Military

Title: Men Who Killed the Luftwaffe: The U.S. Army Air Forces Against Germany in World War II
Author: Jay Stout
Genre: Military, Air Force
Reviewer: Bob Doerr

ISBN (links go to the MWSA Amazon store): 0811706591

At the outset of World War II the Army Air Corps numbered only 45,000 men and a few thousand aircraft—hardly enough to defend the United States, let alone defeat Germany's Luftwaffe, the world’s most formidable air force. Yet by the war’s end the Luftwaffe had been crushed, and the U.S. Army Air Forces, successor to the Air Corps, had delivered the decisive blows. The "Men Who Killed the Luftwaffe" tells the story of that striking transformation, one of the marvels of modern warfare, while simultaneously thrusting the reader into whirling, heart-pounding accounts of aerial combat.

The Allies couldn't defeat Hitler's Third Reich without destroying its industry and taking its territory. But before they could do either, they had to neutralize the Luftwaffe, whose state-of-the-art aircraft and battle-seasoned pilots stood ready to batter any attackers. Great Britain's Royal Air Force was only barely holding the line and the might of America was needed to turn the tide. Almost from scratch, the United States built an air force of more than two million men. Thanks to the visionary leadership of Henry “Hap” Arnold, Carl “Tooey” Spaatz, Ira Eaker, James Doolittle, and others, the USAAF assembled a well-trained and superbly-equipped force unlike any ever fielded. And thanks to the brave Americans who crewed, maintained and supported the aircraft, the USAAF annihilated the Luftwaffe as it pounded targets deep inside Germany and elsewhere.

A stirring tribute to these men as well as an engaging history, The Men Who Killed the Luftwaffe vividly describes World War II in the skies above Europe. At the same time it captures the personalities of the men who won it, whether on the ground or in the sky. Stout—a career fighter pilot—brings to this work what few other writers can: The perspective of an airman who knows firsthand the confusion of air combat and the terror of being fired upon.

Jay A. Stout, a retired U.S. Marine Corps fighter pilot with twenty years of service, flew thirty-seven combat missions during Operation DESERT STORM and is now a senior aviation analyst for a leading defense corporation. His previous books include Hornets over Kuwait, Fortress Ploesti, Hammer from Above and Slaughter at Goliad.

Title: Belle of the Brawl: Letters Home From a B-17 Bombardier
Author: Gary A. Best
Genre: Military, Air Force
Reviewer: Rob Ballister

ISBN (links go to the MWSA Amazon store): 159299489X

Belle of the Brawl chronicles the WW II experiences of a B-17 bombardier through the Plexiglas nose of his B-17. Based on the 150 letters the airman wrote home to his mom, much of the horrors of what he experienced off the wing of his plane, aircraft destroyed, dismemberment by flak, go unshared. He didn't want her to worry so he couldn't tell her, "I noticed some movement and a flash of light out of the corner of my right eye . . . the plane that had been flying right next to us had exploded and simply disappeared." Using the bombardier's combat flight record, research data, and interviews of former B-17 crewmembers, Belle of the Brawl unfolds, breaking through the barrier of an unwillingness and inability to tell loved ones of the smell and taste of the war. He and others wrote home in generalities but remembered something quite different. Flying over Berlin, circled with more than 700 antiaircraft cannons, the massive air armada of D-Day and the horrendous air battle over Brux are revealed and remembered long after the struggles of combat - After I got home, "I'd wake up screaming and the same FW would be coming after me."

Title: Kings of the Green Jelly Moon The Book Vol. 1.5
Author: Lloyd A. King, jim greenwald, James Randy Jellerson, Mike Mullins
Genre: Poetry, Book of Poetry
Reviewer: Claudia Pemberton

ISBN (links go to the MWSA Amazon store): 146202789X

KINGS of the GREEN JELLY MOON presents a searing collection of poetry written by a group of Vietnam veterans-each successful in their craft, all award-winning poets in their own right. The title Kings of the Green Jelly Moon recalls the innocence of childhood, a time when children believed the moon was made of green cheese. Then Vietnam changed an innocent generation as truth of war became their reality. From the impact of war on young men and how they are forever changed to the stark reality that fighting in a foreign country, the poems in the collection offer, in verse, a Vietnam veterans' reunion. These soldiers were forever changed by the experience that war forces upon those who fight and return from battle. Those who were lost can never be forgotten.