Synopses & Reviews
World War II arrived at a time when airplanes were scarcely thirty years old. Engines were small, passenger capacity was limited, and only the biggest of the flying boats had the fuel tanks and safety features necessary to cross the oceans. But war changed that quickly and within a year, bombers and fighters were routinely crossing the Mediterranean, the English Channel, and most daunting of all, the Atlantic and the Pacific Oceans. Naturally, the odds caught up with them and planes crashed. In time, hundreds of them were ditching a year and with that came the necessity to develop an air-sea rescue service — and from that comes this remarkable history of courage, willpower, and determination. The air-sea rescue service members faced hard choices and bad odds — but they flew each mission determined to save one more pilot, one more aircrew, and to bring one more man home again. Part of the "Lost Histories of World War II" series, this important work includes firsthand accounts unpublished for seventy years.
Synopsis
Filled with firsthand accounts unpublished for seventy years, this work tells the tale of the courageous members of the American air-sea rescue service during World War II.
About the Author
L. Douglas Keeney has a master's degree from the University of Southern California and is a military historian and researcher. He is the cofounder of The Military Channel, on which he hosted the series Gun Camera. He has also appeared on The Discovery Channel, The Learning Channel, CBS, and Fox in the Morning. The author or coauthor of 12 books on military history, Mr. Keeney is a pilot and scuba diver and has visited many of the sites mentioned in his acclaimed Lost Histories of World War II series. He lives in Louisville, Kentucky.