I don't remember for sure, but I think at some point back in the late 1970s I borrowed a copy of Whip from my brother. I really liked it back then -- I'm not sure how or when, but somewhere along the way it became my book. (I'm sure he was aware of the transaction at the time.) It's sat ever since then on various bookshelves, moving with me from home to home. Recently, I was inspired to read it again.

It's still very, very good.

Whip is a World War II novel, set in the South Pacific and dealing almost exclusively with American bombers. The protagonist, Whip Russel, is a B-25 pilot who fronts the idea of removing the vulnerable glass nose of the planes in his squad and replacing them with a nest of high-powered machine guns that can be triggered from the pilot's seat. (It seems like an obvious notion now, but in the 1940s the physics of combat aviation was still in its infancy, and the mechanics of building, flying and improving fighters and bombers was still a fairly new science.)

The story, although fiction, is based on real events. And, as one might expect, Whip's Death's Head squadron was a game changer in that theater of war, where the fast and nimble Japanese Zeros had held sway for a long time. For the first time, bombers could hold their own against enemy fighters -- and they had enough firepower to sink ships without even dropping their bombs.

Martin Caidin, himself a pilot, knows his way around a cockpit, and his flight and fight descriptions are so realistic it's hard not to feel the planes shake around you as you read. From the first chapter, when Whip's squadron flies in a beautiful formation to land at Garbutt Field in northeastern Australia, you gain an immediate sense of wonder at the experience. Later, Caidin places readers in the heart of brutal warfare, with a flashback to Midway and an intense raid on a Japanese invasion fleet. (Caidin notes that, although the story is fictional, "the combat is real -- even the final great battle."

Besides Whip, the book features a revolving door of pilots and crew who put their lives on the line with every mission. Readers will get to know only a few well; most of them are merely names and crew positions, the warm bodies needed to make Whip's planes go -- and fodder for the Japanese guns. Col. Lou Goodman is the exception; he's an old friend and mentor to Whip, and he's the man who keeps Whip's squadron in line.

I gravitate toward naval action, more than aviation, but this is an excellent book that puts you in the heart of the action.