Download or read book 25 Missions the Story of the Memphis Belle written by Frank Miller and published by . This book was released on 2018-03-17 with total page 43 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Originally published in 1943 by the Army Air Force The book was issued to highlight the first official B-17 Fighter Bomber and Crew to complete 25 bombing missions. That crew and that B-17 was the "Memphis Belle". The "restricted" notation on the cover was not about the book's contents, but only to whom it was to be distributed.The book has actual interviews with all of the crew members. This edition is enhanced with 6 additional photographs of the Crew and of the "Belle". This book was unique from other World War II government publications in that it focused on a single airplane and it's crew. It spotlighted them as they embarked on a tour of the United States for a War Bond Drive. The crew became instant heroes and were welcomed wherever they appeared.
Download or read book The Man Who Flew the Memphis Belle written by Robert Morgan and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2011-07-05 with total page 417 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 25 Missions written by United States. Army Air Forces. Training Aids Division and published by . This book was released on 1943 with total page 36 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book B 17 Memphis Belle written by Graham M. Simons and published by Pen and Sword. This book was released on 2012-07-19 with total page 347 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “A grand spread of images showing the aircraft, and more importantly the men who flew and maintained her . . . a must for 8th Air Force aficionados.”—War History Online Without doubt Boeing Flying Fortress B–17F 41-42285 Memphis Belle and her crew generate an image that is an all-American icon. Indeed, it has been claimed that the Memphis Belle is in the top five of the most famous American aircraft of all time. In September 1942, a new Flying Fortress was delivered at Bangor, Maine, to a crew of ten eager American lads headed by Robert K. Morgan, a lanky 24-year-old USAAF pilot from Asheville, N. C. The boys climbed aboard, flew their ship to Memphis, and christened her Memphis Belle in honor of Morgan’s fiancé, Miss Margaret Polk of Memphis, and then headed across the Atlantic to join the US Eighth Air Force in England. Between November 7, 1942 and May 17, 1943, they dropped more than 60 tons of bombs on targets in Germany, France and Belgium. The Memphis Belle flew through all the flak that Hitler could send up to them. She slugged it out with Goering’s Messerschmitts and Focke-Wulfs. She was riddled by machine gun and cannon fire. Once she returned to base with most of her tail shot away. German guns destroyed a wing and five engines. Her fuselage was shot to pieces, but Memphis Belle kept going back. The Memphis Belle crew has been decorated 51 times. Each of the 10 has received the Distinguished Flying Cross, the Air Medal and three Oak Leaf Clusters. The 51st award was Sergeant Quinlan’s Purple Heart.
Download or read book Memphis Belle written by Monte Merrick and published by Berkley. This book was released on 1990 with total page 244 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Before the Belle written by Cassius Mullen and published by Page Publishing Inc. This book was released on 2020-09-02 with total page 343 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Book Delisted
Download or read book Air Force Combat Units of World War II written by Maurer Maurer and published by DIANE Publishing. This book was released on 1961 with total page 520 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book The Original Hell s Angels 303rd Bombardment Group of WWII written by Valerie Smart and published by Arcadia Publishing. This book was released on 2001-08-06 with total page 132 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: During World War II, there was a famed B-17 aircraft named Hell's Angels. The men who worked together to keep the plane flying over Hitler's occupied Europe, those of the U.S. Army Air Force's 303rd Bombardment Group, were the first in the 8th Air Force to complete twenty-five missions from their base in Molesworth, England. These men, or "Hell's Angels" as they became known, went on to complete forty missions without ever turning back to base for mechanical failure of the plane. In The Original Hell's Angels: 303rd Bombardment Group of World War II, you will take an exciting historical journey to meet these men and to experience the total forty-eight missions they flew without having a member wounded or killed before the plane and members of its crew were commissioned to return to America for a war-bond tour. Also, you will learn how the entire 303rd became known as Hell's Angels, the first heavy bombardment group to complete three hundred missions from American air force bases in England.
Download or read book The Mighty Eighth at War written by Martin W. Bowman and published by Casemate Publishers. This book was released on 2010-09-30 with total page 572 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “Relates how the American Eighth Air Force bombers helped Britain's Royal Air Force in fighting Germany during World War II.”—ProtoView From the beginning of World War II, the RAF’s Bomber Command had been the only means of striking Hitler’s Reich and its war machine. But the entry into the war of the United States—and the subsequent arrival in the UK of the Eighth Air Force—would more than double the Allied capability. The Flying Fortress and Liberator heavy bombers were mostly flown across the Atlantic by their young, green aircrew, and many succumbed en route and never arrived. Flying in northern Europe was a different ball game from American skies and it took a considerable time before the crews familiarized themselves with the vagaries of fog, low cloud, rain and snow. The American bombers bristled with defensive armament and elected to fly in close defensive formation during the day, leaving the RAF to carry out nighttime raids. With the arrival of long-range protective escort fighters, the task became a little easier. This book is the story, including many firsthand accounts, of how the American bomber force helped fight to eventual victory, by decimating German industry and transport systems—and breaking the Nazi war spirit.
Download or read book B 17 Memories written by T/Sgt. James Lee Hutchinson Ed.S. and published by AuthorHouse. This book was released on 2014-05-22 with total page 368 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Memphis Belle, completed 25 missions and became the symbol of Eighth Air Force success in the air war over Europe. Its national tour rallied support and encouraged citizens enduring rationing and sacrifices for victory. Heavy bomber aircrews proved their value with precision bombing. My writing is based on memories, diaries and interviews of other veterans and my teenage experiences as an Eighth Air Force B-17 radio/gunner on twenty combat missions with the 490th Bomb Group (H). This fourth book presents short stories of boys on B-17 Flying Fortress crews flying deadly missions to destroy German and Italian military targets. Twenty-six thousand airmen died and thousands more were wounded. The sky was our arena and we paved the way for Infantry and Armored Divisions slogging through heat, rain or snow to preserve our freedom. Many B-17 gunners were teenagers who enlisted or were drafted, trained and sent into combat before they could legally vote or buy a drink. They saved our freedom and came home to build the USA into the most powerful nation in the world. I self-publish because I am 89 and my time is limited. I thank God that I have been able to record more than 350 stories of my generation. "WW II veterans are fading into History — less than two million of the sixteen million who served are left to tell their stories" See my interview online at "Wings over Europe my Smithville"
Download or read book The B 17 Flying Fortress written by Steve Birdsall and published by . This book was released on 1965 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Liberty Lady written by Pat DiGeorge and published by . This book was released on 2016-11-01 with total page 514 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: LIBERTY LADY is the true story of a WWII bomber and its crew forced to land in neutral Sweden during the Eighth Air Force's first large-scale daylight bombing raid on Berlin. 1st Lt. Herman Allen was interned and began working for his country's espionage agency, the OSS, with instructions to befriend a businessman suspected of selling secrets to the Germans. Soon Herman fell in love with a beautiful Swedish-American secretary working for the OSS, their courtship unfolding amid the glamour and intrigue of wartime Stockholm. As Swedish newspapers trumpeted one of the biggest spy scandals of the war, two of the main protagonists walked down the aisle in a storybook wedding presided over by the nephew of the King of Sweden.
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 The Wild Blue written by Stephen E. Ambrose and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2002-05-07 with total page 304 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The story of the men chosen by the Army Air Forces to man the B-24 bombers which made a vital contribution to the Allied victory.
Download or read book Masters of the Air written by Donald L. Miller and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2007-09-25 with total page 688 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Masters of the Air is the deeply personal story of the American bomber boys in World War II who brought the war to Hitler's doorstep. With the narrative power of fiction, Donald Miller takes readers on a harrowing ride through the fire-filled skies over Berlin, Hanover, and Dresden and describes the terrible cost of bombing for the German people. Fighting at 25,000 feet in thin, freezing air that no warriors had ever encountered before, bomber crews battled new kinds of assaults on body and mind. Air combat was deadly but intermittent: periods of inactivity and anxiety were followed by short bursts of fire and fear. Unlike infantrymen, bomber boys slept on clean sheets, drank beer in local pubs, and danced to the swing music of Glenn Miller's Air Force band, which toured U.S. air bases in England. But they had a much greater chance of dying than ground soldiers. In 1943, an American bomber crewman stood only a one-in-five chance of surviving his tour of duty, twenty-five missions. The Eighth Air Force lost more men in the war than the U.S. Marine Corps. The bomber crews were an elite group of warriors who were a microcosm of America -- white America, anyway. (African-Americans could not serve in the Eighth Air Force except in a support capacity.) The actor Jimmy Stewart was a bomber boy, and so was the "King of Hollywood," Clark Gable. And the air war was filmed by Oscar-winning director William Wyler and covered by reporters like Andy Rooney and Walter Cronkite, all of whom flew combat missions with the men. The Anglo-American bombing campaign against Nazi Germany was the longest military campaign of World War II, a war within a war. Until Allied soldiers crossed into Germany in the final months of the war, it was the only battle fought inside the German homeland. Strategic bombing did not win the war, but the war could not have been won without it. American airpower destroyed the rail facilities and oil refineries that supplied the German war machine. The bombing campaign was a shared enterprise: the British flew under the cover of night while American bombers attacked by day, a technique that British commanders thought was suicidal. Masters of the Air is a story, as well, of life in wartime England and in the German prison camps, where tens of thousands of airmen spent part of the war. It ends with a vivid description of the grisly hunger marches captured airmen were forced to make near the end of the war through the country their bombs destroyed. Drawn from recent interviews, oral histories, and American, British, German, and other archives, Masters of the Air is an authoritative, deeply moving account of the world's first and only bomber war.
Download or read book Combat Crew written by John Comer and published by Leo Cooper Books. This book was released on 1988 with total page 267 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An autobiographical account of the wartime experience of an American bomber crewman, John Comer, who survived 25 combat missions over Nazi-occupied Europe at the height of the allied bomber offensive.
Download or read book Five Came Back written by Mark Harris and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2014-02-27 with total page 528 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Now a Netflix original documentary series, also written by Mark Harris: the extraordinary wartime experience of five of Hollywood's most important directors, all of whom put their stamp on World War II and were changed by it forever Here is the remarkable, untold story of how five major Hollywood directors—John Ford, George Stevens, John Huston, William Wyler, and Frank Capra—changed World War II, and how, in turn, the war changed them. In a move unheard of at the time, the U.S. government farmed out its war propaganda effort to Hollywood, allowing these directors the freedom to film in combat zones as never before. They were on the scene at almost every major moment of America’s war, shaping the public’s collective consciousness of what we’ve now come to call the good fight. The product of five years of scrupulous archival research, Five Came Back provides a revelatory new understanding of Hollywood’s role in the war through the life and work of these five men who chose to go, and who came back. “Five Came Back . . . is one of the great works of film history of the decade.” --Slate “A tough-minded, information-packed and irresistibly readable work of movie-minded cultural criticism. Like the best World War II films, it highlights marquee names in a familiar plot to explore some serious issues: the human cost of military service, the hypnotic power of cinema and the tension between artistic integrity and the exigencies of war.” --The New York Times
