Fifty Missions over Europe

Fifty Missions over Europe PDF

Author: The Shular Family

Publisher: iUniverse

Published: 2017-03-07

Total Pages: 53

ISBN-13: 1491799072

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When John Shular died in 1996, his family found a diary detailing the fifty missions he had flown as a bombardier aboard a B-17 in the Second World War. He spoke to no one of the diary during his life. In Fifty Missions over Europe, Shulars family shares this diary that offers unique insight into the brutal and terrifying lives of the American airmen who fought and won the air war over Europe. The diary begins in July of 1944 in Foggia, Italy, when Shular flew his first bombing flight, a time when aircrews faced an 89 percent casualty rate. He completed his fiftieth mission December 9, 1944. With photos included, the diary is presented here exactly as Shular penned it. Footnotes have been added to the text to explain abbreviations, technical jargon, and instances where the text may be unclear. Shular retired from the air corps after twenty years of service in 1963 and taught high school science and business for fifteen years in Southwick, Massachusetts.

Fifty Missions Over Europe

Fifty Missions Over Europe PDF

Author: Alan Shular

Publisher: Diamond Media Press Company

Published: 2020-10-27

Total Pages: 38

ISBN-13: 9781951302429

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When John Shular died in 1996, his family found a diary detailing the fifty missions he had flown as a bombardier aboard a B-17 in the Second World War. He spoke to no one of the diary during his life. In Fifty Missions over Europe, Shular's family shares this diary that offers unique insight into the brutal and terrifying lives of the American airmen who fought and won the air war over Europe. The diary begins in July of 1944 in Foggia, Italy, when Shular flew his first bombing flight, a time when aircrews faced an 89 percent casualty rate. He completed his fiftieth mission December 9, 1944. With photos included, the diary is presented here exactly as Shular penned it. Footnotes have been added to the text to explain abbreviations, technical jargon, and instances where the text may be unclear. Shular retired from the air corps after twenty years of service in 1963 and taught high school science and business for fifteen years in Southwick, Massachusetts.

50 Mission Crush

50 Mission Crush PDF

Author: Donald R. Currier

Publisher:

Published: 1992

Total Pages: 200

ISBN-13:

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This is the story of the crew of one B-24 bomber, the Woods Chopper, from their first training to their final mission and their long voyage home. Going to war alone, taking their airplane across three continents and 7,000 miles of ocean, jungle, desert, and mountains, these men joined the 449th Bombardment Group. From flying alone, Donald Currier and his crew mates now joined some of the most famous air battles of World War II. Their targets, Ploesti, Regensburg, Steyr, Vienna, Bucharest, among others, were once household words. But their story includes times of boredom and life on and off base, that show the human side of the technological war those men fought and died in to win.

Fifteenth Air Force against the Axis

Fifteenth Air Force against the Axis PDF

Author: Kevin A. Mahoney

Publisher: Scarecrow Press

Published: 2013-04-25

Total Pages: 519

ISBN-13: 081088495X

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In Fifteenth Air Force against the Axis: Combat Missions over Europe during World War II, historian Kevin A. Mahoney provides a detailed combat history of the crucial role played by this air force from November 1943 through May 1945. Presented by month in chronological order, Mahoney describes all the major bombing and fighter missions carried out by this air force within a strategic context. Each chapter includes an introduction describing developments in the evolution of the strategic air campaign against the Germans, highlights the purpose and importance of the month’s operations, and reviews the Luftwaffe’s resistance and changes in tactics and important developments in the Fifteenth Air Force’s organization. Each monthly narrative further explores most missions, detailing the number of aircraft lost during these missions. Losses are based on an exhaustively researched database compiled by Mahoney that contains details of almost 3,000 aircraft. Target damage is mentioned, while enemy opposition is also described for each mission. Appendices include four short essays on bombing operations (planning and flying of missions, tactics and techniques, bomb types, and bombing accuracy), tactics employed by fighter escort in aerial combat and strafing, combat crews and their aircraft (including a comparison of American fighters and bombers, the training of the crews, and their combat tours), and the Fifteenth Air Force command structure (including the use of intelligence, photo and weather reconnaissance, and the considerable effect of weather on Fifteenth Air Force operations). This work of military history is ideal for students and scholars of the air war in Europe.

Langdon Liberando

Langdon Liberando PDF

Author: Joe H Camp, Jr

Publisher: Independently Published

Published: 2022-07-27

Total Pages: 0

ISBN-13: 9781073761852

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Langdon Harve' Wilson, from Abbeville, South Carolina, wanted to be a fighter pilot after flight training, but like many fellow pilots never expected to end up in a heavy bomber. By no means a hero-type, the unassuming Lt. Wilson flew as a co-pilot and later as a first pilot on the B-24 Liberator with the Fifteenth Air Force. As a member of one of the first organized American bomb groups to operate out of North Africa and Southern Italy, his crew's bomber--nicknamed the "Flame McGoon" (from the "Lil Abner" comic strip)--became the iconic, redoubtable, lucky aircraft of his Squadron. His and other first person accounts from the 513th Squadron, 376th "Liberandos" are here painstakingly overlapped with the official mission reports to give the clearest possible depiction of air combat over Germany, Austria, and Eastern Europe in the most critical stage of the 15th Air Force's bombing campaign. Then, we see Wilson postwar, returning to active duty for the Cold War but dealing with undocumented (but evident) issues related to his service. [Third non-fiction title by this author in a focus on ordinary South Carolina veterans of World War II.]

Yanks Over Europe

Yanks Over Europe PDF

Author: Jerome Klinkowitz

Publisher: University Press of Kentucky

Published: 1996-01-01

Total Pages: 172

ISBN-13: 9780813170602

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Contrasts between fighter combat and the bombers' war support Klinkowitz's belief that notions of the air war were determined by one's position in it. He extends his thesis by showing the vastly different style of air war described by veterans of the North African and Mediterranean campaigns and concludes by studying the effects of such combat on adversaries and victims. Air combat, Klinkowitz writes, offers a unique perspective on the nature of war. The experience of combat has inspired authors to combine exquisite descriptions with probing thoughtfulness, covering the full range of human expression from exultation to heartbreak. Here is a tightly drawn, highly readable account of the European air war.

World War II Reminiscences

World War II Reminiscences PDF

Author: Col. John H. Roush, Jr.

Publisher: Xlibris Corporation

Published: 2013-03

Total Pages: 504

ISBN-13: 1479739952

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This volume presents a dramatic collection of significant combat experiences of 79 men in WWII, as told from one combat veteran to another. In the 86 chapters are stories involving all the various branches of combat service and all of the various theaters of war. Within reminiscences, veterans of dangerous encounters are much more apt to open up with details in discussions with men who have also experienced combat. Many find it emotionally distressing to talk of the war with the general public or to recall the horrors of warfare. This is not a history book nor any attempt to tell the big picture of grand campaigns. Instead it is a collection of personal involvements in one-at-a-time incidents of conflict. Many ask what was it like in WWII, for our conflicts in recent years have been vastly different. It has been said that war has become and continues to be an intractable social phenomenon. While some say its elimination is necessary to the survival of mankind, we do not seem to have approached closer to that elimination in the sixty-seven years since WWII ended. Encounters of Warfare remain a stark reality within the present era. That being so, perhaps we should read of what happened as recalled in the most vivid memories of men involved in the most overpowering conflict of modern warfare. Sincerely, John Roush

World War II in Their Own Words

World War II in Their Own Words PDF

Author: Brian Lockman

Publisher: Stackpole Books

Published: 2005

Total Pages: 280

ISBN-13: 9780811732093

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- Gripping firsthand accounts - Then-and-now photos of veterans - Maps and sidebars highlight battles, generals, units, and equipment In this companion volume to the popular PCN series, thirty-three of Pennsylvania's World War II veterans recount their wartime experiences. Although these soldiers hail only from Pennsylvania, they represent a cross-section of the war and Americans who served in it. From the attack at Pearl Harbor to the raising of the flag on Iwo Jima, D-Day, and the Battle of the Bulge, these accounts span all the war's theaters, including far-flung China, Burma, and India. Among these veterans are sailors, marines, medics, nurses, paratroopers, machine gunners, radiomen, and prisoners of war. One served as an aide to George S. Patton, and another would become an NFL Hall of Famer. This is a glimpse of World War II as it happened-in their own words.

Revolt of the Admirals

Revolt of the Admirals PDF

Author: Jeffrey G. Barlow

Publisher:

Published: 1994

Total Pages: 452

ISBN-13:

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Chronicles in compelling detail the historic showdown between the U.S. Air Force and the Navy over the role of carrier aviation in the national security framework of the United States.