Download or read book We Never Said Good Bye Memoirs of a Bombardier from World War II written by Jack I. Moore and published by Lulu.com. This book was released on 2013-03-01 with total page 454 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "We Never Said Good-Bye: Memoirs of a Bombardier from World War II" is the wartime memoir of Jack I. Moore, who flew 36 missions in the Pacific in the final year of World War II. For his service, Moore earned a Purple Heart, Distinguished Flying Cross, and five Air Medals. It is a story of triumph and tragedy, and one of the last memoirs from a member of the Greatest Generation. Moore's candid chronicle is an honest look at personal struggles and achievements. It is a story of Purple Hearts, Iwo Jima, Hiroshima and Nagasaki, of disease, kamikazes, family, life, fathers and sons, mothers, birth, death, war, loss, faith, atheism, quiet joy, fear, bomb runs and jazz bands, courage, heroism, and even occasional stupidity. From the bitterly cold winter morning when he leaves his Minneapolis home in 1943, to his return at the end of the war, this book celebrates those who served during World War II, while embracing the complex range of emotions and experiences that are unique to a time of war.

Download or read book So Long Guys Goodbye is Forever written by Jane R. Edwards and published by Xlibris Corporation. This book was released on 2002 with total page 340 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: With John Olson´s plane in a spin of descent, John McKee in Rose O´Day was now miles behind the protection of the formation. He was vulnerable and he knew it. He pushed the throttles forward, unleashing the power of all 4,000 horses, in the attempt to join the homeward-bound Fortresses. Just a few minutes, that´s all he would need. An ailing B-24 gave McKee the time. The damaged aircraft, limping below the B-17, became the next choice, an easy "kill" for the German fighters. The FW 190s closed in on the Liberator as McKee closed towards the 306th . . . The German fighters, trying to determine the vulnerability of this new aircraft, continued to survey the B-17s and intermittently attacked. A Focke Wulf 190 attempting to attain a diving range, pulled up, but did not have enough speed and stalled out right in front of John McKee. He was so close that anyone could have "leaned over and hit him with a monkey wrench." The gunners didn´t move. They gaped at the German, spellbound. Ahead, McKee could see the coast and the approaching Spitfires. The Spits, having refueled, were returning to cover the withdrawing American aircraft and engage the pursuing German fighters. From one of the "Spitties" being chased by a Focke Wulf, the gutsy English pilot radioed over VHF frequency to McKee: "Aye say, Yank, would you lead that son-of-a-bitch? I´m catching all of it." The Fortresses needed the protection of the RAF. The mission had exposed the weakness of the Flying Fort. She was not a racehorse. Maneuverable and dependable, the B-17 was no match for the fast FW 190 or the Messerschmitt 109. McKee had seen the FW 190 stand on a prop and go up right past him. He recalled Wendover Field and the conversation he had with the representative from Boeing Aircraft. "Being that I´m 11/10ths coward," John mused, "what if I get into trouble?" "If you get into trouble in the B-17," the factory rep answered, "just hit those turbo superchargers and climb. No fighter can keep up with you." Christ, McKee thought, now there´s an intelligent son-of-a-bitch. I wish he´d been there. Over the Channel, the tautness eased from the body of McKee. He was nearly back to the safety of the base, to the Key Club, to scotch, to women. Yes, the maiden mission was nearly over. But the pain of war was just beginning. McKee thought back to the morning, back to a few minutes after the pilots´ briefing, less than three hours ago. Oley had pulled him aside and, in a voice filled with resignation, said, "Honest John, I have a premonition, this feeling. I´m going to get it. Today is the day." "Ah, hell, Swede," McKee protested, "you and I are too tough, too ornery. Why shit, you´re crazy. They´ll never get us." At Thurleigh, ship after ship landed. Ferrying down the flight line, they pulled onto their pads. All the crews of the 306th returned except for John Olson´s. The empty revetment of Snoozy II wounded the sight. John McKee described the reaction to the loss. "Everyone felt it. Nobody said anything. Nobody wanted to say anything. They were gone. We knew it. We kept it inside."

Download or read book Shot at and Missed written by Jack R. Myers and published by University of Oklahoma Press. This book was released on 2014-10-30 with total page 321 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this riveting narrative, Jack R. Myers recounts his experiences as a B-17 bombardier during World War II. Commissioned a second lieutenant in 1944 at age twenty, Myers began flying missions with the 2nd Bomb Group, U.S. Fifteenth Air Force. He learned firsthand the exhilaration—and terror—of being shot at and missed. Based in Italy, the Fifteenth Air Force flew strategic bombing raids over southern Germany, Austria, Hungary, Rumania, and Czechoslovakia. Less celebrated than the Eighth Air Force, which flew out of England, the Fifteenth, nevertheless, was pivotal in dismantling the German industrial complex. Myers offers an insider’s view of these missions over southern and central Europe. The reader goes with him into the highly exposed Plexiglas nose of the Flying Fortress, flying with him through the flak-filled skies of Europe and peering with him through his Norden bombsight at Axis targets. On average, a heavy-bomber crewman survived only sixteen bombing missions. Myers survived his allotted thirty-five missions before being honorably discharged in 1945.

Download or read book MEMORIES OF WORLD WAR II VETS written by A. J. BROWN and published by AuthorHouse. This book was released on 2011-10-11 with total page 617 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Many of the vets I interviewed asked me why I was interested in World War II. I never forgot when Pearl Harbor was attacked. I was five years old and standing at the end of the kitchen counter next to the black art deco style radio. The announcer was very loud and excited but I didn’t know what he was talking about. My mother was at the other end of the counter standing in front of the kitchen sink washing a dish. All of a sudden she turned off the water and came over to stand in front of the radio. I had never seen a look on her face like that before. She called my dad to come here. Both of them stood in front of the radio with these shocked and unbelieving faces! I never forgot that experience. We next went to Sunday school and church and I remember all of the adults were talking to each other in low tones with stunned looks on their faces.

Download or read book Back from Combat a World War Ii Bombardier Faces His Military Future written by Charles N. Stevens and published by AuthorHouse. This book was released on 2011-09-01 with total page 264 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: His combat tour over, a survivor of thirty-four bombing missions as an 8th Air Force bombardier, Charles Norm Stevens wonders what he will do next. He would have his 30-day furlough, but that will pass quickly. What then? Having endured the hell of his bombing missions, he has no desire to sign up for another tour. Even though the Allies are gaining on all fronts, the war still rages, and he is still on active duty in the Army Air Corps. He is a trained bombardier who will continue his military service. But in what capacity? Turning down the option of being an instructor, he volunteers for training as a radar bombardier. But where would this lead him? He sees himself slowly being drawn into the Pacific War as a radar bombardier on a B-29 Superfortress. It is a gamble. Would the war end or would he find himself again in hostile skies? Stevens previously wrote about his cadet and crew training in The Innocent Cadet Becoming a World War II Bombardier and his combat experiences in An Innocent at Polebrook: Memoir of an 8th Air Force Bombardier. This volume completes his military experience.

Download or read book No Ordinary Life written by Sue Johnpeter and published by Createspace Independent Publishing Platform. This book was released on 2014-06-16 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In 1942, Glenn W. King was in his first semester at the University of Wyoming-Laramie when he joined the United States Army Air Forces. He became a bombardier with the 385th Bombardment Group, flying from England's Great Ashfield airbase. On his twenty-third combat mission, Glenn's plane was shot down near Oschatz, Germany. He was picked up by the Wehrmacht and sent to Stalag Luft XIIID, a prisoner of war camp in Nuremberg. Starvation was the order of the day. Forced to march more than one hundred miles to Stalag Luft VIIA in Moosburg, Glenn and his fellow officers began to "liberate" potatoes and turnips (and the occasional chicken) from the farmers along the roadway. A can of tuna, part of a Red Cross food parcel, was tucked into his sodden coat pocket. Every morning, he vowed to hold on to it for just one more day. This is Glenn's incredible story of resilience in the waning days of the Second World War and his safe return home to complete college and pursue an engineering career in the petroleum industry. Bombardier, roustabout, roughneck, student, husband, father, oil executive, public speaker, arbitrator, crime fighter, and car guy. His has been no ordinary life.

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 Town Country Childhood written by Randall Monroe and published by Page Publishing Inc. This book was released on 2022-07-19 with total page 255 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Town and Country Childhood begins in the early 1960s in a small town in Southwest Iowa. Growing up in the ’60s was not an easy task. My dad owned several gas stations before taking over my uncle’s bar, Town and Country Tavern, after his death. The death of my grandpa, my uncle, the Vietnam War, the assassinations of President Kennedy and Reverend Martin Luther King, and the riots made me question longevity. If life was going to be short, live it to the fullest regardless of the cost. Breaking the rules was considered a right, and nothing was going to stop me. Growing up in the tavern allowed me to become friends with my dad’s friends who survived the forties and World War II. I thought drinking and other bad habits were a way to have fun, but I learned too late that they were coping mechanisms that eventually destroyed you. Eventually, it all caught up.

Download or read book Combat Bombardier written by Leonard Herman and published by Xlibris Corporation. This book was released on 2007 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Combat Bombardier By Leonard Herman with Rob Morris Rarely does a living legend tell such a candid and fascinating tale. In his memoirs, ́Combat Bombardier: A Jewish Airman's Two Tours of Duty in the Skies Over Europe in World War Two ́ , 90-year-old Eighth and Ninth Air Force bombardier Leonard Herman tells the story of his experiences as one of the few surviving airmen of the first desperate months of the American bomber war. Less than twenty percent of his fellows from the original 95th Bomb Group (H) survived their tours without death or imprisonment. Mr. Herman survived his initial twenty-five mission tour in 1943, flying many of the air war's greatest missions, including Schweinfurt and Kiel. His pilot was killed and he himself wounded on a mission during his this tour. He is credited with shooting down two German fighters, and also with twice saving the lives of his crew, which earned him a nomination for the Medal of Honor. After his return to a hero's welcome in the States, Mr. Herman completed a War Bond Tour, trained fliers preparing to go overseas, and then returned to Europe himself, where he flew missions in B-26s and A-26s in support of Allied ground forces with the Bridge Busters. In addition to this second flight tour, Mr. Herman also found himself on the ground with the infantry in Germany near the end of the war, where he liberated a castle and guarded 3,000 German prisoners. At the war's end, he was instrumental in changing U.S. policy towards liberated concentration camp survivors. He ended the war as one of the Air Corps' most highly decorated airmen. Historical figures grace its pages. Mr. Herman knew many of the key figures in the early air war, such as Curtis LeMay and Nathan Bedford Forrest. His tail gunner, William Crossley, was the top gunner ace in Europe in World War Two. He served as the unofficial collector of stories for the 95th Bomb Group and the stories eventually became B-17s Over Berlin, edited by Ian Hawkins and considered one of the finest oral histories of the air war. Mr. Herman's friend, historian Rob Morris, has written an introduction which sets the tone and serves as a biographical sketch of Mr. Herman. The remainder of the book is in Mr. Herman's words, with Morris's comments interspersed only to explicate passages. A fluid and interesting story-teller, Mr. Herman's narrative is honest, unflinching, at times profane, but always enlightening and entertaining, and more than occasionally hilarious. Mr. Herman also carried a camera on missions and has some excellent and terrifying shots of air combat. The book's fast-paced, easy-to-read style is the result of countless interviews and taped recollections that will appeal to experts and casual readers. It is a very human story that will add to the existing scholarship on the WWII air war and increase understanding of the men who fought in it. Mr. Herman ́s book contains graphic language, some adult situations, and, as it is a war memoir, violence. It is not suitable for children.

Download or read book Sergeant Kennedy s World War II Diary written by William M. Kennedy and published by Trafford Publishing. This book was released on 2010-03 with total page 435 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This is a journal spanning from October 30, 1942 to October 29th 1945 through which the author recounts his days abroad serving in the U.S. Army during WWII. Kennedy begins his memoir by admitting to a reluctance toward fighting in the war before bringing readers down a path fraught with detailed descriptions of life aboard a warship and in various countries around the world. Whether describing the war-littered desert streets of Tobruk, Africa, the grandeur of Rome, or the breathtaking sight of Capri, Italy, the author places readers deep into his penetrating remembrances. Kennedy's forthright honesty and unique experiences will give readers insight into the harsh realities of being away from home – and a new wife – for three years, as well as an insight into the bonds of friendship and camaraderie that result from soldiers serving together. The pictures not only add a personal touch to an already moving memoir, but help readers match faces with the colorful characters about whom Kennedy writes.

Download or read book The Man Who Flew the Memphis Belle written by Robert Morgan and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2001-05-01 with total page 442 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The riveting firsthand account of World War II pilot Robert Morgan, his crew, and the legendary Memphis Belle—written with Ron Powers, cowriter of the #1 New York Times bestseller Flags of Our Fathers. A powerful chronicle of loyalty, love, and heroism under fire, this is the unforgettable memoir of a member of the Greatest Generation who fought in America’s greatest battles—and of the war one man waged both in and out of the skies. High-spirited, young Robert Morgan was transformed from a fast-living, privileged playboy who grew up hobnobbing with the Vanderbilts into a steel-nerved pilot forged in the cauldron of World War II’s most dangerous and desperate aerial encounters. This is the triumphant tale of that transformation—and of the airplane and crew that never failed to bring him back home.

Download or read book Hell from Heaven written by Leonard Streitfeld and published by . This book was released on 1994 with total page 217 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Lest They Forget Freedom s Price written by Edward M. Bender and published by AuthorHouse. This book was released on 2009-04 with total page 378 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Lest They Forget Freedom's Price," is the fascinating story of B-17 bomber pilot Edward M. Bender (USAAFR retired Lt. Col.), who describes his flight training, bomber missions, capture, and time as a POW in Europe during World War II. When a fire forces the crew of his Flying Fortress down in enemy-occupied France, Lt. Bender is captured by a unit of teenage NAZI recruits from Adolph Hitler's youth corps. He describes his year as a prisoner of the Third Reich at camps in Sagan, Nurnberg, and Moosburg, and the bitterly cold forced march of Winter 1945, when the Germans and POWs evacuated the Stalag Luft III prison camp in anticipation of the advancing Russian army. Finally, Lt. Bender is liberated by Gen. George Patton's army and returns home to adapt to the challenges of life in post-war America. Filled with humor and pathos, this narrative provides a portrait of life in war-time Europe and America, and the challenges faced by an American airman and POW.

Download or read book What I Remember written by Paul C. Valentine and published by Xlibris Corporation. This book was released on 2011-11-18 with total page 566 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: THIS IS THE STORY OF ONE MAN'S MEMORY of the past 80 years of our history in the 20th and beginning of the 21st century -- Recollections of the ending of the Great Depression -- World War II -- Growing up in Elgin, Illinois -- Elgin High School -- College years at DePauw University, Miami University of Ohio, Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Stanford Law School -- the Air Force -- Polio in the '50s -- Washington D.C. in the Kennedy Years -- Law practice in Palo Alto -- Vietnam protests -- Turmoil on the Stanford Campus -- The Creative Initiative Foundation -- Nuclear power and alternative energy -- Beyond War -- His 57 - year marriage to Nancy Elizabeth Hodge of Niles, Ohio -- their family of three children and seven grandchildren and their living in retirement at The Sequoias in Portola Valley, California. This is a story of ordinary people who found meaning in their lives in extraordinary times.

Download or read book The Most Creative Escape the Ordinary Excel at Public Speaking Book Ever written by Philip Theibert and published by John Hunt Publishing. This book was released on 2013-02-08 with total page 620 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The everything you need to give an outstanding speech book, complete with all original material, written by a professional speechwriter. ,

Download or read book The Girl and the Bombardier written by Susan Tate Ankeny and published by Diversion Books. This book was released on 2020-09-08 with total page 238 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This enthralling WWII biography combines a downed B-17 bombardier’s unfinished memoir with letters from the French girl who saved his life. Susan Tate Ankeny’s father was a World War II veteran bombardier who had bailed from a burning B-17 over Nazi-occupied France in 1944. After he died, she found his unfinished memoir, stacks of envelopes, black-and-white photographs, mission reports, dog tags, and the fake identity cards he used in his escape. Ankeny spent more than a decade tracking down letter writers, their loved ones, and anyone who had played a role in her father's story, culminating in a trip to France where she retraced his path with the same people who had guided him more than sixty years ago. While piecing together her father’s wartime experience, Ankeny discovered a remarkable hero. Godelieve Van Laere was just a teenaged girl when she saved the fallen Lieutenant Dean Tate, risking her life and forging a friendship that would last into a new century. The result is a fascinating and dramatic World War II tale enhanced by personal interviews with participants. It traces the transformation of a small-town American boy into a bombardier, the thrill and chaos of aerial warfare, and the horror of bailing from a flaming aircraft over enemy territory. It distinguishes the actions of a little-known French resistance network for Allied airmen known as Shelburne. And it shines a light on the courage and cunning of a young woman who risked her life to save another.

Download or read book Bomber Pilot written by Philip Ardery and published by University Press of Kentucky. This book was released on 1978 with total page 284 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: " Winner of the Best Aeronautical Book Award from the Reserve Officers Association of the United States "The sky was full of dying airplanes" as American Liberator bombers struggled to return to North Africa after their daring low-level raid on the oil refineries of Ploesti. They lost 446 airmen and 53 planes, but Philip Ardery's plane came home. This pilot was to take part in many more raids on Hitler's Europe, including air cover for the D-Day invasion of Normandy. This vivid firsthand account, available now for the first time in paper, records one man's experience of World War II air warfare. Throughout, Ardery testifies to the horror of world war as he describes his fear, his longing for home, and his grief for fallen comrades. Bomber Pilot is a moving contribution to American history.