Famous Aviators of World War II

Famous Aviators of World War II PDF Author: James B. Sweeney
Publisher: Franklin Watts
ISBN: 9780531103029
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 94

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Book Description
Presents biographical sketches of five American fighter pilots and aviation heroes of World War II. Includes descriptions of the types of aircraft, a glossary of aviation terms, and explanations of military ranks and command structure in the U.S. Air Force.

Famous Aviators of World War II

Famous Aviators of World War II PDF Author: James B. Sweeney
Publisher: Franklin Watts
ISBN: 9780531103029
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 94

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Book Description
Presents biographical sketches of five American fighter pilots and aviation heroes of World War II. Includes descriptions of the types of aircraft, a glossary of aviation terms, and explanations of military ranks and command structure in the U.S. Air Force.

Heroes in the Skies

Heroes in the Skies PDF Author: Ian Darling
Publisher: Union Square + ORM
ISBN: 1454936185
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 272

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Book Description
A gripping collection of true stories that capture the bravery of American pilots who helped win WWII. American pilots fought fierce and often deadly battles in every theater of the Second World War, and many overcame incredible obstacles to survive. Meet some of these courageous aviators, including George McGovern, who survived enemy fire that left 110 holes in his aircraft; George H. W. Bush, shot down in the Pacific; Jim Landis, a naval flyer stationed in Pearl Harbor who returned fire even after sustaining a bullet through his hand; Alex Jefferson, a Tuskegee airman shot down over France and taken prisoner; and Betty Blake, one of the little-known women pilots who aided the war effort. Clifton Truman Daniel, a grandson of President Truman, provides the foreword to this collection of carefully researched and vividly told profiles in courage that will transport you to the bullet-ridden, bomb-laden skies of the early 1940s.

The Aviators

The Aviators PDF Author: Winston Groom
Publisher: Disney Electronic Content
ISBN: 1426211570
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 552

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Book Description
Written by gifted storyteller Winston Groom (author of Forrest Gump), The Aviators tells the saga of three extraordinary aviators--Charles Lindbergh, Eddie Rickenbacker, and Jimmy Doolittle--and how they redefine heroism through their genius, daring, and uncommon courage. This is the fascinating story of three extraordinary heroes who defined aviation during the great age of flight. These cleverly interwoven tales of their heart-stopping adventures take us from the feats of World War I through the heroism of World War II and beyond, including daring military raids and survival-at-sea, and will appeal to fans of Unbroken, The Greatest Generation, andFlyboys. With the world in peril in World War II, each man set aside great success and comfort to return to the skies for his most daring mission yet. Doolittle, a brilliant aviation innovator, would lead the daring Tokyo Raid to retaliate for Pearl Harbor; Lindbergh, hero of the first solo flight across the Atlantic, would fly combat missions in the South Pacific; and Rickenbacker, World War I flying ace, would bravely hold his crew together while facing near-starvation and circling sharks after his plane went down in a remote part of the Pacific. Groom's rich narrative tells their intertwined stories--from broken homes to Medals of Honor (all three would receive it); barnstorming to the greatest raid of World War II; front-page triumph to anguished tragedy; and near-death to ultimate survival--as all took to the sky, time and again, to become exemplars of the spirit of the "greatest generation."

The Women with Silver Wings

The Women with Silver Wings PDF Author: Katherine Sharp Landdeck
Publisher: Crown Publishing Group (NY)
ISBN: 1524762814
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 450

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Book Description
The thrilling true story of the daring female aviators who helped the United States win World War II--only to be forgotten by the country they served. When Japanese planes executed a sneak attack on Pearl Harbor in December 1941, Cornelia Fort was already in the air. At twenty-two, Cornelia had escaped Nashville's debutante scene for a fresh start as a flight instructor in Hawaii. She and her student were in the middle of their lesson when the bombs began to fall, and they barely made it back to ground that morning. Still, when the U.S. Army Air Forces put out a call for women pilots to aid the war effort, Cornelia was one of the first to respond. She became one of just over 1,100 women from across the nation to make it through the Army's rigorous selection process and earn her silver wings. In The Women with Silver Wings, historian Katherine Sharp Landdeck introduces us to these young women as they meet even-tempered, methodical Nancy Love and demanding visionary Jacqueline Cochran, the trailblazing pilots who first envisioned sending American women into the air, and whose rivalry would define the Women Airforce Service Pilots. For women like Cornelia, it was a chance to serve their country--and to prove that women aviators were just as skilled and able as men. While not authorized to serve in combat, the WASP helped train male pilots for service abroad and ferried bombers and pursuits across the country. Thirty-eight of them would not survive the war. But even taking into account these tragic losses, Love and Cochran's social experiment seemed to be a resounding success--until, with the tides of war turning and fewer male pilots needed in Europe, Congress clipped the women's wings. The program was disbanded, the women sent home. But the bonds they'd forged never failed, and over the next few decades, they came together to fight for recognition as the military veterans they were--and for their place in history.

Flights of Passage

Flights of Passage PDF Author: Samuel Hynes
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 280

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Book Description
Samuel Hynes served as a consultant on "The War," directed and produced by Ken Burns and Lynn Novick, and appears on camera in several episodes. "The War" is a seven-part, 14-hour documentary series that debuts on PBS on Sunday, September 23, 2007. Sam Hynes was eighteen when he left his Minnesota home for navy flight school in 1943. By the time the war ended he was a veteran Marine pilot, still not quite twenty-one, and had flown more than a hundred missions in the Pacific theater. In this eloquent narrative, by turns dramatic, funny, and elegiac, Hynes recalls those extraordinary years during which he came of age. he makes real the places--the training fields and the liberty towns and the Pacific islands, and the people--the other young pilots, the girls and the young wives, even the enemy pilots. He remembers friendship, and the excitement and tedium of war, the high exhilaration of flying, and the dying. More than a tale of combat, "Flight of Passage" is a story of one boy's growth to manhood in the turbulent, testing world of war in the air.

Jewish Aviators in World War II

Jewish Aviators in World War II PDF Author: Bruce H. Wolk
Publisher: McFarland
ISBN: 1476623554
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 225

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Book Description
More than 150,000 American Jews served in the air war during World War II. Despite acts of heroism and commendations, they were subject to bigotry and scorn by their fellow servicemen. Jews were sometimes characterized as disloyal and cowardly, malingering in the slanderous (and non-existent) "Jewish Quartermaster Corps" or sitting out the war in easy assignments. Based on interviews with more than 100 Jewish air veterans, this oral history features the recollections of pilots, crew members and support personnel in all theaters of combat and all branches of the service, including Jewish women of the Women Airforce Service Pilots. The subjects recall their combat experiences, lives as POWs, and anti-Semitism in the ranks, as well as human interest anecdotes such as encounters with the Tuskegee Airmen.

Flights of Passage

Flights of Passage PDF Author: Samuel Hynes
Publisher: A&C Black
ISBN: 9780747578116
Category : Bomber pilots
Languages : en
Pages : 276

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Book Description
A gripping, literary recollection of a pilot's experiences during WWII.

Wings of War

Wings of War PDF Author: James P. Busha
Publisher: Zenith Press
ISBN: 0760348529
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 259

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Book Description
Experience the exciting combat tales of both Allied and Axis pilots around the world during World War II! Wings of War encompasses the World War II air war from late 1939 through 1945 and provides a chronological snapshot not only of famous and significant events from the global air war, but also of other lesser-known events that are equally thrilling and important. Over three dozen different Allied and Axis airplanes are featured, giving you a unique experience at the controls of a variety of World War II's famed fighters, bombers, liaison, and jet airplanes. The action is truly global--from the skies over England, Greenland, mainland Europe, the African deserts, the CBI Theater, the entire Pacific Theater (including the Aleutians, Russia, Japan, and China) and many more, this is one book no fan of warbirds will want to miss! Here are just a few of the stories included about World War II aces from author Jim Busha's vast archival research and interviews: - A pilot that flew a P-36 against the Japanese at Pearl Harbor on December 7th, 1941, while still in his Sunday pajamas. - A B-25 pilot who launched off the USS Hornet along with his fellow Doolittle Raiders. - P-40 pilots who flew against Rommel and his Afrika Korps. - A PBY pilot helped locate and recover a downed Zero over the Aleutians, which was later used as a test bed to learn its deadly tricks.

Fly Girls

Fly Girls PDF Author: P. O'Connell Pearson
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 1534404120
Category : Juvenile Nonfiction
Languages : en
Pages : 213

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Book Description
“A truly inspiring read.” —Booklist (starred review) “A solid account of women’s contributions as aviators during World War II.” —Kirkus Reviews In the tradition of Hidden Figures, debut author Patricia Pearson offers a beautifully written account of the remarkable but often forgotten group of female fighter pilots who answered their country’s call in its time of need during World War II. At the height of World War II, the US Army Airforce faced a desperate need for skilled pilots—but only men were allowed in military airplanes, even if the expert pilots who were training them to fly were women. Through grit and pure determination, 1,100 of these female pilots—who had to prove their worth time and time again—were finally allowed to ferry planes from factories to bases, to tow targets for live ammunition artillery training, to test repaired planes and new equipment, and more. Though the Women Airforce Service Pilots lived on military bases, trained as military pilots, wore uniforms, marched in review, and sometimes died violently in the line of duty, they were civilian employees and received less pay than men doing the same jobs and no military benefits, not even for burials. Their story is one of patriotism, the power of positive attitudes, the love of flying, and the willingness to serve others with no concern for personal gain.

Race of Aces

Race of Aces PDF Author: John R Bruning
Publisher: Hachette Books
ISBN: 0316508640
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 534

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Book Description
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