Dr. William Wolf has turned his passion for World War II aviation into an impressive body of work, namely 23 books on the subject spread out over the past 22 years, including a few volumes due out later this year.

Wolf has completed two volumes on the Mitchell B-25 for the “Legends of Warfare” series for publication during 2021. He has also collected material for “On Target: The Illustrated History of America’s First Aerial Guided Missiles and Drones: 1917-1950,” which was published by Fonthill Books in February of this year. Also, the currently completed final two volumes of the “Consolidated B-24 Liberator Ultimate Look from Drawing Board to Blue Collar Bomber” series, “Volume I: Reuben Fleet, the Factories, and the Product” and “Volume II: In Detail and In Flight,” are awaiting publication by Fonthill, to be followed by “Liberator Haulers: B-24 Transport and Special Duties Aircraft in WWII.”

Schiffer plans to publish Wolf’s volumes on the B-25 this September while Osprey will publish a volume on the Douglas XB-19 for their “Experimental Aircraft” series this October.

To say Wolf has had a busy retirement might be something of an understatement. He was a dentist for 22 years in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., before closing shop at the age of 45 and moving to Fountain Hills to pursue his aviation interests and outdoor pastimes.

Wolf’s lifelong hobby has been World War II aerial combat and, over the past 35 years, he has collected over 25,000 books and magazines, 10,000 photographs, 2,000 reels of rare microfilm from original WWII sources, over 800 videos and DVDs, and more than1,000 CDs of scanned manuals and books that are housed in his enclosed, air-conditioned garage. He notes that this is while his wife’s car sits in the hot Arizona sun.

Wolf said he probably has nearly every book written on WWII aviation and complete collections of every aviation magazine published since 1939. Also included in his collection are many hundreds of aviation unit and pilot’s histories, crew manuals, aircraft technical, structural and maintenance manuals. His microfilm collection includes vintage intelligence reports, USAF, USN and USMC group and squadron histories, complete Japanese Monograph series, US Strategic Bombing Surveys as well as USAF Historical Studies and original combat and Intelligence Reports.

The guy is an expert on his topic of choice and has more than enough resources to fuel his deep publishing career.

Over the years, Wolf said he has also been fortunate to meet many fighter aces, other pilots and fellow aviation buffs who have shared stories, material and photographs with him (he has over 5,000 photos of fighter aces alone). He has made many multi-day expeditions to various military libraries, museums and photo depositories with his copy machine and camera accumulating reams of information and thousands of photographs. He also had a photo darkroom where he developed thousands of rare photos from microfilm negatives and from other sources.

Wolf said his collection is likely the largest private World War II collection in the world. Walking through the garage cum library and Wolf’s den is like visiting a World War II museum. On display are hundreds of model aircraft, hundreds of rare signed and numbered lithographs, thousands of aces autographs of all nations.

He also had the signatures of the top aces of all combatants of WWII and models of their aircraft. His memorabilia collection includes a piece of the “Enola Gay” atomic bomber, a piece of a Zero fighter that was shot down during the Pearl Harbor attack and his prize possession, a piece of the Japanese bomber carrying Admiral Yamamoto, the commander of the Japanese military and architect of the Pearl Harbor attack. The bomber was shot down in April 1943, and Yamamoto’s death changed the course of the war for Japan.

If interested in knowing more about his writings, the historian can be contacted by email at billwolf@aol.com. Online book sites, such as Amazon and Schiffer Publishers, sell current and back copies of his books. Keep an eye out for his latest offerings this fall.