End Of The Beginning, by Harry Turtledove
Book Two of this intriguing series was about World War 2. What if the Japanese had invaded the Hawaiian Islands after Pearl Harbor? It is a fiction/science fiction genre book. In book one of this series, the Japanese are having their way with the Americans. Japanese forces overrun the overconfident Americans and seem to be unstoppable. But in book two, everything starts crashing down for the Japanese. American submarines sink Japanese shipping and shell Oahu. The Grumman F6F Hellcat, a close relative of the Grumman F4F Wildcat, which was so overmatched by the Japanese airplanes, now dominates the skies. Nowhere is its advantage so obvious than during dogfights with the incredibly agile Japanese Mitsubishi A6M Reisen, better known as the Zero or Zeke. The Zero carried a pair of forward-firing 7.7mm machine guns as well as a pair of 20mm cannon, but was overmatched by the speed, power and durability of the Hellcat. The Wildcat, which the Hellcat was descended from, could take a lot of pounding, and the Hellcat was even harder to bring down. Not only that, with six .50 caliber machine guns, the Hellcat could knock just about anything out of the air. Some models also had two 20mm cannon replace two of the machine guns.
Some of the main characters are Joe Crosetti, an American fighter pilot; Commander Genda, a Japanese naval officer; and Jim Peterson, a naval pilot converted into a foot soldier due to the lack of planes. One exciting part in this book was when the American Hellcats first encountered the Japanese planes with intense air combat descriptions.
The book ends with the USA retaking Hawaii from the Japanese and preparing for an island-hopping campaign to retake all the Pacific islands from the Japanese.
Citations
http://www.aviation-history.com/grumman/f6f.html
http://www.amazon.com/Beginning-Days-Infamy-Harry-Turtledove/dp/1400163935#_
Book Two of this intriguing series was about World War 2. What if the Japanese had invaded the Hawaiian Islands after Pearl Harbor? It is a fiction/science fiction genre book. In book one of this series, the Japanese are having their way with the Americans. Japanese forces overrun the overconfident Americans and seem to be unstoppable. But in book two, everything starts crashing down for the Japanese. American submarines sink Japanese shipping and shell Oahu. The Grumman F6F Hellcat, a close relative of the Grumman F4F Wildcat, which was so overmatched by the Japanese airplanes, now dominates the skies. Nowhere is its advantage so obvious than during dogfights with the incredibly agile Japanese Mitsubishi A6M Reisen, better known as the Zero or Zeke. The Zero carried a pair of forward-firing 7.7mm machine guns as well as a pair of 20mm cannon, but was overmatched by the speed, power and durability of the Hellcat. The Wildcat, which the Hellcat was descended from, could take a lot of pounding, and the Hellcat was even harder to bring down. Not only that, with six .50 caliber machine guns, the Hellcat could knock just about anything out of the air. Some models also had two 20mm cannon replace two of the machine guns.
Some of the main characters are Joe Crosetti, an American fighter pilot; Commander Genda, a Japanese naval officer; and Jim Peterson, a naval pilot converted into a foot soldier due to the lack of planes. One exciting part in this book was when the American Hellcats first encountered the Japanese planes with intense air combat descriptions.
The book ends with the USA retaking Hawaii from the Japanese and preparing for an island-hopping campaign to retake all the Pacific islands from the Japanese.
Citations
http://www.aviation-history.com/grumman/f6f.html
http://www.amazon.com/Beginning-Days-Infamy-Harry-Turtledove/dp/1400163935#_