The Waist Gunner

The Waist Gunner PDF Author: Alan Van Ransom
Publisher: iUniverse
ISBN: 1532069995
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 168

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Book Description
In 1941, sixteen-year-old Emma Bellerose and her family are nearly killed while escaping Saint-Nazaire, France, targeted for destruction by the Nazi regime. The Bellerose family finds refuge in an abandoned church with other families left homeless and destitute by the devastation. Two years later, they continue to make do in their makeshift shelter. Meanwhile, nineteen-year-old Bill McLaughton, a US military waist gunner, has a persistent nightmare, one that he can’t figure out. He has been assigned to an RAF bomber base in Polebrook, England, and although Bill has had a rather uninteresting life, that is all about to change. When his plane is shot down over the French countryside, the Bellerose family finds him and takes him to safety. As they nurse him back to health, Bill and Emma soon find themselves falling in love. But with the war, anything can happen—and Bill’s nightmare becomes more and more ominous. Only time will tell whether they can find peace and happiness together. In this historical novel, a US airman in World War II plagued by nightmares is shot down over France, where he meets a young woman who changes his life forever.

The Waist Gunner

The Waist Gunner PDF Author: Alan Van Ransom
Publisher: iUniverse
ISBN: 1532069995
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 168

Get Book Here

Book Description
In 1941, sixteen-year-old Emma Bellerose and her family are nearly killed while escaping Saint-Nazaire, France, targeted for destruction by the Nazi regime. The Bellerose family finds refuge in an abandoned church with other families left homeless and destitute by the devastation. Two years later, they continue to make do in their makeshift shelter. Meanwhile, nineteen-year-old Bill McLaughton, a US military waist gunner, has a persistent nightmare, one that he can’t figure out. He has been assigned to an RAF bomber base in Polebrook, England, and although Bill has had a rather uninteresting life, that is all about to change. When his plane is shot down over the French countryside, the Bellerose family finds him and takes him to safety. As they nurse him back to health, Bill and Emma soon find themselves falling in love. But with the war, anything can happen—and Bill’s nightmare becomes more and more ominous. Only time will tell whether they can find peace and happiness together. In this historical novel, a US airman in World War II plagued by nightmares is shot down over France, where he meets a young woman who changes his life forever.

World War II from a Waist Gunner's View of Stalag 17

World War II from a Waist Gunner's View of Stalag 17 PDF Author: Staff Sergeant Luther Irwin Kelley
Publisher: Xlibris Corporation
ISBN: 1465325263
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 190

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Book Description
War, guns, bombs and waist gunners—far removed from the small town of Fowler, Colorado, population about 1200, twenty-eight miles east of Pueblo, Colorado on Highway 50. I lived there with my Dad, Ray, who was Pastor of the Second Baptist church, my Mom, Florence, grandmother, Dora Kelley; older brother Fred, who went into the Army a year before I did, and my sister Lorene. Germany, with the leadership of Hitler had overrun several small countries—the Netherlands, Belgium, France and Austria; as well as the war with Russia and England, incarcerating all the Jews as he went along. The United States was furnishing England with food and all types of war supplies. Then a state of shock fell upon our country and our small town of Fowler when the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor, December 7, 1941. On December 8, 1941, our government declared war on Japan. On December 11, 1941, Germany and Italy declared war on the United States and we in turn declared war on Germany the same day.

No Man’S Sky

No Man’S Sky PDF Author: R. C. Cline
Publisher: AuthorHouse
ISBN: 1496928954
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 482

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Book Description
In the fall of 1942, the first year of the war was ending. For young men in Bloomville (Ohio) Township High Schools senior class, school was the last opportunity to be free before graduation, adult responsibility, and manhood. For them and many other young men across the nation, war was about to become a reality, including J. Emerson Krieger. Life was about to turn in a new, dramatic, and uncharted direction. No Mans Sky, by author R.C. Cline, narrates the story of Krieger, a combat flier in World War II. An aerial gunner, he protected his crew and plane with a Browning M-2 machine gun while flying twenty-nine perilous missions over the embattled skies of Germany. Through diaries, letters, photos, and personal records, this memoir chronicles Kriegers service as a waist gunner, the youngest man in his crew. Offering insight into the challenges of war and combat during World War II, No Mans Sky shares the story of Staff Sergeant Krieger and what life was like six miles in the sky in a B-17 bomber. It pays tribute to all of the men and women who have served our country.

The Kassel Raid, 27 September 1944

The Kassel Raid, 27 September 1944 PDF Author: Eric Ratcliffe
Publisher: Air World
ISBN: 1526774631
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 231

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Book Description
An account of the 445th Heavy Bombardment Group raid that resulted in the greatest single-day loss to a group from one airfield in aviation warfare history. On Thursday, 28 September 1944, a force of 283 Consolidated B-24 Liberator bombers from the USAAF’s 2nd Combat Bombardment Wing, took off from their bases in Britain and headed out across the North Sea escorted by 198 P-51 Mustang fighters. The bombers’ target was the industrial city of Kassel in northern Germany—specifically the engineering works of Henschel & Sohn which built Tiger and Panther tanks. Due to a navigational error, the lead Liberator of the 445th Heavy Bombardment Group turned due east instead of east-south-east and the following thirty-five bombers missed Kassel altogether, attacking an alternative target. But the worst was to come. The change of direction meant that the bombers lost their escorting Mustangs and on the return flight they were pounced on by 150 enemy fighters—and massacred. Twenty-five of the Liberators were shot down inside Germany itself; three crashed en route to the coast (two in France and one in Belgium); two made forced landings at an emergency airfield in England; and the last came to grief within sight of home. Just four of the original thirty-five B-24s landed safely back at Tibenham. In this highly moving account of the Kassel raid, the author, who lives close to the Tibenham airfield, uncovers the painful details of those terrible moments in September 1944 through the stories of those who survived one of the Second World War’s most disastrous operations in the USAAF’s battle against the Luftwaffe.

Luck of the Draw

Luck of the Draw PDF Author: Frank Murphy
Publisher: St. Martin's Griffin
ISBN: 1250284163
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 356

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Book Description
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.)

Plane Talk

Plane Talk PDF Author:
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Aeronautics
Languages : en
Pages : 368

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Book Description


The Air Surgeon's Bulletin

The Air Surgeon's Bulletin PDF Author:
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Aeronautics
Languages : en
Pages : 816

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Book Description


Mission 376

Mission 376 PDF Author: Ivo De Jong
Publisher: Stackpole Books
ISBN: 1461751330
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 458

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Book Description
Minute-by-minute chronicle of a single Eighth Air Force bombing mission in World War II Dramatic story of how B-17s and B-24s bombed targets inside Germany Captures the courage and confusion of aerial combat Details the first combat use of remote-controlled glide bombs by the U.S. Army Air Force Insert contains color aircraft drawings

Lost Airmen

Lost Airmen PDF Author: Charles E. Stanley
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 1684512824
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 242

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Book Description
Late in 1944, thirteen U.S. B-24 bomber crews bailed from their cabins over the Yugoslavian wilderness. Bloodied and disoriented after a harrowing strike against the Third Reich, the pilots took refugee with the Partisan underground. But the Americans were far from safety. Holed up in a village barely able to feed its citizens, encircled by Nazis, and left abandoned after a team of British secret agents failed to secure their escape, the airmen were left with little choice. It was either flee or be killed. In The Lost Airmen, Charles Stanely Jr. unveils the shocking true story of his father, Charles Stanely-and the eighteen brave soldiers he journeyed with for the first time. Drawing on over twenty years of research, dozens of interviews, and previously unpublished letters, diaries, and memoirs written by the airmen, Stanley recounts the deadly journey across the blizzard-swept Dinaric Alps during the worst winter of the Twentieth Century-and the heroic men who fought impossible odds to keep their brothers in arms alive.

B-17 Flying Fortress Units of the MTO

B-17 Flying Fortress Units of the MTO PDF Author: William N Hess
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN: 1782008373
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 196

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Book Description
Although the Fifteenth Air Force was dismissed as 'minor leaguers' by the Eighth Air Force, strategic bombers from this outfit had done a 'major league' job on Axis targets in southern Europe following its formation in Italy in November 1943. And the heavy bombers employed by the Fifteenth were of course the venerable B-17 and B-24. At its peak strength, the Fifteenth's B-17 force comprised six groups of four squadrons each, all controlled by the 5th Bomb Wing. Having been a part of the Fifteenth Air Force in 1944, author Bill Hess has long been waiting to write a definitive account on 'his air force'.