Semper Fi in the Sky: The Marine Air Battles of World War II
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Book Overview
Here, one of America's most popular military historians re-creates, using their own moving and powerful voices, the true stories of the U.S. Marine pilots who flew the Allies to victory in World War II. These riveting accounts recreate conflicts ranging from the Marines' gallant defense of Wake Island, where Captain Henry "Baron" Elrod destroyed two enemy planes before joining the fight on the ground, earning a posthumous Medal of Honor in the last-ditch attempt to stave off the Japanese, to the Battle of Midway and Guadalcanal. Running the gamut from Second Lieutenant Alvin Jensen's single-handed destruction of twenty-four grounded Japanese aircraft on Kahili to Lieutenant John W. Leaper's sawing off a Kamikaze's tail with his propeller over Okinawa, these thrilling oral histories of the Pacific war's air battles bring them to life in all their terror and triumph.
Format:Paperback
Language:English
ISBN:0891418776
ISBN13:9780891418771
Release Date:November 2005
Publisher:Ballantine Group
Length:400 Pages
Weight:0.80 lbs.
Dimensions:0.9" x 5.5" x 8.2"
Customer Reviews
1 rating
Concentrates on the big marine battle - Guadalcanal
Published by Thriftbooks.com User , 18 years ago
Although this book has a few pages on earlier and later Marine aviation, the bulk of it is on the activities of the Marines during World War II. The WW II activities began at Pearl Harbour where several Marine Corp aircraft were destroyed. The action then moved to Wake Island, where Brewster Buffalo's and Grumman Wildcats went up to face Jpanese Zeros and were shot out of the sky. Later the Marines got Corsairs when the Navy refused to use the Corsair from carriers. The Marines thought they were just fine and used them to great distinction all over the Pacific. But if there was a single place where Marine aviation earned its spurs it was Guadalcanal where five of the eleven Medals of Honor were awarded. This book is mostly told from the standpoint of quotations from the people who actually flew them in combat.
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