Paul Christiansen

The study of the aircraft and their engines used during World War 2 has generally required a reader to search out material from many sources and when they are done reading, the reader will only, at best, have an incomplete and possibly erroneous understanding of just why the aviation results turned out as they did, particularly in regards to Germany/Italy vs. Great Britain and the United States. The backbone of success of the airframes rested on their engines and in this fascinating volume, Calum Douglas has gone into the original source documents of Germany, Great Britain and United States and the result is a comprehensive view of the development challenges faced by the engine designers of these three nations in their efforts to get more power out of their engines. The reader is taken through the efforts of all three countries one year at a time, starting from before the start of the war to just after it ended in Europe in 1945. Delving into the challenges of developing powerful engines in regards to fuel characteristics, fuel delivery systems, cooling approaches, ignition and materials limitations relevant to each country, the author explains each challenge with easy to understand text and uses many charts that are provided in color along side the text (Since publication the author has made these charts available on a web site in full size to complement the occasionally smaller, hard to read versions in the book.) What is of great value and usually lacking is the analysis of the decisions and decision making process in each county and how the organization or lack of organization helped and hindered each in the struggle. I can honestly say, having written detailed histories on three engines myself, that this book has done an outstanding job in presenting the information in a complete and informative manner without bogging the reader down in unnecessary mathematics or design details not relative to the core story of how to get more power out of the engines. I highly recommend this book to anyone who would like to fully understand this intensely interesting period of the piston engine. I can say I now finally understand why so many extremely interesting advanced German designs that appeared in the last months of the war sit in largely forgotten dusty engine cans and store rooms of Great Britain and the United States. Now at last the story of these fascinating designs has been told in print and perhaps the museums could at long last put these engines on display next to their opposites to give a better view of the circumstances and solutions each nation evolved in the race for my horsepower.