Cover image for Half a wing, three engines and a prayer : B-17s over Germany
Title:
Half a wing, three engines and a prayer : B-17s over Germany
Personal Author:
Edition:
Special ed.
Publication Information:
New York : McGraw-Hill, 1999
ISBN:
9780071341455

Available:*

Library
Item Barcode
Call Number
Material Type
Item Category 1
Status
Searching...
30000010067847 D790 O63 1999 Open Access Book Book
Searching...

On Order

Summary

Summary

Publisher's Note: Products purchased from Third Party sellers are not guaranteed by the publisher for quality, authenticity, or access to any online entitlements included with the product.


A well-researched, highly readable account of a B-17 combat crew's experience




In 1943, when the outcome of World War II hung in the balance, B-17 crews of the Eighth Air Force flew harrowing, unescorted daylight bombing missions deep into Occupied Europe and Germany. These devastating raids have long been storied in film and fiction, but here is a firsthand, blow-by-blow account of these perilous missions as they really happened. In these pages, you'll see the events unfold as they were recorded and recalled by one crew's officers and enlisted men (pilot, copilot, navigator, radioman, and gunners), corroborated by other crews they flew with, and painstakingly correlated with the official records of the men's 303rd "Hell's Angels" Bomb Group.

The publication of Half a Wing, Three Engines, and a Prayer in 1989 prompted a flood of fresh recollections, correspondence, and personal records from other veterans of the 303rd. This Special Revised Edition incorporates that wealth of new material into a vivid, thorough recreation -- complete with actual combat photographs -- of one of the most dramatic chapters in military aviation history.


New in this Special Revised Edition:
* New veteran interviews
* Expanded coverage
* Revised data
* 90 photographs & illustrations
* Epilogue: crewmen's post-war careers

"A well-researched, highly readable account of a B-17 combat crew's experience...excellent." -- Roger A. Freeman, author of The Mighty Eighth

"The best collection of stories about a B-17 Bomb Group that has ever been published." -- Harry D. Gobrecht, President, 303rd Bomb Group Association and author of Might in Flight: Daily Diary of the Eighth Air Force's 'Hell's Angels' Bomb Group





Author Notes

Brian D. O'Neill, is the General Counsel of Curtiss-Wright Corporation, the famous aviation company that manufactured the Curtiss P-40 fighter and the B-17's Wright Cyclone engines during World War II. Before becoming an attorney, he served with the U.S. Navy as a detroyer gunner officer and shipyard repair officer. An avid student of Eighth Air Force history, he resides in East Windsor, New Jersey.


Table of Contents

Special Edition
Acknowledgments
Acknowledgments
Foreword
Introduction
Chapter 1 Hullar's Crew
Chapter 2 The ETO
Chapter 3 Moleworth and the 303rd Bomb Group
Chapter 4 Introduction to Combat: Amiens, August 15, 1943 and Le Bourget, August 16, 1943
Chapter 5 "We're Veterans After That One!": Schweinfurt, August 17, 1943
Chapter 6 "This One Was Going to Be a 'Milk Run'": Gilze Rijen, August 19, 1943
Chapter 7 "They Didn't Have a Prayer!": Watten, August 27, 1943
Chapter 8 By This Time Thi