Sharks Over China – The 23rd Fighter Group in World War II

Brassey’s / Potomac Books (1999)
323 Pages / 33 photos
$24.00
ISBN 0-02-881094-5

Purchase: Potomac Books

This is the first history of the U.S. Army Air Corps unit that continued the fight in china when General Claire L. Chennault's famous American Volunteer Group "Flying Tigers" disbanded. During the dark days immediately after Pearl Harbor, most news from the Asian front was bad—with the exception of reports about the Flying Tigers and their successors, the 23rd Fighter Group. Day after day in the deadly skies over China, the 23rd's shark-mouthed P-40s outfought the Japanese. No single American fighter group in World War II performed more varied missions, was more successful, or was more central to the war effort in its theater of operations. By the end of the war, the 23rd had tallied nearly six hundred aerial victories and destroyed nearly four hundred more Japanese aircraft on the ground. Carl Molesworth's Sharks Over China is based on his interviews with the group's survivors and contains numerous rare photographs.

“Molesworth has stitched together a chronical of a gutsy, resourceful outfit … absorbing reading for WWII aerial-combat buffs.” - Publishers Weekly

“One doesn’t often find books like this to be ‘page-turners,’ but I was often caught up in the events as they unfolded and found myself reading far more than was intended when I picked it up to start reading. … As with everything I’ve read by Carl Molesworth, it is highly recommended.” - Scott Van Aken, Modellingmadness.com

“This book … deserves mention for its meticulous chronicle of the 23rd Fighter Group – the closest thing to a guerrilla air force the world has ever seen.” - Air & Space magazine

“I eagerly awaited receiving my review copy, and it was worth waiting for. I am convinced that for an objective view of any aspect of our air war in China, or elsewhere for that matter, the author should be a historian who did not serve in China and used official documents, previously written books, unit histories, and periodicals as bibliography, as well as letters from and interviews with participants. That is exactly what Carl did.” - Milt Miller, Jing Bao Journal