Fighter!: The Story of Air Combat

“… with precise, controlled writing, Mr Jackson has made a valuable contribution to our knowledge of the air war …” - The New York Times

Fighter! is the story of the twentieth century’s most amazing decade, when the science of air fighting leaped from the 150 mph biplane to the 600 mph jet.

Over the battlegrounds of war-torn Spain between 1936 and 1939 young men of half a dozen nations fought for mastery of the sky in a dress rehearsal for the greater conflict that was to come.

Following the evolution of air fighting over the decade embracing those bitter days in Spain and the merciless Pacific air battles of 1945, Robert Jackson traces the course of air combat through Poland and France, when the Luftwaffe was mistress of the sky, to the Battle of Britain, when German fighter pilots at last met their match, and the exploits of the RAF’S Spitfire squadrons as they carried the war to the enemy over occupied Europe.

Robert Jackson (b. 1941) is a prolific author of military and aviation history, having become a full-time writer in 1969. As an active serviceman in the Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve he flew a wide range of aircraft, ranging from jets to gliders.