When Japanese planes laid waste to Pearl Harbor on the morning of December 7, 1941, the United States had just one air combat unit on the continent of Asia. That was the 1st American Volunteer Group - sponsored by the White House, equipped and paid by a U.S. loan, but officially part of the Chinese Air Force. On December 20, this band of mercenaries won immortality over the city of Kunming as the "Flying Tigers." This is an expanded version, with new photographs, of the cover story for

This is the story that inspired the acclaimed Burt Lancaster film, Go Tell the Spartans. It's 1964--early days in South Vietnam--and the U.S. Army Raiders have garrisoned a town that the French abandoned ten years before. The Viet Cong attack; the Americans reinforce. They're not about to repeat the mistakes of the French! "'Sad, bawdy, and compelling," wrote the Detroit Free Press. Prophetic, too, of how the larger war would end. Revised 2015 edition.

A jaded knight is chosen to be a champion for peace in this epic fantasy adventure trilogy opener from the author of The Warden and the Jack Dixon series."Ford's debut offers compelling characters and sharp dialogue. . . . Allystaire is a believable hero with an interesting past, and a future that promises plenty of action and adventure." — Publishers WeeklyIn a land wit...

An ancient goddess has chosen five heroes to serve her—and deadly enemies have taken notice—in this epic fantasy sequel to Ordination ."[A] gripping second installment. . . . Ford completely banishes all thoughts of middle-book sag. This is heroic fantasy far above the usual hack-and-slash, raising compelling questions about morality and belief in a tale full of excitement and high-stakes action." —

"A richly colorful novel," said the New York Times, but in the author's home town, the bookstore manager kept it under the counter and sold it only to those who dared ask for it. Woodstock was still four years in the future, and American students were more concerned about nuclear weapons than a war in Vietnam. But already there was something blowing in the wind, as the young Daniel Ford was among the first to document in his debut novel. "It is impossible ...

At the outbreak of war, the Curtiss P-40 was America's best fighter plane, though outclassed by the British Spitfire, the German Messerschmitt 109, and probably the Japanese Zero. But the United States could build them by the thousand. First France, then Britain, and finally China tried desperately to buy the shark-faced Curtiss fighter--a story that historian Daniel Ford tells here with grace and humor. In the end, China was loaned the money to buy 100 planes from a Curtiss production run...

Dan Ford learned to fly at the age when most men are well into retirement. In this short book, he tells how it was to have a flight instructor one-third his age, to make a Sentimental Journey to the Pennsylvania airport where the Piper Cub first saw the light of day, to practice spins and aerobatic turns in a Great Lakes biplane, to fly low and slow in New Jersey, to make a leisurely tour around Lake Winnipesaukee and into his past, and to have a close encounter with the National Defense E...

The Flying Tigers were the most famous fighter pilots ever to fly for the United States, yet they actually part of the Chinese Air Force. Who were these men, where did they come from, and what happened to them after their service with the American Volunteer Group? Novelist (and prize-winning historian) Daniel Ford answers those questions in this compelling account of the AVG and its commander."Boy," wrote Claire Chennault from China in 1938, "if the Chinese only ha...

The complete epic fantasy adventure trilogy following a once-fallen knight and his friends as they fight to restore peace and hope to a broken land.Renowned knight Allystaire Coldbourne grows weary of all he has seen in a land without a king, where brutal warlords battle for dominance. Thieves, slavers, and servants of dark gods and dark magic plague the fractured and scarred countryside. One war has lasted forty-one years, and little hope remains.Allystair...

Early in the Second World War, in the skies over Rangoon, a handful of American pilots met and bloodied the Japanese Army Air Force, winning immortality as the "Flying Tigers." Arguably America's most famous combat unit, they were hired to defend beleaguered China for $600 a month, plus $500 for each Japanese plane shot down--fantastic money in 1941, when a Manhattan hotel room cost three dollars a night. Revised and updated May 2023.

"What God abandoned, these defended / And saved the sum of things for pay." In the bleak winter of 1941-1942, no American or British force could stem the tide in Southeast Asia, as the Philippines, Thailand, Malaya, and Singapore fell to the victorious Japanese. Only in Burma was there a ray of hope. There, over beleaguered Rangoon, a few dozen Americans clawed Japanese warplanes from the sky for a cash bounty from the Chinese government. Wearing mismatched unifor...

The Paladin rallies the Mother's surviving followers to battle against a vengeful deity in this dramatic conclusion to the epic fantasy adventure trilogy."Ford brings the Paladin trilogy to a triumphant conclusion, wrapping up a memorable tale of duplicitous diplomacy, dangerous magic, and stealthy intrigue. . . . Ford's saga of warring faiths draws the reader into a vivid world brimming with fascinating characters: some good, some bad, and some just determ...