F-86 Sabre Aces of the 4th Fighter Wing (Aircraft of the Aces, 72)

I purchased this Osprey Aircraft of the Aces title in conjunction with Osprey's Aircraft of the Aces "Korean War Aces #4". As one reviewer pointed out there is some expected overlap but this volume narrows it's focus to the USAF 4th Fighter Wing, one of two F-86 Sabre jet-equipped wings that served in the war, the other wing being the 51st Fighter Wing (which has it's own Osprey volume which I also highly recommend!). There are quite a few beautiful, and rare, color photos in this volume which really make this volume terrific! I also found very valuable the Appendices which contain a wonderful "Combat Chronology for the 4th FW in Korea" and "Aces of the 4th FW (In Order of Achieving Ace Status). A "Colour Nose-Art Gallery nicely complements the colour plates of the F-86 Sabres! Warren Thompson is regarded as the preeminent authority on Korean War aviation having invested more than twenty years in researching and writing eights books on the subject! I own several Osprey Publishing volumes and I believe they are a great value for the money and I highly recommend them! Look for other Warren Thompson titles, especially "F-86 Sabre Aces of the 51st Fighter Wing" as well as "Korean War Aces"(a collaboration of authors Robert Dorr, Jon Lake, and Warren Thompson). These titles would be essential to any aviation historian's library!

I like Korean War F-86 books. This book (#72) was a pleasant surprise. I already own Ospreys Korean War Aces (#4) and this book is an excellent companion book. I will compare these 2. The artwork is bigger in this book (#72) with a few duplications but a lot of black and white stripe profiles not in the other book. This book contains some color pictures not found in the other. Love the nose art compilation art! Unique! Both books contain some duplication of information (expected!) but not enough to dissuade purchasing both in my opinion. I like both books for different reasons and recommend them, but I do like this one just a little more than #4 when it comes to F-86 profiles (they are done the length of the page, not width so the F-86s are standing on their noses, if you will). Remember, book #4 also contains other aircraft in addition to F-86s (hence Korean War Aces title), but this book contains only F-86s (hence F-86 Sabre Aces of the 4th FW). I highly recommend this book.

Hard on the heels of his recent history of the 51st FW, noted Korean War historian Warren Thompson serves up the exploits of the top-scoring 4th FW in this nicely done Osprey 'Aircraft of the Aces' series.As with previous Osprey titles by Thompson, the reader is presented with many first-person narratives from pilots who flew the Sabre in MiG Alley including accounts from well-known aces like Lonnie Moore, George Jones, Cliff Jolley and 'Hoot' Gibson. Not every F-86 pilot made ace and it's interesting reading the stories told by the 'wingy's.'As always, there's tons of photos including many in color and 14 pages of color side-views and some nifty nose art.A nice, well-deserved tribute to the top-scoring 4th FW!****Wouldn't it be great if Osprey has a 'MiG-15 Aces of the Korean War' in the works!?!

The only thing missing in the text its that it should include more about the Sabre technical side and a little bit more about the Sabre - Mig comparison. In my opinion one of the most important thing missing (and it is a case with a number of Osprey books) its that there is no charts showing the regions over which the battles were fought or where the actions were taken. Also, there is a lot of talking about pilots "going from this squadron to that squadron etc."-this is a completely irrelevant information.In any case I think that the book is good and Osprey needs just a little bit to be perfect.

Concise discussion of the aircraft. A handy overview (as Osprey books are) but worth the money. Recommended if bookshelf space is at a premium.

Had a family member that was an ace in one of these. Really enjoyed reading.

Useful reference

perfect for presents

The Korean war was the first 'modern' war, in that Jet on Jet aircraft combat came to be.This book about the 4th Fighter Interceptor Wing which was known as the 4th Fighter Group in WW2, is very detailed with lots of rare photographs and personal recollections by the people who flew the F-86 Sabre in the Korean War.There is no doubt that the F-86 was a great aircraft, it's kill ratio against the Mig 15 was up to 14-1, although the Mig had greater altitude ceiling, it was a harder aircraft to fly and less technologically advanced.Early on, the Warsaw pact countries used their own pilots in the war flying the Mig 15, even though they were very good airmen, they did not enjoy the air superiority they perhaps believed they would.The fact that a number of the 4th's pilots were ex WW2 pilots gave them another great advantage.The book also has lots of illustrations of the Sabre, including markings and noseart that the pilots had painted on their planes.Warren Thompson's books are top quality and I suggest you get a copy of his Korean War related books which are well written and have great photographs in.

Good summary of the wing's ops and useful guide for the modeller.

A rather dry account of the sabre/mig conflict in the Korean War. Very factual but not terribly exciting to read.

ノースアメリカンF86Fセイバーはご存じのとおり、米空軍が共産軍のMiG-15に対する切り札として投入した戦闘機です。今までもあまたの戦記が書かれて来ましたが、本書は朝鮮戦線に最初にハチロクを持ち込み、休戦まで戦い抜いた第4戦闘航空団の戦記を時系列を追ってシリーズらしい手慣れた形でまとめたモノです。本書ともう一冊を含めてシリーズの同じ著者の本は著者の提供するカラー写真はじめ鮮明な写真が多いのが特徴です。その意味ではモデラーにも参考になると思います。