Over lord : General Pete Quesada and the triumph of tactical air power in World War II /

With this work, Hughes, who teaches history at Ohio State, makes a major contribution to the history of tactical airpower in the U.S. Air Force. Quesada, like most of his pre-1941 contemporaries, was heavily exposed to the orthodoxies of strategic bombardment. His experience in the Mediterranean, however, convinced him that direct support of ground forces was at least as important. As commander of IX Fighter Command (later Tactical Air) from October 1943 to V-E Day, Quesada was instrumental in developing the doctrines and practices that made the role of the American fighter-bomber a decisive factor in the D-Day campaign. He was quickly sidetracked in a postwar Air Force emphasizing nuclear weapons rather than ground attack. But Quesada's legacy, argues Hughes, ignored in Vietnam, bore fruit in Desert Storm and continues to shape Air Force policies. Photos not seen by PW. (Aug.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved

A key to the successful Allied invasion at Normandy was the effective and responsive use of air power. Here, Hughes (history, Ohio State Univ.) describes not only the tours of duty that made Gen. Pete Quesada a military leader‘a story fascinating in its own right‘but also sketches a vivid picture of the birth of this new military tactic. Hughes describes how Quesada's career in the army prepared him to become one of the best men for the job of developing and carrying out the new military tactic of close air support. He also explains the evolution of what would become in the modern era nothing less than the birth of the fledgling concept of combined arms. Direct communications, joint planning, and the use of liaison officers were refinements that had to be tested in smaller actions leading up to D-Day. A sweeping history told thoroughly, logically, and well, this book is of major importance to students of military tactics and World War II.‘Mel D. Lane, Sacramento, Cal. (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.