Shot at and Missed: Recollections of a World War II Bombardier (Paperback) (ISBN-13: 9780806136950)

In this riveting narrative, Jack R. Myers recounts his experiences as a B-17 bombardier during World War II. Commissioned a second lieutenant in 1944 at age twenty, Myers began flying missions with the 2nd Bomb Group, U.S. Fifteenth Air Force. He learned firsthand the exhilaration-and terror-of being shot at and missed. Based in Italy, the Fifteenth Air Force flew strategic bombing raids over southern Germany, Austria, Hungary, Rumania, and Czechoslovakia. Less celebrated than the Eighth Air Force, which flew out of England, the Fifteenth, nevertheless, was pivotal in dismantling the German industrial complex. Myers offers an insider's view of these missions over southern and central Europe. The reader goes with him into the highly exposed Plexiglas nose of the Flying Fortress, flying with him through the flak-filled skies of Europe and peering with him through his Norden bombsight at Axis targets. On average, a heavy-bomber crewman survived only sixteen bombing missions. Myers survived his allotted thirty-five missions before being honorably discharged in 1945.

Author: Jack R. Myers
ISBN-10: 0806136952
ISBN-13: 9780806136950
Publisher: University of Oklahoma Press
Language: English
Published: 08/02/2004
Pages: 320
Format: Paperback
Weight: 1.00lbs
Size: 9.44h x 6.28w x 0.71d