The story of how Cincinnati's Lunken Airfield was utilized by the United States military during World War II.

Lunken Airfield flew headlong into the golden age of aviation in the 1920s. World War I veterans became gutsy barnstormers who had only roads and railroad tracks as navigational landmarks. They gave way to courageous pilots who flew airmail, as well as record makers who flew for the joie de vivre and fame under conditions fraught with danger. These flyers gave way to aircraft engineers and designers who would craft the next generation of planes. Pilots were seduced by the allure of international recognition and wealth, as well as the feeling of freedom experienced in the air. Along the way, they assumed the status of movie stars. On any given day, anyone from a spectator to a mechanic might hobnob with Charles Lindbergh, Amelia Earhart, Roscoe Turner, or Jimmy Doolittle, who routinely flew in and out of Lunken. Over the decades, Lunken has undergone many changes, but today, as it approaches its centennial, planes still take off and land daily, and crowds still flock to special events.

The diary of radio correspondent James Cassidy presents a unique view of World War II as this reporter followed the Allied armies into Nazi Germany. James Joseph Cassidy was one of three-hundred-and sixty-two American journalists accredited to cover the European Theater of Operations between June 7, 1944 and the war’s end. Radio was relatively new, and World War II was its first war. Among the difficulties facing historians examining radio reporters during that period is that many potential primary documents—their live broadcasts—were not recorded. In NBC Goes to War, Cassidy’s censored scripts alongside his personal diary captures a front-line view during some of the nastiest fighting in World War II as told by a seasoned NBC reporter. Ambitious and young, James Cassidy’s coverage of World War II for the NBC radio network notched some notable firsts, including being the first to broadcast live from German soil and arranging the broadcast of a live Jewish religious service from inside Nazi Germany while incoming mortar and artillery shells fell two hundred yards away. His diary describes how he gathered news, how it was censored, and how it was sent from the battle zone to the United States. As radio had no pictures, reporters quickly developed a descriptive visual style to augment dry facts. All of Cassidy’s stories, from the panic he felt while being targeted by German planes to his shock at the deaths of colleagues, he told with grace and a reporter’s lean and engaging prose. Providing valuable eyewitness material not previously available to historians, NBC Goes to War tells a “bottom-up” narrative that provides insight into war as fought and chronicled by ordinary men and women. Cassidy skillfully placed listeners alongside him in the ruins of Aachen, on icy back roads crawling with spies, and in a Belgian bar where a little girl wailed “Les Américains partent!” when Allied troops retreated to safety, leaving the town open to German re- occupation. With a journalistic eye for detail, NBC Goes to War unforgettably portrays life in the press corps. This newly uncovered perspective also helps balance the CBS-heavy radio scholarship about the war, which has always focused heavily on Edward R. Murrow and his “Murrow’s Boys.”

The late Frank D. Bergstein served in the 29th Division of the U.S. Army from July 1941 until late 1945. He commanded Headquarters Company, 115th Regimental Combat Team, 29th Division, when it landed on Omaha Beach and for the long months of combat after the invasion. He wrote these memoirs in the late 1980s, at the urging of his family and friends. At various times in the past, mostly surrounded by an attentive audience of loved ones and friends, Frank would expound on his wartime experiences. This compilation by him, Some Reminiscences of World War II, presents a few of those more poignant memories, revealing observations, and sometimes, caustic comments he was persuaded to put in writing by his family. The work was completed and typed during the period of April 10, 1988, through April 8, 1989. Readers are fortunate that this task was accomplished before his passing, Christmas Eve 2002. The main body of Frank's work is organized into twenty-four consecutive chapters that are focused on his most important memories of that time. He was a warrior in battle, and later, as a successful businessman, inventor, and industrialist, he remained a warrior--never forgetting the lessons learned during World War II.

An affordable, lightweight sports car suitable for racing, the MG TC launched the sports car scene in postwar America. A wave of drivers first competed on the track in these and the later TD, TF and MGA models during the 1950s, many of them eventually moving up to Porsches, Alfa Romeos, Jaguars and Ferraris. Eighty such drivers, from the famous (e.g., Phil Hill, John Fitch, David E. Davis, Jr.) to lesser known men and women with equally vivid stories, are profiled in this book, which presents many of their recollections from firsthand interviews alongside a wealth of period photographs.