Download or read book The Fall of Fortresses written by Elmer Bendiner and published by Penguin Adult HC/TR. This book was released on 1980 with total page 272 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A vivid, poignant recreation of the European air war, as seen by one who flew in it and felt its terrifying seductive power, The Fall of Fortresses is a major new contribution to the literature of the World War II experience. On an August morning in 1943, a group of American airmen were told that before the day was out they would deliver the blow that would win the war. They, and the B-17 Flying Fortresses they flew, were ordered to obliterate the installations on which all of German industry depended. The survivors would see the vindication of the prophets of air power. - The target: the ball-bearing factories at Schweinfurt. So began the first of two amazing missions. Drawing on his experiences, author navigator Elmer Bendiner describes the hell of the bombing runs and the terrible trail of Flying Fortresses burning across the face of Europe. Who really won? Who lost? For answers to these questions, the author has turned to German as well as U.S. Air Force archives and to interviews with surviving strategists. He traces the deliberations concerning Schweinfurt from its first casual mention at a Washington cocktail party to the bombings themselves. And he uncovers the bitter interservice rivalries and the motives that climaxed in the bloody German skies. Were it nothing but a personal account of what the war was like, The Fall of Fortresses would be well worth reading. But it is more: a highly original and deeply felt meditation on men at war and /the myths and realities of air power, as relevant to readers in 1980 as it was to those who met the dawn skies of Europe over thirty years ago.

Download or read book The Fall of Fortresses written by Elmer Bendiner and published by . This book was released on 1982 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book The Fall of the Fortresses a Personal Account of One of the Most Daring and Deadly Air Battles of the Second World War written by Elmer Bendiner and published by . This book was released on 1980 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book The Fall of Fortresses written by Elmer Bendiner and published by . This book was released on 1982 with total page 218 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book The Fall of the Fortresses written by Elmer Bendiner and published by . This book was released on 2021 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Odyssey of a Bombardier written by John J. Hurt and published by Rowman & Littlefield. This book was released on 2014-09-26 with total page 329 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Odyssey of a Bombardier is the illustrated Prisoner of War “log” that depicts the experiences of bombardier Richard M. Mason in German prison camps after his B-17 “Flying Fortress” was shot down by the Germans in France in 1944, the final year of World War II. The log follows Mason from the day his plane crashed until his liberation in April, 1945, and his return home to the United States. Included are such topics as medical treatment and rehabilitation for wounded prisoners of the Germans, life in Stalag Luft III, a difficult long march in an arctic winter to another camp, the travails of prisoners in the overcrowded, filthy camp at Moosburg, critical food shortages, and the arrival of General George Patton with the liberating forces. Mason was an amateur artist and illustrated his journal with moving depictions of prison life and comradeship. This book shows U.S. airmen demonstrating grace and courage under pressure and meeting every challenge that their imprisonment presented.

Download or read book Flying against Fate written by S. P. MacKenzie and published by University Press of Kansas. This book was released on 2017-08-04 with total page 264 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: During World War II, Allied casualty rates in the air were high. Of the roughly 125,000 who served as aircrew with Bomber Command, 59,423 were killed or missing and presumed killed—a fatality rate of 45.5%. With odds like that, it would be no surprise if there were as few atheists in cockpits as there were in foxholes; and indeed, many airmen faced their dangerous missions with beliefs and rituals ranging from the traditional to the outlandish. Military historian S. P. MacKenzie considers this phenomenon in Flying against Fate, a pioneering study of the important role that superstition played in combat flier morale among the Allies in World War II. Mining a wealth of documents as well as a trove of published and unpublished memoirs and diaries, MacKenzie examines the myriad forms combat fliers' superstitions assumed, from jinxes to premonitions. Most commonly, airmen carried amulets or talismans—lucky boots or a stuffed toy; a coin whose year numbers added up to thirteen; counterintuitively, a boomerang. Some performed rituals or avoided other acts, e.g., having a photo taken before a flight. Whatever seemed to work was worth sticking with, and a heightened risk often meant an upsurge in superstitious thought and behavior. MacKenzie delves into behavior analysis studies to help explain the psychology behind much of the behavior he documents—not slighting the large cohort of crew members and commanders who demurred. He also looks into the ways in which superstitious behavior was tolerated or even encouraged by those in command who saw it as a means of buttressing morale. The first in-depth exploration of just how varied and deeply felt superstitious beliefs were to tens of thousands of combat fliers, Flying against Fate expands our understanding of a major aspect of the psychology of war in the air and of World War II.

Download or read book Economic Disasters of the Twentieth Century written by Michael J. Oliver and published by Edward Elgar Publishing. This book was released on 2007-01-01 with total page 382 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The First and Second World Wars, the great depression, oil shocks, inflation, financial crises, stock market crashes, the collapse of the Soviet command economy and Third World disasters are discussed in this comprehensive book. The contributors subject these disasters to in-depth assessment, carefully considering their costs and impact on specific countries and regions, as well as assessing them in a global context. The book examines the legacy of economic disasters and asks whether economic disasters are avoidable or whether policymakers can learn from their mistakes.

Download or read book The War written by Geoffrey C. Ward and published by Knopf. This book was released on 2020-02-04 with total page 486 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The vivid voices that speak from these pages are not those of historians or scholars. They are the voices of ordinary men and women who experienced—and helped to win—the most devastating war in history, in which between 50 and 60 million lives were lost. Focusing on the citizens of four towns— Luverne, Minnesota; Sacramento, California; Waterbury, Connecticut; Mobile, Alabama;—The War follows more than forty people from 1941 to 1945. Woven largely from their memories, the compelling, unflinching narrative unfolds month by bloody month, with the outcome always in doubt. All the iconic events are here, from Pearl Harbor to the liberation of the concentration camps—but we also move among prisoners of war and Japanese American internees, defense workers and schoolchildren, and families who struggled simply to stay together while their men were shipped off to Europe, the Pacific, and North Africa. Enriched by maps and hundreds of photographs, including many never published before, this is an intimate, profoundly affecting chronicle of the war that shaped our world. From the Hardcover edition.

Download or read book The Fall of Fortresses written by ELMER. BENDINER and published by . This book was released on 2020-10-22 with total page 254 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 'A shining accomplishment. A classic' New York Times 'Ranks among the outstanding air memoirs of the war' Max Hastings On an August morning in England in 1943, a group of American airmen were told that before the day was out they would deliver the blow that would win the war. Flying the legendary B-17 Flying Fortress, their mission was to destroy the industrial facilities that kept the Nazi war machine in business - Schweinfurt's ball-bearing factories. But a determined and ferocious defense awaited the bomber crews of the USAAF's Mighty 8th. Somehow, Navigator Elmer Bendiner and his crew survived, their faithful B-17, Tondelayo, carrying them home. Hundreds of their young compatriots did not. Vivid, powerful and often viscerally engaging, The Fall of Fortresses is a stunning testament to the skill, courage and sacrifice of the men who fought in WWII's deadliest campaign. 'An enduring classic' Daily Beast 'Exceptional. It'll stay with you long after you've turned the last page' Rowland White 'Masterly and moving' Sunday Telegraph

Download or read book The Contemporary Review written by and published by . This book was released on 1981 with total page 368 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book A Mighty Fortress written by Chuck Alling and published by Casemate. This book was released on 2008-03-05 with total page 196 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “In a fascinating way, Chuck Alling recalls his days as a pilot flying B-17s over Germany. He is truly a member of ‘The Greatest Generation’” (Former Pres. George H.W. Bush). A Mighty Fortress is the personal account of the captain and crew of a lead bomber in the enormous formation raids made by the Eighth Air Force during the last few months of the Second World War. It is an extraordinary tale of heroism and bravery on the part of the entire crew of just one B-17 amongst hundreds—but the one B-17 that meant most to them. Having flown twenty-seven missions before the war ended, Alling tells what it was like to be there, in the skies over enemy territory, constantly on the lookout for German fighters; of the enormity of some of the raids they were part of and the consequences for those on the ground; of the planes around them that fell out of the sky under enemy attack; of the horror and the determination to succeed. From a recipient of the Distinguished Flying Cross and the Air Medal with four Oak Leaf Clusters, this book gives a unique insight into the lives of one crew of one plane as the war neared its end.

Download or read book B 17 Flying Fortress written by Frederick A. Johnsen and published by McGraw-Hill Professional Publishing. This book was released on 2000 with total page 192 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The B-17 pioneered the concepts of strategic bombardment. This work gives technical detail along with little-known facts and stories, as well as accounts of missions, production, avionics, development and the people behind the development of the B-17.

Download or read book The Bookseller written by and published by . This book was released on 1981 with total page 802 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Steel Fortress written by Michael Sargent Martin and published by Abbott Press. This book was released on 2014-02-04 with total page 410 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Steel Fortress is a story of survival, about a flyboy aboard a B-17 bomber who is catapulted into the extraordinary experience of flying the heavies in the never to be replicated arena of World War II air combat. He flies the gauntlet of Germanys defensive network in 1944, battling the demons of war in the European Theater and also in his mind. It is a commentary on the totality of the human experience of war, from the brutal realities of combat to the internal battle that goes on within each individual survivor. On a cold February morning in 1944, Harold leaves his new bride at an Iowa train platform and embarks on a stark and riveting journey, where camaraderie is the key to survival, and loss is the lesson learned. Heroism combined with humanism drives this compelling saga of the human spirit at its most triumphant and most vulnerable. Steel Fortress joins ranks with the most poignant of commentaries on war; it is a story for the ages, and evidence of the universal spirit of man.

Download or read book The Daring World War II Raid on Ploesti written by William R. Bradle and published by Arcadia Publishing. This book was released on 2017-06-01 with total page 287 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An in-depth look at the doomed U.S. Army Air Force attack on Romanian oil fields vital to Hitler’s success. In 1943, the Allied powers were grasping for anything to undercut Hitler’s power and relieve his relentless pressure on the Red Army, which had already suffered a staggering 11 million casualties. The U.S. Army Air Force planned Operation Tidal Wave, which would take off from Benghazi, Libya, fly low and maintain complete radio silence to escape Axis observation, and bomb Hitler’s vital oil fields in Ploesti, Romania. On August 1, 177 B-24 bombers prepared to take off. Fourteen hours later, only 88 B-24s returned. Operation Tidal Wave was a massive strategic defeat. However, it proved the mettle of the USAAF and provided a rallying point for the public. Author William R. Bradle offers the definitive account of this doomed operation—the strengths, weaknesses, heroism, and failings—and takes readers into the thick of the action with thrilling accounts from many of the crews. Praise for The Daring World War II Raid on Ploesti “This account of the Ploesti mission...does an admirable job of laying out the planning, personalities, and attendant conflicts among many participants, the mistakes made and losses inflicted by the Germans and Romanians.... An eminently readable story that further emphasizes and demonstrates the mettle of the Greatest Generation.”—New York Journal of Books

Download or read book Luck of the Draw written by Frank Murphy and published by St. Martin's Griffin. This book was released on 2023-02-28 with total page 356 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: THE INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER “In the pursuit of authenticity, of accurate history and undeniable courage, no words matter more than, ‘I was there.’ Read Luck of the Draw and the life of Frank Murphy and ponder this: how did those boys do such things?” —Tom Hanks The epic true story of an American hero who flew during WWII, as featured in the Steven Spielberg and Tom Hanks TV Series, Masters of the Air. Beginning on August 17, 1942, American heavy bomber crews of the Eighth Air Force took off for combat in the hostile skies over occupied Europe. The final price was staggering. 4,300 B-17s and B-24s failed to return; nearly 21,000 men were taken prisoner or interned in a neutral country, and a further 17,650 made the ultimate sacrifice. Luck of the Draw is more than a war story. It’s the incredible, inspiring story of Frank Murphy, one of the few survivors from the 100th Bombardment Group, who cheated death for months in a German POW camp after being shot out of his B-17 Flying Fortress. Now with a new foreword written by his granddaughter Chloe Melas, of NBC, and daughter Elizabeth Murphy. “A gripping, inspirational account of incredible bravery, resilience, and sheer will to survive. A truly extraordinary story!” —General David Petraeus, U.S. Army (Ret.)