B-17 "Flying Fortress" Combat Diary of Andy Anzanos, 26 missions, credited with destruction of an ME-110 and damaging an ME-109. Many engine failures and massive rocket attack made for a memorable experience. Loss of all room mates and their aircraft "Liberty Bell-e." Soon after completing his combat missions, Andy was shot down by friendly fire. Also writes of other training experiences. Andy is also a major designer and builder of the 390th Memorial Museum in Tucson, Arizona dedicated to his bomb group.
By the time of the Vietnam War, the U.S. military had transitioned to jet aircraft. Yet leaders soon learned prop-driven planes could still play a role in counterinsurgency warfare. World War II-era Douglas B-26 light bombers proved effective in close air support and interdiction, beginning with Operation Farm Gate in 1961. Forty B-26s were remanufactured as improved A-26 attack aircraft, which destroyed hundreds of North Vietnamese supply vehicles on the Ho Chi Minh Trail in 1966-1969. The personal recollections of 37 pilots, navigators, maintenance and armament personnel, and family members, tell the harrowing story of B-26 and A-26 Air Commando Wing combat operations in Vietnam and Laos.
WW II books of 50 or more stories of boys on B-17 Flying Fortress crews, flying deadly missions with the Eighth Air Force in World War II. His writing is based on his teenage combat experiences as a B-17 radio/gunner on twenty combat missions with the 490th Bomb group, diaries and interviews of veterans of various bomb groups. Teenagers who volunteered to fly were trained and went into combat before they could legally vote or buy a drink. They signed up for the Army’s Air Cadet Program and became a part of the greatest air armada in the world. Any of the gunners on a bomber crew were teenagers and twenty-four was the average age of pilots, bombardiers and navigators. Veterans’ diaries give amazing reports of fighter attacks, flak damage and being shot down to become Prisoners of War. They were the youngsters who flew daylight bombing missions in the Mighty Eighth and destroyed Germany’s military and war industry.
The Nimrods is an important new book for two reasons. First, it is an accurate true-life story, told by an A-26 navigator/co-pilot who flew 182 combat missions in the Vietnam War, about a magnificent band of A-26 pilots and navigator/co-pilots who flew--from 1966 to 1969--countless high-intensity nighttime dive-bombing missions in "The Secret War in Laos" (Steel Tiger, Barrel Roll and along the Ho Chi Minh Trail). To illustrate the intensity of the dive-bombing missions in the Vietnam War, the writer describes, in detail, more than twenty separate unforgettable missions and more importantly the personalities and psychological reactions of all of the unforgettable characters who were a part of the 609th Special Operations Squadron. Second, the book is highly relevant to the current Wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and the Global War on Terror, because it addresses the lessons learned in the Vietnam War (and World War II and the Korean War) and advocates that Americans and their allies apply those lessons learned to terrorism and renewed threats of nuclear war from tyrants and terrorists around the world. This is a book whose time has come. The views of our military veterans and their families who have endured the life-threatening and life-changing experiences of combat are made known to the American public and our allies. Recommendations from The Iraq Study Group Report, and President Bush's new Iraq strategy, are reviewed and analyzed. The book articulates a new way forward and a new vision that can be embraced by the entire world, and contrasts the vision of America and its allies with the vision of Osama bin Laden and the radical Islamic terrorists who threaten the security of the entire world.
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"
I have interviewed more than 400 veterans to preserve our history. My seven books record true accounts of life in the Greatest Generation. We flew on oxygen at 25,000 feet and 40 below zero to face enemy fighters and flak! I often wondered if I would ever see my twentieth birthday. Our escort fighters protected us from enemy fighters, but only God could protect us as we flew into the black flak (exploding anti-aircraft 88 mm shells) filling the sky over the target. I am proud to have saved 300 or more short stories of fellow World War ll veterans in seven books and four recordings.
A Selection of the History Book Club. "A controversial book that answers why the Confederates suffered such staggering human losses". -- History Book Club Review
