Book picks similar to
Thirty-Five Missions Over Japan by Philip D. Webster


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East Wind Returns


William Peter Grasso - 2011
     East Wind Returns is a story of WW2 set in July-November 1945 which explores a very different road to that conflict’s historic conclusion. The American war leaders grapple with a crippling setback: their secret atomic bomb does not work. The invasion of Japan seems the only option to bring the war to a close. When those leaders suppress intelligence of a Japanese atomic weapon poised against the invasion forces, it falls to photo reconnaissance pilot John Worth to find the Japanese device. Political intrigue is mixed with passionate romance and exciting aerial action—the terror of enemy fighters, anti-aircraft fire, mechanical malfunctions, deadly weather, and the Kamikaze. When shot down by friendly fire over southern Japan during the American invasion, Worth leads the desperate mission that seeks to deactivate the device. Turning back the clock to 1942, follow John Worth’s exploits as an eager rookie pilot in Grasso’s Operation Long Jump.

Tiger in the Sea: The Ditching of Flying Tiger 923 and the Desperate Struggle for Survival


Eric Lindner - 2021
    They all expected to die.Murray radioed out "Mayday" as he attempted to fly down through gale-force winds into the rough water, hoping the plane didn't break apart when it hit the sea.Only a handful of ships could pick up the distress call so far from land. The closest was a Swiss freighter 13 hours away. Dozens of other ships and planes from nine countries abruptly changed course or scrambled from Canada, Iceland, Ireland, Scotland, and Cornwall, all racing to the rescue--but they would take hours, or days, to arrive.From the cockpit, the blackness of the Atlantic grew ever closer. Could Murray do what no pilot had ever done--"land" a commercial airliner at night in a violent sea without everyone dying? And if he did, would rescuers find any survivors before they drowned or died from hypothermia in the icy water?The fate of Flying Tiger 923 riveted the world. Bulletins interrupted radio and TV programs. Headlines shouted off newspapers from London to LA. Frantic family members overwhelmed telephone switchboards. President Kennedy took a break from the brewing crises in Cuba and Mississippi to ask for hourly updates.Tiger in the Sea is a gripping tale of triumph, tragedy, unparalleled airmanship, and incredibly brave people from all walks of life. The author has pieced together the story--long hidden because of murky Cold War politics--through exhaustive research and reconstructed a true and inspiring tribute to the virtues of outside-the-box-thinking, teamwork, and hope.Learn more at TigerintheSea.com

Flying With Confidence: Fix Your Fear and Enjoy Your Flight


Patricia Furness-Smith - 2013
     Does the thought of flying fill you with dread? Do panic attacks leave you feeling scared and vulnerable? If so, this book could change your life. Written by top flying experts from British Airways' 'Flying with Confidence' course, this reassuring guide explains everything you need to know about air travel alongside techniques for feeling confident and in control from take off to landing. In easy-to-follow sections, you'll learn how to recognise cabin noises, manage turbulence and fly in bad weather conditions. As your knowledge grows, so will your confidence, with the fear of the unknown removed.

American Juggalo


Kent Russell - 2011
    In this single, from n+1 (Issue 12), Kent Russell gives a remarkable (and very funny) report on the festival and a sympathetic account of the situation of the white poor in the US.

Beyond the Call: The True Story of One World War II Pilot's Covert Mission to Rescue POWs on the Eastern Front


Lee Trimble - 2015
    With no food, shelter, or supplies, they were an army of dying men.The Red Army had pushed the Nazis out of Russia. As they advanced across Poland, the prison camps of the Third Reich were discovered and liberated. In defiance of humanity, the freed Allied prisoners were discarded without aid. The Soviets viewed POWs as cowards, and regarded all refugees as potential spies or partisans.The United States repeatedly offered to help recover their POWs, but were refused. With relations between the allies strained, a plan was conceived for an undercover rescue mission. In total secrecy, the OSS chose an obscure American air force detachment stationed at a Ukrainian airfield; it would provide the base and the cover for the operation. The man they picked to undertake it was veteran 8th Air Force bomber pilot Captain Robert Trimble.With little covert training, already scarred by the trials of combat, Trimble took the mission. He would survive by wit, courage, and a determination to do some good in a terrible war. Alone he faced up to the terrifying Soviet secret police, saving hundreds of lives. At the same time he battled to come to terms with the trauma of war and find his own way home to his wife and child.One ordinary man. One extraordinary mission. A thousand lives at stake.This is the compelling, inspiring true story of an American hero who laid his life on the line to bring his fellow men home to safety and freedom.INCLUDES PHOTOS

The Girl with the Scarlet Ribbon: An emotional and gripping World War 2 historical novel


Suzanne Goldring - 2022
    

Fireball: Carole Lombard and the Mystery of Flight 3


Robert Matzen - 2014
    on January 16, 1942, actress Carole Lombard, Hollywood's "Queen of Screwball" and the wife of the king of the movies, Clark Gable, stepped onto a Transcontinental & Western Airlines DC-3, designated as Flight 3 in Indianapolis, Indiana with her mother, Elizabeth Peters, and MGM publicity man Otto Winkler. Lombard had just completed the first sale of war bonds and stamps in the nation following its entry into World War II. Exhausted from five days on the road, Carole intended to return to her husband and Encino, California home and by the fastest means possible. Fourteen hours later, Flight 3 lay a flaming pile of debris strewn across the side of Potosi Mountain, Nevada.Fireball provides a fresh look at Carole Lombard's life, with plenty of focus on her list of lovers that included Howard Hughes and Clark Gable, and presents a first-ever examination of the events that led to that final flight and her death. The book also provides a day-by-day look at the struggles of Clark Gable and Lombard's family, friends, and fans, to cope with the tragedy. Lombard became the first Hollywood star to sacrifice her life in World War II. The War Department offered Gable a funeral service with full military honors but he refused it knowing that his wife would not approve of such spectacle.But Fireball goes much further and explores the lives of the 21 others on the plane, including 15 members of the U.S. Army Air Corps, and addresses one of the most enduring mysteries of World War II: On a clear night full of stars, with TWA's most experienced pilot at the controls of a 10-month-old aircraft under the power of two fully functioning engines, why did Flight 3 crash into that Nevada mountainside?Author Robert Matzen digs deep into never-before-explored corners of the Motion Picture Academy of Arts and Sciences Library to offer fresh new perspectives on Carole Lombard, “the Queen of Screwball.” He also explored 2,000 pages of federal government and TWA records on the crash and spoke to friends of Carole Lombard and Clark Gable as well as crash experts and family members of the passengers on Flight 3 to tell not one but 22 heartbreaking stories, one for each of the souls aboard the doomed airliner.The gripping page-turner Fireball presents the story of the people on the plane, the friends and families left behind, and the heroic first responders who struggled up a mountain hoping to perform a miracle rescue. From the first page to the last, Fireball tells a story of accomplishment, bravery, sacrifice, and loss.

The Heart of Hampton House


Anita Stansfield - 2020
    Her choices are few: if she is to survive, she has no choice but to assume domestic work. So when she is taken on as a maid in the vast manor of the powerful Hampton family, Deidre is determined to prove her mettle. But when she catches the eye of the young master of the house, she is set upon an unexpected new path. Julian Hampton is immediately taken by the gentle, new housemaid. He sees in her the qualities necessary to help him with his greatest responsibility: the care of his younger sister. When he offers Deidre a position as his sister’s companion, it is an opportunity that is not without its challenges. Deidre becomes fast friends with Julian and his sister, but with this relationship comes stirrings of resentment within the household directed at the young woman who has risen so quickly to such a position of responsibility. As Deidre’s connection with Julian deepens into a forbidden love, she must reconcile the tumultuous feelings of her heart or risk losing everything.

Bullets in the Washing Machine


Melissa Littles - 2011
    Bullets in the Washing Machine, her first release, is a compilation of short stories and poems, focusing on seeing the positives through the daily struggles of living a life in Law Enforcement. Melissa hopes to not only bring encouragement to those in law enforcement but to bring awareness to the general public of the daily sacrifices and misconceptions related to law enforcement officers. Melissa Littles is married to Officer Bervis Littles of the Edmond Police Department, in Edmond, Oklahoma. Officer Littles is a Hostage Negotiator, Suicide Prevention Officer and a School Resource Officer.

Joe Foss Flying Marine: The Story of his Flying Circus


Joe Foss - 1943
     With 26 victories to his name, he became the first pilot to equal Eddie Rickenbacker’s American World War I record. In October 1942, Foss and his regiment were sent into the heat of battle at Guadalcanal. Foss quickly gained a reputation for aggressive close-in fighter tactics and uncanny gunnery skills and rose to become the lead pilot of what was called Foss’ Flying Circus. Foss’ book Joe Foss Flying Marine: The Story of his Flying Circus is a remarkable work that demonstrates just how tough life could be for a fighter pilot in the Pacific Theater of World War One. Through the course of the book Foss explains how he became a pilot, despite the fact he was initially deemed too old, why he, and men like him, chose to fight the war in the air and what it was like to engage in dogfights with Japanese pilots. “His remarkable flying skill, inspiring leadership and indomitable fighting spirit were distinctive factors in the defense of strategic American positions on Guadalcanal.” Franklin D. Roosevelt, President, United States. Joe Foss’ citation read: “For extraordinary achievement while participating in aerial flights with Marine Fighting Squadron 121 in the Solomon Islands area. During the period Oct. 13 to Oct. 20, 1942, inclusive, Captain Foss shot down six enemy Zero fighters and one enemy bomber in aerial combat. His constant aggressiveness, skill, and leadership during these engagements were worthy of the highest traditions of the Naval Service.” Joe Foss was a United States Marine Corps major and the leading Marine fighter ace in World War II. He received the Medal of Honor in recognition of his role in air combat during the Guadalcanal Campaign. His book Joe Foss Flying Marine: The Story of his Flying Circus was first published in 1943. Foss passed away in 2003.

A Wartime Secret


Helen Yendall - 2022
    Then she was gone.When Maggie’s new job takes her from bombed-out London to grand Snowden Hall in the Cotswolds she’s apprehensive but determined to do her bit for the war effort. She’s also keeping a secret, one she knows would turn opinion against her. Her mother is German: Maggie is related to the enemy.Then her evacuee sister sends her a worrying letter, missing the code they agreed Violet would use to confirm everything was well, and Maggie’s heart sinks. Violet is miles away; how can she get to her in the middle of a war? Worse, her mother, arrested for her nationality, is now missing, and Maggie has no idea where she is.As a secret project at Snowden Hall risks revealing Maggie’s German side, she becomes even more determined to protect her family. Can she find a way to get to her sister? And will she ever find out where her mother has been taken?

Captain


Thomas Block - 2012
    It is a chilling and all-too-real story about a routine Trans-Atlantic airline flight that suddenly turns absolutely insane. In the doomed airliner's cockpit, inside the passenger cabin and on the ground, a complex array of characters have been propelled at jet speed into a sudden and frantic race for survival."Captain" is about the individual and collective struggles of each of these men and women as they attempt to deal with and ultimately fight against the odds and circumstances that are stacked against them."Captain" is a novel that pits man against man while also pitting man against machine. It is a story about the need for human judgments, hard-learned experiences, gut feelings and unbridled perseverance in an effort to rise up against a world where the strict adherence to written rules, regulations and procedures have been accepted as the norm."Captain" is about the way real airline pilots think, feel and react, especially after those giant airliners that they've strapped themselves to have suddenly turned vicious and unpredictable.Author Nelson DeMille says of "Captain": After a long hiatus from writing, Captain Block rejoins the ranks of legendary pilots-turned-novelists such as Ernest K. Gann ("The High and the Mighty") and brings us "Captain" - one of the best aviation/adventure thrillers you will ever read."Captain" puts you in the cockpit, in the passenger cabin, and at airline headquarters with an intricate and intriguing array of characters. This novel is nothing short of the most frightening and heart-pounding Trans-Atlantic fliight since Charles Lindbergh's solo. Or will it turn out to be Amelia Earhart's tragic Pacific crossing?"Captain" is right up there with the best of the aviation thrillers; an edge of your seat story of what happens when something goes horribly wrong when there is no room for wrong. Captain Block knows his stuff, and it shows on every page. Welcome aboard.

Delta Blue


William H. Lovejoy - 1991
     A reunified Germany is pouring funds into developing its military capability. When a US space station spots unusual oil drilling activity in the seas around Greenland, their curiosity is piqued. Especially when they discover that the oil wells are owned by the mysterious Bremerhaven Petroleum Corporation, yet heavily guarded by German state military… Soon, astronaut Kevin McKenna – and the team of secret MakoShark rocket pilots he heads up – are embroiled in a covert plan to discover what is really going on. Caught up in the tensions of space-station life and an unlikely alliance with the Soviets, McKenna and his team embark on a series of challenging missions to unveil the true and chilling plans of the Germans. But as events escalate and the threat of World War 3 looms, skill, stamina and technology are all put to the test. Delta Blue is a thrilling ride into the world of space stations, military espionage, and geo-political tensions. It is the first book in the Colonel McKenna Adventure series. Praise for William H Lovejoy ‘Lovejoy has proven himself a master storyteller.’ - Clive Cussler William H Lovejoy is the author of twenty-five thriller, suspense, and mystery novels, including Delta Blue and Delta Green. A Vietnam veteran, he resides in Colorado and is Vice Chancellor Emeritus from Mohave Community College. Endeavour Press is the UK's leading independent digital publisher. For more information on our titles please sign up to our newsletter at www.endeavourpress.com. Each week you will receive updates on free and discounted ebooks. Follow us on Twitter: @EndeavourPress and on Facebook via http://on.fb.me/1HweQV7

Vipers in the Storm: Diary of a Gulf War Fighter Pilot


Keith Rosenkranz - 1999
    Here he recounts these experiences in searing, you-are-there detail, giving readers one of the most riveting depictions ever written of man and machine at war.

The Lady's Gamble


Anne R. Bailey - 2021