ONE PILOT'S STORY

Book excerpt: This is a remarkable book. It is the real life story of a pilot of the famed 91st Bomb Group, the Memphis Belle Group, in World War II, and the missions flown in that Group by the author and his comrades. It follows him from the time his B-17 was shot down over the German-French border, he was rescued and hidden by villagers in the tiny village of Baslieuse, then escaped through a Europe occupied by Nazi forces desperate to escape pursuing Allied armies. The book chronicles, in fascinating detail, the life and training of those young men who made up the heroic 8th Air Force, and describes the affectionate relationship often maintained by their crews with that most famed heavy bomber of all time, the fabled B-17. It includes some of the most tragic stories as well as some of the wryest humor ever written about combat groups. A heavy bomb group consists of 36 heavy bombers. The 91st lost 207 planes during its WWII combat time—32 during the author''s flight tenure. Dr. Anderson uses the words of the extraordinary crews of those planes to describe the training they absorbed, the missions they flew, the results they achieved, the tragedy of watching their planes explode and their friends die, and the heroism that brought so many near fatally damaged planes home with their dead and wounded crews. This is also a story of growing up in pre-war America, and of the growth and development of that sturdy character which enabled these young men and their children and grandchildren to help create today''s world. God bless them, their achievements, and what their heroism made possible so that we could live in the world we do today.