For three years, Staff Sergeant Charles M. Eyer served as a B-17 ball turret gunner over Europe during World War II. Based in part on a secret journal he kept as a prisoner of war, this book records Eyer's firsthand account of his harrowing 59 combat missions (B-17 crewmen could not expect to survive 10), his escape from a burning B-17 deep inside Germany, the horrors of confinement in a Nazi POW camp, and his survival of an 80-day forced march during the brutal winter of 1944-45.

Presents the experiences and memories of Dale Aldrich, an American ball turret gunner in World War II, from the day he was drafted through his release from a German POW camp to the end of the war.

Wings of Tru Love author Kenneth C Drinnon joined theUnited States Army Air Force in 1943 and served in theEuropean Theater as a B17 ball-turret gunner with the 8thAir Force, 487th Heavy Bomb Group, and 838th Squadron.He fl ew thirty-four aerial combat missions form October 22,1944 to February 28, 1945 over Nazi, Germany and attainedthe rank of Staff Sergeant before being discharged in 1945.There were several notable bombing missions, includingthe synthetic oil refi neries at Merseberg, Germany andseveral against transportation facilities in support of theArmy ground forces during the Battle of the Bulge, butthe one most remembered by aviators of the 487th BombGroup was December 24, 1944 when General FrederickW. Castle was killed while leading a two thousand planebomber mission for the Eight Air Force and piloting thelead plane of the 487th Bomb Group. Both the 487th BombGroup and the Luftwaffe suffered many casualties duringan aerial gun battle.

In the fall of 1942, the first year of the war was ending. For young men in Bloomville (Ohio) Township High Schools senior class, school was the last opportunity to be free before graduation, adult responsibility, and manhood. For them and many other young men across the nation, war was about to become a reality, including J. Emerson Krieger. Life was about to turn in a new, dramatic, and uncharted direction. No Mans Sky, by author R.C. Cline, narrates the story of Krieger, a combat flier in World War II. An aerial gunner, he protected his crew and plane with a Browning M-2 machine gun while flying twenty-nine perilous missions over the embattled skies of Germany. Through diaries, letters, photos, and personal records, this memoir chronicles Kriegers service as a waist gunner, the youngest man in his crew. Offering insight into the challenges of war and combat during World War II, No Mans Sky shares the story of Staff Sergeant Krieger and what life was like six miles in the sky in a B-17 bomber. It pays tribute to all of the men and women who have served our country.

There's no higher accolade in the U.S. military than the Medal of Honor, and 472 people received it for their action during World War II. But only one was demoted right after: Maynard Harrison Smith.Smith is one of the most unlikely heroes of the war, where he served in B-17s during the early days of the bombing of France and Germany from England. From his juvenile delinquent past in Michigan, through the war and during the decades after, Smith's life seemed to be a series of very public missteps. The other airmen took to calling the 5-foot, 5-inch airman "Snuffy" after an unappealing movie character. This is the man who, on a tragically mishandled mission over France on May 1, 1943, single-handedly saved the crewman in his stricken B-17. His ordeal is part of a forgotten mission that aircrews came to call the May Day Massacre. The skies over Europe in 1943 were a charnel house for U.S. pilots, who were being led by tacticians surprised by the brutal effectiveness of German defenses. By May 1943 the combat losses among bomb crews were a staggering 40 to 50 percent. This book examines Smith's life in a new light, through the use of exclusive interviews of those who knew him (including fellow MOH recipients and family) as well as public and archival records. This is both a thrilling and horrifying story of the air war over Europe and a fascinating look at one of America's forgotten heroes.