Download or read book A Fighter Pilot s Diary True Stories of Air Battles in World War II written by Felecia Tanh and published by . This book was released on 2021-04-20 with total page 196 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Reading storybooks by authors who were once soldiers in the second World War is probably the best way to find out about what it was like in the war. Grab a copy today to follow the author - a pilot with lots of experiences from dangerous battlegrounds, facing death every day. This book is the remarkable, first-hand account of the harrowing air war in Europe as told by the author - a WW2 flight navigator and bombardier, in his letters home during the conflict, from 1944-45. With guts, wit and grace, the author records his experiences with the daring "Koltun crew," which flew 30 missions over Europe. Through numerous strokes of fate, the crew survived a run of missions with the "bloody" 492nd Bomb Group, a unit that endured an 80 percent casualty rate as the men faced down the seemingly unstoppable German Luftwaffe.
Download or read book Malta Spitfire written by George Beurling and published by Grub Street Publishers. This book was released on 2011-07-14 with total page 147 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An aviator’s true story of WWII air combat, including two dramatic weeks in the skies above the besieged island of Malta. Twenty-five thousand feet above Malta—that is where the Spitfires intercepted the Messerschmitts, Macchis, and Reggianes as they swept eastward in their droves, screening the big Junkers with their bomb loads as they pummeled the island beneath: the most bombed patch of ground in the world. One of those Spitfire pilots was George Beurling, nicknamed “Screwball,” who in fourteen flying days destroyed twenty-seven German and Italian aircraft and damaged many more. Hailing from Canada, Beurling finally made it to Malta in the summer of 1942 after hard training and combat across the Channel. Malta Spitfire tells his story and that of the gallant Spitfire squadron, 249, which day after day ascended to the “top of the hill” to meet the enemy against overwhelming odds. With this memoir, readers experience the sensation of being in the cockpit with him, climbing to meet the planes driving in from Sicily, diving down through the fighter screen at the bombers, dodging the bullets coming out of the sun, or whipping up under the belly of an Me for a deflection shot at the engine. This is war without sentiment or romance, told in terms of human courage, skill, and heroism—a classic of WWII military aviation.
Download or read book Spitfire Diary written by E. A. W. Ted Smith and published by Eakin Press. This book was released on 2018-08-05 with total page 272 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A former R.A.F. pilot tells the true story of air-to-ground combat in World War II. Before his eighteenth birthday E.A.W. "Ted" Smith was in the British Royal Air Force where he served five years on over thirty RAF bases in South Africa, Southern Rhodesia, England, Scotland, France, Belgium, and Holland. Joining the RAF 127 Squadron after D-Day as a fighter and bomber pilot, he flew Spitfire aircraft on ninety missions, a third of which were bombing attacks while the land forces were beating back the German army beyond the Rhine. Following the war in 1946, he became one of the world's first jet pilots, flying Gloucester Meteors on 74 Squadron. Smith kept a diary of his exploits in World War II, and this was the basis for Spitfire Diaries. Smith immigrated to the United States in 1948 and eventually became the general manager of Lady Bird Johnson's radio stations, KLBJ-AM and KLBJ-FM in December of 1980 in Austin, Texas.
Download or read book Ace in a Day written by Wayne K. Blickenstaff and published by Casemate. This book was released on 2022-09-08 with total page 377 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Wayne K. Blickenstaff, known as “Blick,” was a stalwart of the 350th Fighter Squadron of the 353rd Fighter Group based at Goxhill, Metfield and Raydon, England as part of the Eighth Air Force prosecuting the strategic air campaign against Germany. As an original cadre member, he rose steadily through the ranks from a Second Lieutenant Element Leader to Flight Leader, Squadron Operations Officer, Squadron Leader and finally to a Lieutenant Colonel and Group Operations Officer. Flying the P-47 Thunderbolt and P-51 Mustang, he completed two tours of operations between 1943 and 1945 encompassing 133 missions and claims of 10 enemy aircraft destroyed in the air. His double “ace” status included a Me262 jet fighter and the destruction of five aircraft in one mission—giving him rare “ace in a day” status. Ace in a Day is Blick’s honest and gritty personal memoir of his air war in Europe. His vivid writing places you in the cockpit as he and his comrades battle the enemy in the skies or attack ground targets across Europe. His account conveys a true sense of just how dangerous flying World War II fighters, in all weather conditions, really was. It was not just the enemy that could kill you. A moment’s inattention, overconfidence or simple mistake could be deadly. As a keen observer of character, Blick’s pen portraits of those around him, including many of those who sadly did not survive the war, offer a poignant and deeply moving tribute to those with whom he served. Anyone wanting an understanding of the dynamics of a working fighter squadron at war and the dilemmas faced by those in command should read this book. Supported by an impressive array of original documentation, photographs, and detailed appendices, including Blick’s never-before published wartime journal, Ace in a Day provides a unique and valuable insight into the harsh realities of the air war in Europe from one of the “Mighty Eighth’s” top fighter pilots.
Download or read book The Last Fighter Pilot written by Don Brown and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2017-07-31 with total page 194 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: *A NATIONAL BESTSELLER!* The New York Post calls The Last Fighter Pilot a "must-read" book. From April to August of 1945, Captain Jerry Yellin and a small group of fellow fighter pilots flew dangerous bombing and strafe missions out of Iwo Jima over Japan. Even days after America dropped the atomic bombs on Hiroshima on August 6 and Nagasaki on August 9, the pilots continued to fly. Though Japan had suffered unimaginable devastation, the emperor still refused to surrender. Bestselling author Don Brown (Treason) sits down with Yelllin, now ninety-three years old, to tell the incredible true story of the final combat mission of World War II. Nine days after Hiroshima, on the morning of August 14th, Yellin and his wingman 1st Lieutenant Phillip Schlamberg took off from Iwo Jima to bomb Tokyo. By the time Yellin returned to Iwo Jima, the war was officially over—but his young friend Schlamberg would never get to hear the news. The Last Fighter Pilot is a harrowing first-person account of war from one of America's last living World War II veterans.
Download or read book A Diary From The Cockpit written by Duncan Mickens and published by . This book was released on 2021-04-28 with total page 52 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: If you are looking for an interesting book about World War II, especially about the air force, you have come to the right place. Grab a copy today and start reading! This short book detailing: The most terrifying missions: The first mission to Balikpapan, an important Japanese fuel depot, and why it was considered impossible to achieve Coping with boredom and fear: How joking and calculating survival odds helped deal with the realities The snafus: The time a temporary Group Commander tried to bomb the US Seventh Fleet True stories from a man who was there--as dictated toward the end of his life.
Download or read book Fighter Pilots in World War II written by Bruce Barrymore Halpenny and published by Casemate Publishers. This book was released on 2004-09-19 with total page 346 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This is the story of Allied fighter pilots and the part they played in all the principal operational theatres of World War II. It also tells of life on the wartime airfield and how ground crew kept the aircraft ready for action either in the bitter cold of a Scottish winter or the sweltering heat of the North African desert. The book brings home the nervous strain caused by the constant readiness demanded by all those involved with fighter squadron combat and the intense comradeship created in each fighting unit.
Download or read book A True Flyer Memories of a World War II Air Apache written by Senath Rankin and published by Lulu.com. This book was released on 2015-04-28 with total page 212 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Memoir of WWII B-25 pilot Jay Moore, member of the 345th Bomb Group, known as the Air Apaches. The book chronicles the first twenty-four years of his life (1921-45) from growing up on a farm in Biggsville, Illinois, through the deprivations of the 1930's Depression, to his combat duty in the South Pacific. A True Flyer combines Moore's oral history, photos, and excerpts from his diary and love letters into a funny, colorful, sometimes brash narrative. Enjoy the military aviation history of WWII flyers: from his solo in the Boeing PT-17 "Stearman" biplane, advanced training in the T-6 "Texan," and North American B-25 "Mitchell" bomber on bases in Tennessee, Alabama, Mississippi and South Carolina. This second edition contains new photographs and a memorial to the author.
Download or read book The Women with Silver Wings written by Katherine Sharp Landdeck and published by Crown. This book was released on 2021-03-30 with total page 466 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “With the fate of the free world hanging in the balance, women pilots went aloft to serve their nation. . . . A soaring tale in which, at long last, these daring World War II pilots gain the credit they deserve.”—Liza Mundy, New York Times bestselling author of Code Girls “A powerful story of reinvention, community and ingenuity born out of global upheaval.”—Newsday When the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor in December 1941, Cornelia Fort was already in the air. At twenty-two, Fort had escaped Nashville’s debutante scene for a fresh start as a flight instructor in Hawaii. She and her student were in the middle of their lesson when the bombs began to fall, and they barely made it back to ground that morning. Still, when the U.S. Army Air Forces put out a call for women pilots to aid the war effort, Fort was one of the first to respond. She became one of just over 1,100 women from across the nation to make it through the Army’s rigorous selection process and earn her silver wings. The brainchild of trailblazing pilots Nancy Love and Jacqueline Cochran, the Women Airforce Service Pilots (WASP) gave women like Fort a chance to serve their country—and to prove that women aviators were just as skilled as men. While not authorized to serve in combat, the WASP helped train male pilots for service abroad, and ferried bombers and pursuits across the country. Thirty-eight WASP would not survive the war. But even taking into account these tragic losses, Love and Cochran’s social experiment seemed to be a resounding success—until, with the tides of war turning, Congress clipped the women’s wings. The program was disbanded, the women sent home. But the bonds they’d forged never failed, and over the next few decades they came together to fight for recognition as the military veterans they were—and for their place in history.
Download or read book Air Combat at 20 Feet written by Garrett Middlebrook and published by Author House. This book was released on 2004-09-27 with total page 678 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Enter the cockpit and become a co-pilot with a WWII straffer bomber-pilot attacking at 20 feet. In route to the target share his fear and agony. When attack time comes observe that his mental concentration consumes his fear as he fights with 8 machine guns while bombing and maneuvering. Intelligence is his ultimate weapon. An inferno of the target is the result. Departing the target, he fights 10 Jap fighter planes in an hour-long battle. When you reach home base you will say: "I never want to relive that horrendous ordeal."
Download or read book Johnnie Johnson s 1942 Diary written by Dilip Sarkar MBE and published by Air World. This book was released on 2020-11-30 with total page 248 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Air Vice-Marshal 'Johnnie' Johnson was a character literally from the pages of Boys' Own: an individual who became the RAF's top-scoring fighter pilot and wing leader par excellence of the Second World War. A one-time household name synonymous with the superlative Spitfire, Johnnie's aerial combat successes inspired schoolboys for generations.As a 'lowly Pilot Officer', Johnnie Johnson learned his fighter pilot's craft as a protégé of the legless Tangmere Wing Leader, Douglas Bader. After Bader was brought down over France and captured on 9 August 1941, Johnnie remained a member of 616 (South Yorkshire) Squadron.By the beginning of 1942, when Johnnie's diary begins, Fighter Command was pursuing an offensive policy during daylight hours, 'reaching out' and taking the war to the Germans in France. It was also a period in which the Focke-Wulf Fw outclassed the Spitfire Mk.V. In Johnnie's words, the Fw 190 'drove us back to the coast and, for the first time, pilots lost confidence in the Spitfire'. As well as his participation in Rhubarb and Circus sorties, Johnnie was also involved in Operation Jubilee on 19 August 1942.In this diary, published here for the first time, we get a glimpse of the real Johnnie, and what it was really like to live and breathe air-fighting during one of the European air war's most interesting years: 1942. Presented on a day-by-day basis, each of Johnnie's entries is supported by an informative narrative written by the renowned aviation historian Dilip Sarkar, drawing upon official documents and his interviews and correspondence with the great man.As would be expected, Johnnie's diary also includes numerous personal references. This diary, therefore, is a unique insight into how fighter pilots lived, loved - and died.
Download or read book Through These Eyes written by T/Sgt. James Lee Hutchinson, Ed.S. and published by AuthorHouse. This book was released on 2005-10-05 with total page 358 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This is the story of Eighth Air Force bombing missions leaving England to blast targets in Hitler's Third Reich in 1944–45. Each clear day, the skies filled with hundreds of B17 Flying Fortress bombers and their escorts crossing the English Channel toward enemy targets protected by anti-aircraft batteries and German fighters waiting to attack the heavy bombers. The skies over the target were filled with black flak appearing to be so thick you could walk on it! The exploding shells filled the space with flying chunks of iron as bombers started their bomb run on the target. We often could hear the flak pelting our plance like a "buckshot" on a tin roof. This flak would often strike a vital part of the plane or wound a member of the crew! Our waist gunner was wounded on our tenth mission!Some missions we could count hundreds of holes in our plane after we landed safely in England! Bombers receiving a direct hit were blown out of the sky and another ten man aircrew was lost. Planes severely damaged had to drop out of formation and face enemy fighters alone unless some of our P-51 or P-47 escort fighters protected them. Bombers disabled or on fire had no choice but to order the crews to bail out. Airmen who survived the parachute jump were captured and placed into German prisoner of war camps (POW). They were classified as "missing in action". Forty-eight photos, some sixty years old are included in this 350 page book to illustrate the story of the author's childhood in the Great Depression through the great air war of World War II. A description of each mission from a sixty year old diary is included. I think you will enjoy the story of a teenage Radio-Gunner's experiences in the Mighty Eighth Air Force.
Download or read book I Was A P 51 Fighter Pilot in WWII written by James Neel White and published by iUniverse. This book was released on 2003 with total page 528 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: SOME OF THE 150 STORIES IN THIS BOOK: · What WWII was all about · How the German Luftwaffe began and ended · Adolph Hitler's Nazi party and the Waffen SS · 8th Air Force raids over Europe · P-51 Mustang battles with Me-109 · 1093's Cleveland Air Races · Wright Brother's flight in 1903 · WWI Bi-planes in France · P-40s in the Flying Tigers · D-Day and P-47 Thunderbolts · Winter War in Finland · Barbarossa and airplane battles · Zeros in Southeast Asia · P-39 Airacobras fight for Russia · War-Booty in WWII · Hitler robs art treasures · How P-51 Mustangs stopped the Luftwaffe · How the Nazi Gestapo operated · The author's personal observations of WWII This book is dedicated to Orville and Wilbur Wright who discovered flight in 1903 You may purchase this book ISBN 0-595-28235-0 from www.iuniverse.com
Download or read book You Wouldn t Want to be a World War II Pilot written by Ian Graham and published by . This book was released on 2010 with total page 32 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Discusses the process of becoming a fighter pilot during World War II and how dangerous it was.
Download or read book Line Shoot written by Arthur Sager and published by Harwood Academic Publishers. This book was released on 2002 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Fighter Pilot written by Paul Richey and published by Cassell. This book was released on 2002 with total page 208 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Originally published anonymously in 1941, this was the first and finest story of a fighter pilot in World War Two. Based on the author's personal journal, it is the classic account of the part played by RAF No.1 Squadron in the air battles that preceded the fall of France in 1940. Beginning on the day the squadron arrived in France, the book recounts the unnerving lull of the 'Sitzkrieg' and the sudden crescendo of violence and crushing fatigue of almost non-stop combats during the 'Blitzkrieg'.Imbued with the Great War traditions of chivalry, Richey and his comrades accorded the enemy fighter squadron mercy and respect, until the disillusion of witnessing the Luftwaffe's callous attacks on helpless refugees changed all that. It was then that the skills and elan of the RAF's premier fighter squadron were turned to even greater account, and the result was a remarkable combat record. By the time they withdrew from France on 18 June 1940, No.1 Squadron had destroyed a total of 155 enemy aircraft, 114 of them in only ten days - for the loss of three pilots killed, two wounded, and one prisoner of war. As Paul Richey wrote: 'It seems - and I believed it was - a miracle.'
Download or read book A Pilot s Story written by Irwin Lebow and published by . This book was released on 2019-05-08 with total page 207 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: When the United States was attacked by Japan Irwin Lebow worked as a tool and die makers apprentice in a defense plant. Not willing to wait to be drafted, he enlisted in the Army Air Corps to fulfill his dream of becoming a pilot. In his diary, Lebow cronicals his 93 missions, as a P47 Thunderbolt pilot in the European Theater in World War II. This is a story written by a 22 year young man being exposed to life and death situations on a daily basis, but also living with the thrill and excitement of doing things that movies are made of. These are the memories of the highs of climbing out of the cockpit after returning from successful missions destroying enemy targets. And the lows of losing a friend in combat.
