The Battle of Palmdale: A Solitaire and Multiplayer Air War Game (Historic Wings Air War Games) Paperback – October 30, 2025

The Battle of Palmdale is both a history book and a wargame in a book! The more you learn, the better you play; and the more you play, the more you will want to know.Thursday, 16 August 1956; 11:54 am. Northwest of Los Angeles, at Naval Air Station (NAS) Point Mugu, the Navy was beginning another routine day of weapons testing off the coast of Southern California. The Navy launched an unmanned, radio-controlled Grumman F6F-5K Hellcat target drone. Just after take-off, its radio control system failed and the out-of-control target drone veered left, climbed, and headed directly toward the City of Los Angeles.With the threat of the drone crashing into the heart of the city, the Navy decided to shoot it down. Yet there were no Navy aircraft available to do the job. Thus, they called on the US Air Force at nearby Oxnard AFB, where a squadron of advanced fighter interceptors had at least two jets on standby alert, ready to scramble at a moment’s notice to defend the nation against potential attack by Soviet nuclear bombers.As a pair of USAF pilots lit the afterburners on their F-89D Scorpion jet fighters and rolled down the runway, the Navy controllers called civilian law enforcement to warn about the risk at hand. They tried to downplay the risks but panic spread quickly. Law enforcement closed roads and highways, people ran for shelter, and thousands looked up into the sky, wondering onto whose home, business, or property the Navy’s target drone might crash.What followed was equal parts comedy and tragedy.The USAF jet interceptors caught up with the target drone at 30,000 feet of altitude as it orbited over the City of Los Angeles. Concerned their rockets might cause damage to civilian infrastructure on the ground, they held their fire for a time. As their fuel ran short, the target drone strayed north over the sparsely populated Mojave Desert and nearby mountains. The pilots turned to engage it with the only weapons they had – their famous Mighty Mouse rocket system. They fired volley after volley of rockets and missed every time. Each time, the rockets flew onward, tipped earthward, and fell to explode on the ground below. By the time the drone crashed, over a half dozen wildfires were blazing, damage was done to cars and trucks on the roads, and numerous homes and businesses had been hit.The Battle of Palmdale documents the events of that day. Critically, it puts you in command of the USAF’s response through the form of a highly realistic wargame. Yes, you have the opportunity to see how you would have handled the situation. Perhaps you might have launched more jet fighters. Would you have shot the drone down over Los Angeles? Could you have done more to minimize destruction that day than happened in history?The book and wargame teach us important lessons about human nature, the limits of technology, and the fickle finger of fate. It shows how top-line Air Force jets and state-of-the-art rockets weren’t the magic solutions the military claimed them to be. It highlights the key issues of the time, situating the story within the wider context of the Cold War, the Soviet nuclear bomber threat, and the risks of global Armageddon. The Mighty Mouse Rockets were designed to protect America from the Soviet Union’s bomber fleet – yet they couldn't reliably bring down even an unpiloted target drone... or so the story goes...Strap yourself into the cockpit! It’s time to save Los Angeles!The Battle of Palmdale is available both as a wargame book on Amazon and in boxed form from Blue Panther with the full content of the book and rules included. If you buy this book, you can purchase just the assets from Blue Panther at discounted price. Read more