"Wildcats" Over Casablanca

IN this war American forces are likely to find employment wherever our allies would meet suspicion, resentment, and opposition. Time and again in this lively account of our landing in North Africa, Frenchmen expressed relief that the Americans were attacking rather than the British. Even so, when the “Red Ripper Squadron” of Grumman fighters took off from the carrier at dawn on “Dog Day,” they flew into plenty of opposition from swarms of Vichy flyers, many of whom were experienced and daring. The Red Rippers lost both planes and men when they began “cooking with gas” on the first day out. The book is all on the surface, but there is food for thought just underneath.