![]() ![]() The Japanese kept battle-weary Marines sleepless around the clock with "Washing Machine Charlie," a night-flying nuisance aircraft whose purposely unsynchronized engines churned out a throbbing, annoying sound. forces ran up against their first major night operational problem on Guadalcanal in 1942. The men of the RAF who fought and won the desperate Battle of Britain in the latter half of 1940-hailed by Winston Churchill as the few towhom so many owed so much-were the world's first night fighter pilots. With darkness no longer a safety screen for German bombers, night attacks against Britain were curtailed. This handful of planes-cooperating with radar-equipped ground control intercept (GCI) stations, antiaircraft fire, and searchlights- was the key element of the infamous "Killer Belt" night defense system. To counter this, the Royal Air Force (RAF) employed hastily modified Bouton-Paul Defiant aircraft to fly at night. When England's small, but gallant, force of Hurricanes and Spitfires made daylight bomber attacks too costly, the Luftwaffe turned to night raids. Radar was in its infancy at the beginning of World War II, but already an essential part of Britain's air defense system. WWII pilots were a close-knit band of men they stuck together and supported each other like there would be no tomorrow.Īnd for many of them, there WAS no tomorrow.Modern warfare took on a new dimension with the innovation of radar one of its most effective applications was in aerial combat. Dinswiddie, Benton, Pyle, White, Curaan, Connors, Kedding and Snyder have been killed now." He was either wounded or just misjudged his altitude, I think. Loder hit the ocean doing about 400 and the plane just broke up into little pieces. Must have been dead or unconscious before he hit. "Elkin got shot up - plane on fire, flew straight into mountain and blew up. Told mainly through pictures, diaries, newspaper clippings, telegrams and letters discovered many years after his death and painstakingly pieced together by his daughter over a period of more than 15 years, Donn's story begins with him joining the Army Air Corps at age 18 and focuses on his experiences as a P-38 Lightning fighter pilot flying over Italy out of Africa - and what a dangerous job it was. That's when I got scared - when I found I was alone." Wasn't on the ball and lost flight leader. Have never been so scared in all my life. "Went on dive-bombing mission today and got jumped by eight ME109s. ![]() Wings Forever is a WWII fighter pilot's true story. One that will capture your heart and that you will remember long after it has ended. Wings Forever is a poignant, riveting, dramatic story. Learn how he tried to tunnel out of the prison camp with his roommates, before the war ended and he finally came home to his wife and met his beautiful little one-and-a-half year old daughter for the first time. He spent 19 months in a German prison camp where he was so hungry he ate bugs. Through his letters and those of his family, experience the worry of him being Missing In Action for 8 months and how he didn't even know if he was a father or not until over a year after he was shot down. Learn how he escaped and hid in the hills of Italy for nearly three months before being recaptured by German soldiers when he was half frozen, in a blizzard with only one shoe, just 20 kilometers from the Allied lines. They will follow him on his flight missions, hear his own words about how scared he was when he was fighting German and Italian planes over Italy.ĭonn flew 40 successful missions before he was shot down and taken captive by the Italians - just 10 missions before he was going to be able to go home to be with his wife when she had their first baby. Readers will see the war through new eyes by reading Donn's diary entries and letters he wrote home. It is a very visual story - told mainly through pictures, diaries, newspaper clippings, telegrams and letters discovered many years after his death and painstakingly pieced together by his daughter over a period of more than 15 years.ĭonn's story begins with him joining the Army Air Corps at age 18 and focuses on his experiences as a P-38 Lightning fighter pilot flying over Italy out of Africa - and what a dangerous job it was.
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