They came in waves from the schools, factories, farms, and city streets, some driven by patriotism, but most with a dream. Bernard Nolan was one of the nearly 200,000 pilots who earned his wings during World War II.
Nolan relates the journey of a boy with a passion for flying airplanes: how an uneducated kid from a fractured home environment weaseled his way into the Armys aviation cadet program and how his deliverance through flying threatened to unravel in the cold, lethal skies over Europe in 1944.
The author has imbedded his experiences within the context of the history of the air battle over Europe in 1943 and 1944. He explores why the Eighth Air Force lost a battle of attrition with the Luftwaffe in 1943, and how and why it eventually triumphed in mid 1944. In the cockpit realism and little known details are provided in discussions of evolving technology, formation assembly and flying, ever changing tactics by both sides, prospects for surviving aerial combat, what it is like to be shot down, and excellent comparisons of the two pivotal aircraft, the B-24 and B-17. Nolan flew both in combat.
