Their life expectancy was about 10 raids. bomber personnel had to fly 25 missions before they could return to the United States. The British would do nighttime saturation bombing. It was decided by the American and British commanders that American bombers would conduct high altitude, daylight, “precision” bombing. Among its early leaders were Generals Curtis LeMay, Billy Mitchell and Jimmy Doolittle, icons of the world of military aviation before, during and after the war. overall command unit for American air forces in Europe. Lucky met Sully’s girlfriend Lady Peggy who owned a private club in London, and polo horses. They spent a very memorable weekend in London in 1943. It took a while before they realized how near they were to each other. Both ended up in England not far from each other. Lucky entered the United States Army Air Corps as a B-17 bomber pilot. Sully joined the Royal Canadian Air Force as a fighter pilot. When WWII broke out, they both wanted to become fighter pilots. They were best friends and grew up together.
An important secondary character is Leroy “Sully” Sullivan from the same town. The subject of this true story is John “Lucky” Luckadoo from Chattanooga, Tennessee. This book is DAMN LUCKY by author KEVIN MAURER. Thank goodness there are writers still digging out their stories so that “we may never forget” their sacrifices and heroism. This is the story of another one of those heroes. Knowing far too many airmen who wouldn’t be returning home, Luckadoo closed off his emotions and focused on his tasks to finish his tour of duty one moment at a time, realizing his success was more about being lucky than being skilled.ĭrawn from Luckadoo’s firsthand accounts, acclaimed war correspondent Kevin Maurer shares his extraordinary tale from war to peacetime, uncovering astonishing feats of bravery during the bloodiest military campaign in aviation history, and presenting an incredible portrait of a young man’s coming-of-age during the world’s most devastating war.ĭespite what they say, they are/were “The Greatest Generation”. The average bomber crew rarely survived after eight to twelve missions. With a shrapnel torn Bible in his flight jacket pocket and his girlfriend’s silk stocking around his neck like a scarf as talismans, Luckadoo piloted through Luftwaffe machine-gun fire and antiaircraft flak while enduring subzero temperatures to complete twenty-five missions and his combat service. Between June and October 1943, he flew B-17 Flying Fortresses over France and Germany on bombing runs devised to destroy the Nazi war machine. Trained as a pilot with the United States Air Force, Second Lieutenant Luckadoo was assigned to the 100th Bomb Group stationed in Thorpe Abbotts, England. But when the Japanese attacked the American naval base on December 7, 1941, he didn’t hesitate to join the military. Pearl Harbor, Hawaii was a world away from John Luckadoo’s hometown of Chattanooga, Tennessee. ―John “Lucky” Luckadoo, Major, USAF (Ret.) 100th Bomb Group (H) My hope is that this book honors the men with whom I served by telling the truth about what it took to climb into the cold blue and fight for our lives over and over again.”
We volunteered for the service and, once trained and overseas, felt we had no choice but to fulfill the mission assigned. We were all afraid, but it was beyond our power to quit. “We were young citizen-soldiers, terribly naive and gullible about what we would be confronted with in the air war over Europe and the profound effect it would have upon every fiber of our being for the rest of our lives. From Kevin Maurer―the #1 New York Times bestselling, award-winning coauthor of No Easy Day ―comes the true story of a World War II bomber pilot who survived twenty-five missions in Damn Lucky, “an epic, thrillingly written, utterly immersive account of a very lucky, incredible survivor of the war in the skies to defeat Hitler” ( New York Times bestselling author Alex Kershaw).
0 kommentar(er)
