Memoirs of a B-29 Pilot - Brossura

Reyher, Charles R.

Brossura

ISBN 10: 1470015463 ISBN 13: 9781470015466

Casa editrice: CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform, 2012

Merriam Press Military Monograph 75. Second Edition (February 2012). This memoir is of the author’s wartime experiences leading up to and as a B-29 Superfortress Aircraft Commander. He was engaged in the Air Offensive—Japan from the Marianas Islands in the South Pacific. He looks back at those experiences from the professional view of a retired airline captain, having flown over 35 years of service with Trans World Airlines. After graduation as a pilot cadet, he became a bomb approach pilot at a bombardier training base for one year. Then, rated as a B-17 Flying Fortress 1st Pilot, he spent six months duty as a B-17 instructor pilot at an airbase training new B-17 crews as replacements for the 8th Air Force in England. Many months of training to be a B-29 Aircraft Commander followed. He arrived at newly constructed Northwest Field, Guam, in early June 1945. 125 factory-new B-29B Superfortresses made up the new 315th Very Heavy Bomb Wing. He and his crew flew 13 missions before the end of the war, all against oil targets. In addition to covering his wartime service, the author concludes the book with several chapters detailing various aspects of the air war against Japan and how he believes attacking Japan’s oil refineries and supplies could have ended the war even without the use of the atomic bombs. Contents: Why the B-29 Was Built; Deming, New Mexico; The China B-29s; Hobbs, New Mexico; Sioux City, Iowa; Formation Flying; Harvard, Nebraska; My First Look at a B-29; Meeting My Crew; The Solo Flight With My Crew; The 315th Bomb Wing Readies for Guam; The “Chicago Queen” Leaves for Guam; Northwest Field, Guam; Air Combat Begins; The Special Mission of the 315th Bomb Wing; Status of the Air War in June 1945; Mission Planning and Getting Ready; Maximum Gross Weight Take-offs; A Typical Bomb Run; My First Mission, Kudamatsu, A Near Disaster; The 509th Composite Group and the Atomic Bomb; The Blockade of Japan; The Fire Bombing of Japanese Cities; The 7th Fighter Command; Air and Sea Rescue in the Pacific Combat Theaters; More About Iwo Jima and Okinawa; The Planned Invasion of Japan; Chapter 28: The Kamikaze; Japan’s Preparation for an American Landing on Kyushu; More Combat Missions; The Last Mission of World War II; August 15, 1945; MacArthur is Appalled; Flight to the Philippines for Prisoner of War Supplies; My Prisoner of War Drop; A Legal Buzz Job of Japan; My Flight to Bolling Field, Washington, D.C., and Discharge; Post War; Addendum; Testimony; B-29 Ditchings at Iwo Jima; 27 photos; 10 documents; 1 map. Review by Mike Keenan, CDR, USN (Ret): I recently purchased subject book (written by my uncle). I thoroughly enjoyed the book. I learned a lot more about my uncle's war experience, his flying career, and the war effort in the Pacific. Thank you so much for publishing my uncle's memoirs!

Le informazioni nella sezione "Riassunto" possono far riferimento a edizioni diverse di questo titolo.