China''s Wings - War, Intrigue, Romance, and Adventure in the Middle Kingdom During

Zusatztext Advance praise for China’s Wings   “Too many people think the war in the Pacific began with Japan’s sudden strike on Hawaii! launched seemingly out of nowhere. Crouch’s vividly written book explains how America’s business interests in 1930s China set it on the path to Pearl Harbor. This is the rousing story of the enterprising Pan Am pilots who built a frontier airline and went on to become aviation heroes! flying over the Himalayas! helping save China! and thereby transforming the world.”—James D. Hornfischer! New York Times bestselling author of The Last Stand of the Tin Can Sailors and Neptune’s Inferno   “Dramatically rendered.”— Kirkus Reviews   “In China’s Wings! Gregory Crouch recalls the remarkable encounter between an ancient civilization and the most modern technology in the world! as intrepid Americans and their Chinese partners struggled to establish a sophisticated air network over a vast land that barely knew electricity. This gripping book will transport you to a fascinating lost time.”—James Bradley! #1 New York Times bestselling author of Flags of Our Fathers and The Imperial Cruise   “West Point grad Crouch brings us a story that’s part adventure! part unearthed history [and] not just for history buffs.”— Library Journal Informationen zum Autor Gregory Crouch graduated from West Point! where he studied military history. He completed U.S. Army Airborne and Ranger schools and led an infantry platoon in Panama! for which he earned the Combat Infantryman’s Badge. He left the Army to pursue other interests! most notably in mountaineering and surfing! and his work has appeared in National Geographic! American History! Outside! Climbing! and Mother Jones! among many publications. The author of Enduring Patagonia! Gregory Crouch lives in the San Francisco Bay Area. 9780553804270|excerpt Crouch / CHINA'S WINGS SAINT PATRICK’S DAY, 1931 A ragged wind gusted among the deep-­draft vessels anchored a few miles northeast of Woosung, near the eastern edge of China, where Shanghai’s river, the Whangpoo, emptied into the mighty Yangtze. The transpacific liner Empress of Japan drew too much water to cross the submerged mud bar the larger stream had built across the Whangpoo’s mouth, so a lighter eased alongside to take her passengers the last dozen miles upriver to Shanghai. Choppy swells whumped between the hulls and pitched up fat drops of spray. As he trotted down a gangway onto the smaller craft, William Langhorne Bond turned up his coat collar and clasped his fedora tighter to his head. Close-­cropped strands of reddish hair showed beneath his hatband. A toothbrush mustache edged past the corners of his mouth, dominating his thin face and drawing attention from his piercing gray-­blue eyes and the bent nose that looked like it might once have been broken. It was March 17, 1931, Saint Patrick’s Day, and the thirty-­seven-­year-­old former heavy-­construction foreman had come halfway around the world from his home in Petersburg, Virginia, to take a job he knew next to nothing about. Bond found a seat inside the lighter, but he couldn’t keep still. Soon back on deck, he cupped his hands, lit a cigarette, and rested his forearms on the starboard rail. The Yangtze’s far northern shore was ten miles distant, a reach so wide Bond couldn’t escape the sense he was still at sea. Nobody knew where the river began (he loved that); probably at some anonymous trickle on the Tibetan fringe, thousands of miles away. But by the time the Yangtze had convulsed and roared and soughed from its mountainous headwaters and undulated across the lowlands of eastern China, collecting tribute from an uncounted multitude of creeks, springs, and lesser rivers, it had grown into a truly enormous aquatic beast that spewed water into the Ea...

Dettagli sul prodotto

• Autori: Gregory Crouch
• Editore: Random House USA
• Lingue: Inglese
• Formato: Copertina rigida
• Pubblicazione: 22.03.2012
• EAN: 9780553804270
• ISBN: 978-0-553-80427-0
• Pagine: 432
• Categorie: Guide e manuali > Veicoli, aerei , imbarcazioni, viaggi aerospaziali > Aerei, viaggi aerospaziali; Saggistica > Storia > Altro