think you have enough Mustang books in your library, Jim Busha comes along and makes buying another absolutely mandatory! His research and writing abilities shine in this very personalized tale of the famous P-51 and its heroic young pilots. The book begins with a moving tribute to those who gave their lives flying the fighter and then profiles the brilliant history of the aircraft throughout World War II. A great book from a master storyteller who loves and knows the subject!”—Walter J. Boyne, USAF (Ret.), former director of the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum

“The variety of stories in The Fight in the Clouds is exceptional, covering units in the European, Mediterranean, and Pacific Theaters of World War II, with RAF pilots as well. Today, when WWII veterans are ‘departing the pattern’ in growing numbers, the remembrances in Jim Busha’s book assume even greater importance for future readers. Well done!”—Barrett Tillman, author of Whirlwind: The War Against Japan, 1942-1945

“James Busha (editor for EAA’s Warbirds of America as well as EAA’s Vintage Airplane, to name only two of his literary accomplishments) has accomplished a wondrous job in the writing of, The Fight in the Clouds. Get this book to feel what it is like to fly a Mustang as well as what it felt like to be a World War II combatant in North America’s defining aircraft.”—Travel for Aircraft Blog, Seattle Post-Intelligencer

Great book about WW2

Brings you to the reality of the air combat in fighters.
I read it in portions as it is very descriptive and detailed.
A must for everyone to understand the air war in WW2.

Great could not put the book down!

If you love flying and WW2 Books especially the F-51 Mustang this is the book for you!!

Monotonous excitement

OK, I love military aviation stories, and this certainly had a collection of them. But, it was essentially a collection of stories about individual flights with little connective tissue between them. So, while each could be interesting as part of a complete story, it just started to feel like the same story repeatedly. Heard once, "I saw them two thousand feet below me, so I dove on them and clobbered the one on the left," could be exciting. But that story, followed by a very similar one and then another, gets repetitive.

And, regarding connective tissue, there was a good deal of rah-rah America but very little emotion. Things like, "Two of our flight were lost that day." is tragic. So, where is the emotion associated with that?

Perhaps, when I was younger, I'd find a book like this exciting, but, having read and listened to many aviation books, I didn't feel there is a lot to learn here, and after a while, all the excitement got a little boring.