USAAF Fighter Stories

Ref: 4028

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{detailed description}Hollywood portrayed Second World War American fighter pilots as young gods —flamboyant, romantic, silken-scarved knights of the skies. But Ian McLachlan's absorbing collection of personal accounts of life in the US Army Air Force provides a rather more accurate picture of what it was really like.
While excitement and courage are by no means lacking from these stories, we are never allowed to forget that these were real young men, many barely into their twenties, quite probably away from home for the first time, some buoyed up by youthful optimism, others gnawed by anxieties. Some were destined to survive the horrors against all the odds, others had their young lives quickly snuffed out.
There are dramatic stories of spiralling dogfights, ghastly tragedies that will shock the reader, and grinding fear. Others concern the more mundane, but no less vital, everyday missions. We learn of the dedication of the groundcrews, the welcome of the locals, and the experiences of the YMCA Tea Car girls, serving Britain's national beverage to puzzled, homesick 'Yanks'. Often these accounts are told in the airmen's own simple words, or through letters home to loved ones. The stories are supported by a superb collection of personal and combat photographs, many of them published here for the first time.
As an aviation archaeologist and historian, Ian McLachlan follows some incidents right through into the 1990s. Archaeological digs in the quiet East Anglian fields have brought to light the tangled remains of aircraft and poignant personal effects that may complete a story unresolved for more than 50 years. Recent reunions between airmen and their British hosts show how the war years continue to touch our lives today.
{Author / Publisher / Date}by Ian McLachlan
Published by PSL 1997 1st edition. 192pp profusely illustrated, index. 17x24
{condition}fine, including d/j
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