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Informationen zum Autor George Loving Klappentext A COMBAT ACE'S ACCOUNT OF PILOTING THE GREATEST SINGLE-SEAT FIGHTER IN WORLD WAR II World War II marked the end of an era; fighter pilots still flew by the seat of their pants! and George Loving recaptures the exhilarating world of aerial combat in all its stark terror and fiery glory. His first fighter was the famed Spitfire! hero of the Battle of Britain. By 1943! however! it was obsolescent and did not match up well against the first-line German Messerschmitts and Focke-Wulfs. Yet Loving survived 101 combat missions flying the Spitfire. In the spring of 1944! Loving's 31st Fighter Group started flying P-51 Mustangs and was transferred to the new Fifteenth Air Force to escort heavy-bomber formations on long-range strategic strikes across southern Europe! including southeastern Germany. In the flak-filled skies over Ploesti! Vienna! Bucharest! Munich! and Stuttgart! where a number of the war's fiercest air battles took place! Lieutenant Loving flew head-to-head against some of the Luftwaffe's top fighter aces. By the time George Loving completed his 151st! and final! combat mission on August 21! 1944! he had risen from a lowly second lieutenant and untested wingman to captain! group leader! and Mustang ace. Loving's gripping account captures the savage action he experienced in all its intensity. Leseprobe 1 The Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor of December 7, 1941, dealt a heavy blow to the U.S. Pacific Fleet, destroying four of its eight battleships and heavily damaging the other four, together with three cruisers, three destroyers, and several support vessels. Also, ninety-two Navy aircraft were destroyed, and at nearby Hickam Field, ninety-four Army Air Corps aircraft were lost. Three days later, two British battleships, HMS Prince of Wales and Repulse, dispatched to defend Singapore, were sunk by Japanese aircraft off the Malay coast, and within weeks still more Allied naval forces in the Pacific were sunk off Java. The situation worsened as the Japanese in quick succession conquered Hong Kong, the Philippines, Malaya, Singapore, and Burma and landed in New Guinea, thus posing a threat to Australia. Also, the islands of the Marianas (except Guam) were captured by the Japanese, and in June 1942 Japanese forces occupied Attu and Kiska in the Aleutian Islands near Alaska. Good news was scarce, although in April 1942 a force of sixteen B-25 bombers launched from the USS Hornet and led by Lt. Col. James Doolittle bombed Tokyo. This caused little physical damage, but struck an important psychological blow that put the Japanese on notice of what the future held for them. In May Allied forces prevailed in the Battle of the Coral Sea, frustrating a possible Japanese invasion of eastern New Guinea, and in June a Japanese attack on Midway Island was turned back. By December 1941, German forces controlled virtually all of Europe, had occupied most of the Ukraine, and were within twenty miles of Moscow. By mid-1942, the Germans had pushed deep into the Soviet Union and were on the road to Stalingrad, on the Volga River. The forty-five newly appointed aviation cadets who boarded the train at Richmond's Broad Street Station on June 10, 1942, were in high spirits, pleased after so many weeks of waiting to finally be on the move. Soon after boarding I discovered that other contingents of cadets had come aboard in Boston, New York, Philadelphia, and Washington, D.C., and as we proceeded south still others joined us in Raleigh and Columbia, with the total reaching over 400 by the time the last group boarded in Atlanta. Our destination was Maxwell Army Air Field at Montgomery, Alabama. The train's coaches were worn and soiled from years of hard use. Cinders and soot from the coal-fired locomotive swept in through the windows and doors, and the temperature rose steadily as we rolled toward Alabama. It was an uncomf...
