Download or read book Pappy Gunn written by Nathaniel Gunn and published by . This book was released on 2004 with total page 456 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The name--..oft heard and heralded during and after World War II PAPPY GUNN ordinarily speaks for itself----------------------------however in this book, the unforgettable, untold to this day, human story of the legendary "Pappy Gunn," hero of the Pacific Air War and to his family who knew and loved him ------.this story is told with the understanding of one who had the foreknowledge and burning determination to sort out the facts and myths about him, Nathaniel Gunn, the author, fellow lover of flying, and his youngest son, who was with him until his untimely crash in Civilian life doing what he loved to do - flying, flying, flying!! You'll find the story intriguing in its discoveries, packed with Pappy's own personal original files, long forgotten letters, documents and photographs spanning Pappy's youth into the U.S. Navy, marriage, retirement in Hawaii and move to the Philippine Islands. Then, the untimely entrance of the United States in the WWII bombing and capture of Manila. Most of all, this story draws a perceptive focus on --.the man----as the person and courageous patriot he truly was, joining the U. S.Air Force he was at this time--. Fighting 3 wars at once His family imprisoned by the Japanese.. The brass who needed him to accomplish the impossible And, the enemy who had the upperhand, but not for long !! Thank God - his was a triumphant battle in all three!!!!
Download or read book The Saga of Pappy Gunn written by George Churchill Kenney and published by Lulu.com. This book was released on 2018-03-09 with total page 100 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Saga of Pappy Gunn is the biography of heroic World War 2 Air Force fighter pilot, Colonel Paul Irving Gunn.
Download or read book Indestructible written by John R Bruning and published by Hachette UK. This book was released on 2016-10-11 with total page 512 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this remarkable WWII story by New York Times bestselling author John R. Bruning, a renegade American pilot fights against all odds to rescue his family -- imprisoned by the Japanese--and revolutionizes modern warfare along the way. From the knife fights and smuggling runs of his youth to his fiery days as a pioneering naval aviator, Paul Irving "Pappy" Gunn played by his own set of rules and always survived on his wits and fists. But when he fell for a conservative Southern belle, her love transformed him from a wild and reckless airman to a cunning entrepreneur whose homespun engineering brilliance helped launch one of the first airlines in Asia. Pappy was drafted into MacArthur's air force when war came to the Philippines; and while he carried out a top-secret mission to Australia, the Japanese seized his family. Separated from his beloved wife, Polly, and their four children, Pappy reverted to his lawless ways. He carried out rescue missions with an almost suicidal desperation. Even after he was shot down twice and forced to withdraw to Australia, he waged a one-man war against his many enemies -- including the American high command and the Japanese--and fought to return to the Philippines to find his family. Without adequate planes, supplies, or tactics, the U.S. Army Air Force suffered crushing defeats by the Japanese in the Pacific. Over the course of his three-year quest to find his family, Pappy became the renegade who changed all that. With a brace of pistols and small band of loyal fol,lowers, he robbed supply dumps, stole aircraft, invented new weapons, and modified bombers to hit harder, fly farther, and deliver more destruction than anything yet seen in the air. When Pappy's modified planes were finally unleashed during the Battle of the Bismarck Sea, the United States scored one of the most decisive victories of World War II. Taking readers from the blistering skies of the Pacific to the jungles of New Guinea and the Philippines to one of the the war's most notorious prison camps, Indestructible traces one man's bare-knuckle journey to free the people he loved and the aerial revolution he sparked that continues to resonate across America's modern battlefields.
Download or read book General Kenney Reports A Personal History of the Pacific War written by and published by DIANE Publishing. This book was released on 1997 with total page 612 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: General Kenney Reports is a classic account of a combat commander in action. General George Churchill Kenney arrived in the South- west Pacific theater in August 1942 to find that his command, if not in a shambles, was in dire straits. The theater commander, General Douglas MacArthur, had no confidence in his air element. Kenney quickly changed this situation. He organized and energized the Fifth Air Force, bringing in operational commanders like Whitehead and Wurtsmith who knew how to run combat air forces. He fixed the logistical swamp, making supply and maintenance supportive of air operations, and encouraging mavericks such as Pappy Gunn to make new and innovative weapons and to explore new tactics in airpower application. The result was a disaster for the Japanese. Kenney's airmen used air power-particularly heavily armed B-25 Mitchell bombers used as commerce destroyers-to savage Japanese supply lines, destroying numerous ships and effectively isolating Japanese garrisons. The classic example of Kenney in action was the Battle of the Bismarck Sea, which marked the attainment of complete Allied air dominance and supremacy over Japanese naval forces operating around New Guinea. In short, Kenney was a brilliant, innovative airman, who drew on his own extensive flying experiences to inform his decision-making. General Kenney Reports is a book that has withstood the test of time, and which should be on the shelf of every airman.
Download or read book Winning from Downunder written by Noel Tunny and published by Boolarong Press. This book was released on 2010 with total page 298 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: WINNING FROM DOWNUNDER discusses the three advantages namely Leadership, Largesse and Luck enjoyed by the U.S.A. and Australia that brought the Japanese conquest of South East Asia and much of the Pacific to an end. The book gives insights into the personalities of the senior leaders of the Allies as revealed by their own actions and by the opinions expressed by their contemporaries. Some contentious topics are analysed such as what did Churchill and Roosevelt know about the Japanese plans before Pearl Harbour, the facts behind L.B. Johnson's visit to Australia and his receipt of a Silver Star Medal and whether or not there was a 'Brisbane Line' defense planned for Australia. When discussing the Atomic Bombing,the Women who went to War, the Heroism and the Brutality of War, this book is faithful to Lord Byrons belief that there are deeds that should not pass away and names that should not be forgotten. and the observation of Sir George MacAuley Trevalyn referring to the impelling poetry of truth in Historical Study.
Download or read book Confessions of a Hollywood Director written by Richard L. Bare and published by Scarecrow Press. This book was released on 2001 with total page 352 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The excitement then continues as Bare takes us through the highs and lows of his life and career, always with humor."--BOOK JACKET.
Download or read book Race of Aces written by John R Bruning and published by Hachette Books. This book was released on 2020-01-14 with total page 534 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The astonishing untold story of the WWII airmen who risked it all in the deadly race to become the greatest American fighter pilot. In 1942, America's deadliest fighter pilot, or "ace of aces" -- the legendary Eddie Rickenbacker -- offered a bottle of bourbon to the first U.S. fighter pilot to break his record of twenty-six enemy planes shot down. Seizing on the challenge to motivate his men, General George Kenney promoted what they would come to call the "race of aces" as a way of boosting the spirits of his war-weary command. What developed was a wild three-year sprint for fame and glory, and the chance to be called America's greatest fighter pilot. The story has never been told until now. Based on new research and full of revelations, John Bruning's brilliant, original book tells the story of how five American pilots contended for personal glory in the Pacific while leading Kenney's resurgent air force against the most formidable enemy America ever faced. The pilots -- Richard Bong, Tommy McGuire, Neel Kearby, Charles MacDonald and Gerald Johnson -- riveted the nation as they contended for Rickenbacker's crown. As their scores mounted, they transformed themselves from farm boys and aspiring dentists into artists of the modern dogfight. But as the race reached its climax, some of the pilots began to see how the spotlight warped their sense of duty. They emerged as leaders, beloved by their men as they chose selfless devotion over national accolades. Teeming with action all across the vast Pacific theater, Race of Aces is a fascinating exploration of the boundary between honorable duty, personal glory, and the complex landscape of the human heart. "Brings you into the cockpit of the lethal, fast-paced world of fighter pilots . . . Fascinating." -- Sara Vladic"Extraordinary . . . a must-read." -- US Navy Captain Dan Pedersen"A heart-pounding narrative of the courage, sacrifice, and tragedy of America's elite fighter pilots." -- James M. Scott"Vivid and gripping . . . Confirms Bruning's status as the premier war historian of the air." -- Saul David
Download or read book One Man Airforce Illustrated Edition written by Major Don Salvatore Gentile and published by Pickle Partners Publishing. This book was released on 2014-08-15 with total page 59 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Illustrated with 14 photos of the Author and the Aircraft he flew. Gentile was born in Piqua, Ohio. After a fascination with flying as a child, his father provided him with his own plane, an Aerosport Biplane. He managed to log over 300 hours flying time by July 1941, when he attempted to join the Army Air Force. The U.S. military required two years of college for its pilots, which Gentile did not have, so he enlisted in the Royal Canadian Air Force and was posted to the UK in 1941. Gentile flew the Supermarine Spitfire Mark V with No. 133 Squadron, one of the famed "Eagle Squadron" during 1942. His first kills (a Ju 88 and Fw 190) were on August 1, 1942, during Operation Jubilee. In September 1942, the Eagle squadrons transferred to the USAAF, becoming the 4th Fighter Group. Gentile became a flight commander in September 1943, now flying the P-47 Thunderbolt. Having been Spitfire pilots, Gentile and the other pilots of the 4th were displeased when they transitioned to the heavy P-47. By late 1943, Group Commander Col. Don Blakeslee pushed for re-equipment with the lighter, more maneuverable P-51 Mustang. Conversion to the P-51B at the end of February 1944 allowed Gentile to build a tally of 15.5 additional aircraft destroyed between March 3 and April 8, 1944. After downing 3 planes on April 8, he was the top scoring 8th Air Force ace when he crashed his personal P-51, named "Shangri La", on April 13, 1944 while stunting over the 4th FG’s airfield at Debden for a group of assembled press reporters and movie cameras. Blakeslee immediately grounded Gentile as a result, and he was sent back to the US for a tour selling war bonds. In 1944, Gentile co-wrote with well-known war correspondent Ira Wolfert One Man Air Force, an autobiography and account of his combat missions.
Download or read book Operation PLUM written by Adrian R. Martin and published by Texas A&M University Press. This book was released on 2010-07-15 with total page 385 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: They went in as confident young warriors. They came out as battle-scarred veterans, POW camp survivors . . . or worse. The Army Air Corps’ 27th Bombardment Group arrived in the Philippines in November 1941 with 1,209 men; one year later, only 20 returned to the United States. The Japanese attacked the Philippines on the same morning as Pearl Harbor and invaded soon after. Allied air routes back to the Philippines were soon cut, forcing pilots to fight their air war from bases in Java, Australia, and New Guinea. The men on Bataan were eventually taken prisoner and forced into the infamous Death March. The 27th and other such units were pivotal in delaying the Japanese timetable for conquest. If not for these units, some have suggested, the Allied offensive in the Pacific might have started in Hawaii or even California instead of New Guinea and the surrounding islands. Based largely on primary materials, including a fifty-nine-page report written by the surviving unit members in September 1942, Operation PLUM (from the code name for the U.S. Army in the Philippines) gives an account of the 27th Bombardment Group and, through it, the opening months of the Pacific theater. Military historians and readers interested in World War II will appreciate the rich perspective presented in Operation PLUM
Download or read book Rocky Boyer s War written by Allen D Boyer and published by Naval Institute Press. This book was released on 2017-05-15 with total page 336 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In Rocky Boyer’s War, Allen Boyer offers a wry, keen-eyed, and occasionally disgruntled counterpoint history of the hard-fought, brilliant campaign that won World War II in the Southwest Pacific. Based in part on an unauthorized diary kept by the author's father, 1st Lt. Roscoe “Rocky” Boyer, this narrative history offers the reader an account of Allied air commander Gen. George Kenney's "air blitz" offensive as it was lived both in the cockpit and on the ground. During 1944, as Gen. Douglas MacArthur’s forces fought their way from New Guinea to the Philippines, Kenney, discarding pre-war doctrine, planned and ran an “air blitz” offensive. His 5th Air Force drove forward like a tank army, crash-landing in open country, seizing terrain, bulldozing new airfields, winning air control, and moving forward. At airfields on the front line, Rocky kept the radios working for the 71st Tactical Reconnaissance Group, a fighter-bomber unit. Diaries were forbidden, but Rocky kept one—full of casualties, accidents, off-duty shenanigans, and rear-area snafus. He had friends killed when they shot it out with Japanese anti-aircraft gunners, or when their bombers vanished in bad weather. He wrote about wartime camp life at Nadzab, New Guinea, the largest air base in the world, part Scout camp and part frontier boomtown. He knew characters worthy of Catch-22: combat flyers who played contract bridge, military brass who played office politics, black quartermasters, and chaplains who stood up to colonels when a promotion party ended with drunken gunplay and dynamite. This is a narrative of the war as airmen lived it. Rocky’s experience of life on the front line gives from-the-bottom-up detail to the framework of Kenney’s air blitz. The author uses Rocky’s story as a jumping-off point from which to understand the daily life, pranks, mishaps, and casualties, of the men who in 1944 fought their way over the two thousand miles from New Guinea to the Philippines.
Download or read book Incidents in the Life of a B 25 Pilot written by Roy Lee Grover and published by Author House. This book was released on 2006-10-19 with total page 188 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The stories of war are generally aboutvalor,excitementand/or achievements. However, wartime military service is mostly composed of training, waiting with boredom and a little action for a few people. This collection is composed of stories of incidents that reflect my attitudes, beliefs and feelings that occurred to me during World War II. My combat experience was as a pilot of a B-25C, a medium altitude bomber, and B-25C-l, a modified B-25C for low level bombing and strafing, during parts of 1942 and 1943. I remember these incidents veryclearly. Historians, who research records of events of the past, often interpret the events with a value system that was developed years after the events occurred. This gives a distorted picture of what happened and why it happened. I hope to help the readers of this collection to see the events through my eyes rather than through the filters of their experiences. The events or incidents did happen and made an impression on me.
Download or read book A Concise History of the U S Air Force written by Stephen Lee McFarland and published by Createspace Independent Publishing Platform. This book was released on 1997 with total page 96 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Except in a few instances, since World War II no American soldier or sailor has been attacked by enemy air power. Conversely, no enemy soldier orsailor has acted in combat without being attacked or at least threatened by American air power. Aviators have brought the air weapon to bear against enemies while denying them the same prerogative. This is the legacy of the U.S. AirForce, purchased at great cost in both human and material resources.More often than not, aerial pioneers had to fight technological ignorance, bureaucratic opposition, public apathy, and disagreement over purpose.Every step in the evolution of air power led into new and untrodden territory, driven by humanitarian impulses; by the search for higher, faster, and farther flight; or by the conviction that the air way was the best way. Warriors have always coveted the high ground. If technology permitted them to reach it, men, women andan air force held and exploited it-from Thomas Selfridge, first among so many who gave that "last full measure of devotion"; to Women's Airforce Service Pilot Ann Baumgartner, who broke social barriers to become the first Americanwoman to pilot a jet; to Benjamin Davis, who broke racial barriers to become the first African American to command a flying group; to Chuck Yeager, a one-time non-commissioned flight officer who was the first to exceed the speed of sound; to John Levitow, who earned the Medal of Honor by throwing himself over a live flare to save his gunship crew; to John Warden, who began a revolution in air power thought and strategy that was put to spectacular use in the Gulf War.Industrialization has brought total war and air power has brought the means to overfly an enemy's defenses and attack its sources of power directly. Americans have perceived air power from the start as a more efficient means of waging war and as a symbol of the nation's commitment to technology to master challenges, minimize casualties, and defeat adversaries.
Download or read book Jungle Ace written by John R. Bruning and published by Potomac Books, Inc.. This book was released on 2011 with total page 410 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Flying P-38s, Jerry Johnson shot down 24 aircraft in 265 combat missions in the Pacific theater. At the age of only twenty-four, he commanded the highest-scoring fighter group in the Pacific. Tragically, though Johnson had survived three combat tours, which included a mid-air collision with a Japanese aircraft and being shot down by friendly fire, the new father disappeared without a trace while flying a courier mission one month after the war’s end.
Download or read book Blazing Star Setting Sun written by Jeffrey Cox and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2020-06-25 with total page 529 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From popular Pacific Theatre expert Jeffrey R. Cox comes this insightful new history of the critical Guadalcanal and Solomons campaign at the height of World War II. Cox's previous book, Morning Star, Rising Sun, had found the US Navy at its absolute nadir and the fate of the Enterprise, the last operational US aircraft carrier at this point in the war, unknown. This second volume completes the history of this crucial campaign, combining detailed research with a novelist's flair for the dramatic to reveal exactly how, despite missteps and misfortunes, the tide of war finally turned. By the end of February 1944, thanks to hard-fought and costly American victories in the first and second naval battles of Guadalcanal, the battle of Empress Augusta Bay, and the battle of Cape St George, the Japanese would no longer hold the materiel or skilled manpower advantage. From this point on, although the war was still a long way from being won, the American star was unquestionably on the ascendant, slowly, but surely, edging Japanese imperialism towards its sunset. Jeffrey Cox's analysis and attention to detail of even the smallest events are second to none. But what truly sets this book apart is how he combines this microscopic attention to detail, often unearthing new facts along the way, with an engaging style that transports the reader to the heart of the story, bringing the events on the deep blue of the Pacific vividly to life.
Download or read book Anything Anywhere Anytime written by Sam McGowan and published by Author House. This book was released on 2012-01-04 with total page 508 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In December, 1941 US Army pilots began hauling passengers and cargo around the Philippines after the Japanese attack on Clark Field, thus beginning one of the most important air force missions of World War II. As America greared up to fight the war, dozens of what came to be known as troop carrier squadrons were activated and equipped, usually with Douglas C-47 and C-53 version of the DC-8 transport. Beginning in New Guinea, US Army troop carrier crews became a crucial part of the effort to turn the tide of war. In Europe troop carrier squadrons supported Army airborne forces and provided logistical support for air force squadrons. During the Battle of the Bulge troop carrier crews kept the 101st Airborne Division supplied. After the war, troop carrier squadrons supplied the besieged city of Berlin. Troop carrier crews supported UN forces in Korea, then supported French efforts in Indochina where their successors would become crucial to US efforts in the 1960s and early 1970s. This is their story.
Download or read book Cleburne County and Its People written by Carl J. Barger and published by AuthorHouse. This book was released on 2008-05-13 with total page 712 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Cleburne County and Its Peopleis a historical account of Cleburne County and the men and women who made it what it is today. These men and women were as diverse as the Ozark Mountain's rock-laden landscapes. The pioneers who settled Cleburne County were as strong as the land, of hardy pioneer stock, and bold in thought and action. They were shrewd, strong-willed individuals who brought staunch beliefs and strong disciplines with them and settled in an untamed wilderness which became Cleburne County. Cleburne County and Its Peoplehas drawn from the past and the present--chronicling the lives of settlers facing hardships and tragedies, discovering profound beauty, mastering vast natural resources, and formulating democratic ideals. The stories in this book are honest interpretations of the human experience intertwined with the old and the new and adding exciting dimensions to the county and Cleburne and the state of Arkansas. The objective of Carl J. Barger, the compilerofCleburne County and Its People, is to preserve a history of the county of his birth for students, historians, and all of the citizens of Cleburne County. Carl J. Barger is the author of Swords and Plowshares, a Civil War love story, and Mamie, an Ozark Mountain Girl of Courage, a story of the Ozark Mountain People, set in Cleburne and Van Buren Counties.
Download or read book Air Apaches written by Jay A. Stout and published by Rowman & Littlefield. This book was released on 2019-02-01 with total page 433 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The American 345th Bomb Group--the Air Apaches--was legendary in the war against Japan. The first fully trained and fully equipped group sent to the South Pacific, the 345th racked up a devastating score against the enemy. Armed to the teeth with machine guns and fragmentation bombs, and flying their B-25s at impossibly low altitudes--often below fifty feet--the pilots and air crews strafed and bombed enemy installations and shipping with a fury that helped cripple Japan. One of the sharpest tools in the U.S. arsenal, the 345th performed essential missions during Gen. Douglas MacArthur’s campaigns in New Guinea and the Philippines, earning an impressive four Distinguished Unit Citations. This was punishingly dangerous work, and the 345th lost 177 aircraft and 712 men--young men doing their duty in the spirit of the Greatest Generation. Neither was this the more gentlemanly war of Europe, with its more temperate climate, resistance networks aiding downed crews, and POW camps. Airmen shot down in the Pacific theater faced drowning in the ocean, disappearing in the jungle, or torturing and beheading by the Japanese in a war of no quarter expected, no quarter given. A compelling follow-up to Jay A. Stout’s Hell’s Angels, Air Apaches reconstructs the missions of the 345th Bomb Group in striking detail, with laser focus on the men who manned the cockpits, navigated the B-25s, dropped the bombs, serviced the planes, and helped win the war. To tell this remarkable story, Stout worked closely with the group’s surviving veterans and dug deep into firsthand accounts. The result is a compelling narrative of men at war that will keep readers on the edge of their seats.
