num_pages: 403
description: Written from the unusual perspective of a navigator this is a compelling account of the air war against Germany. --Publishers WeeklyThey began operations out of England in the spring of '43. They flew their Flying Fortresses almost daily against strategic targets in Europe in the name of freedom. Their astonishing courage and appalling losses earned them the name that resounds in the annals of aerial warfare and made the Bloody Hundredth a legend.Harry H. Crosby--soon to be portrayed by Anthony Boyle in the miniseries Masters of the Air developed by Tom Hanks and Steven Spielberg--arrived with the very first crews and left with the very last. After dealing with his fear and gaining in skill and confidence he was promoted to Group Navigator surviving hairbreadth escapes and eluding death while leading thirty-seven missions some of them involving two thousand aircraft. Now in a breathtaking and often humorous account he takes us into the hearts and minds of these intrepid airmen to experience both the triumph and the white-knuckle terror of the war in the skies.Affecting . . . A vivid account . . . Uncommonly thoughtful recollections that address the moral ambiguities of a great cause without in any way denigrating the selfless valor or camaraderie that helped ennoble it. --Kirkus ReviewsRe-creates for us the sense of how it was when European skies were filled with noise and danger when the fate of millions hung in the balance. An evocative and excellent memoir. --Library JournalThe acrid stench of fear and cordite the coal burning stoves the heroics the losses . . . This has to be the best memoir I have read bar none. --George Hicks director of the Airmen Memorial Museum
language: English
title: A Wing and a Prayer: The "Bloody 100th" Bomb Group of the US Eighth Air Force in Action Over Europe in World War II
publisher: Open Road Media