Into the Cold Blue: My World War II Journeys with the Mighty Eighth Air Force
May 2024 · Simon and Schuster
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384
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About this ebook
One of the last great memoirs of World War II, Into the Cold Blue is a riveting account of the air war over Europe, when hell was four miles above the earth.
A born daredevil, John Homan joined the Army Air Forces after the Pearl Harbor attack. By 1944, he was co-piloting a B-24 Liberator over Nazi Germany, raining death and destruction on the enemy. This first-person account of his harrowing missions—chronicling deadly flights through skies of red-hot flak bursts and airmen bailing out with parachutes aflame—will leave readers staggered by the determination and grit of World War II aviators.
Fighting a fierce enemy in the air seemed the perfect way for Homan to channel his restless, energetic spirit in wartime, but he could never have imagined the horrors that awaited him. During a vast operation over Nazi-occupied Holland in September 1944, his plane was punched full of holes, its left tail shot away, and a tire blown to bits. Homan wondered how he could possibly survive. The young lieutenant and his exhausted crewmates braced for a nearly hopeless emergency landing. Meanwhile, across the Atlantic, waited the sweetheart he thought he’d never see again.
With wit, warmth, and astonishing clarity, John Homan conveys the skill and heroism of the “Mighty Eighth” Air Force in the most perilous theater of history’s greatest air war.
A born daredevil, John Homan joined the Army Air Forces after the Pearl Harbor attack. By 1944, he was co-piloting a B-24 Liberator over Nazi Germany, raining death and destruction on the enemy. This first-person account of his harrowing missions—chronicling deadly flights through skies of red-hot flak bursts and airmen bailing out with parachutes aflame—will leave readers staggered by the determination and grit of World War II aviators.
Fighting a fierce enemy in the air seemed the perfect way for Homan to channel his restless, energetic spirit in wartime, but he could never have imagined the horrors that awaited him. During a vast operation over Nazi-occupied Holland in September 1944, his plane was punched full of holes, its left tail shot away, and a tire blown to bits. Homan wondered how he could possibly survive. The young lieutenant and his exhausted crewmates braced for a nearly hopeless emergency landing. Meanwhile, across the Atlantic, waited the sweetheart he thought he’d never see again.
With wit, warmth, and astonishing clarity, John Homan conveys the skill and heroism of the “Mighty Eighth” Air Force in the most perilous theater of history’s greatest air war.
About the author
John F. Homan has had, throughout his life, what he calls "a fair amount of luck." Born the son of British immigrants in Maine, he came of age during the Great Depression and enlisted in the Army Air Forces during World War II. A recipient of the Distinguished Flying Cross, he flew thirty-four combat missions over Europe. After the war, he married his childhood sweetheart and began a decades-long career in industrial manufacturing. In his one hundredth year, John still enjoys family, friends, partying, poker, and eighteen-year-old whiskey.
Jared Frederick is the author and co-author of numerous books, including Dispatches of D-Day, Hang Tough, and Fierce Valor. He has appeared on PBS, C-SPAN, and Turner Classic Movies. A former park ranger at Gettysburg National Military Park, Frederick is the host of Reel History on YouTube and is an assistant teaching professor of history at Penn State Altoona. Learn more at www.jaredfrederick.com
Jared Frederick is the author and co-author of numerous books, including Dispatches of D-Day, Hang Tough, and Fierce Valor. He has appeared on PBS, C-SPAN, and Turner Classic Movies. A former park ranger at Gettysburg National Military Park, Frederick is the host of Reel History on YouTube and is an assistant teaching professor of history at Penn State Altoona. Learn more at www.jaredfrederick.com
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