Air Apaches: The True Story of the 345th Bomb Group and Its Low, Fast, and Deadly Missions in World War II

Jay A. Stout

Stackpole Books

The First Hellcat Ace

Hamilton McWhorter

Biographies & Memoirs

Pacifica Pr

Unlike previous books on Ploesti, Jay Stout goes well beyond the famous big and bloody raid of August 1943 and depicts the entire 1944 strategic campaign of twenty-plus missions that all but knocked Ploesti out of the war and denied the German war machine the fuel and lubricants it so desperately needed. While Fortress Ploesti is the narrative history of the entire air campaign to deny the Ploesti oil complex to the Axis powers, it is also a launching point for the author's inquiries into many aspects of the American strategic bombing effort in World War II. It delivers across the board. Stout, who served as a Marine F/A-18 pilot in the First Gulf War, asks questions about aviation combat history and technique that any modern combat pilot would be dying to ask. He carries the ball far beyond the goal post set by all other Ploesti historians. He has gone out of his way to describe the defenses throughout the campaign, and he brings in the voices of Ploesti's defenders to complement the tales of Allied airmen who brought Ploesti to ruin. He describes the role of the bombers, as well as that of the fighters, the ant-aircraft defenses, even the technique of obscuring the Ploesti complex with smoke. In the end, Stout's narrative describes the entire Ploesti effort for the very first time in print, and, by proxy, guides the reader through the intricacies of the entire Allied strategic bombing campaign in Europe, and all the weapons and techniques the Axis powers used to parry it. His lucid presentation of complex issues at the tactical and strategic levels is impressive. Jay Stout's previous books include Hornets Over Kuwait, his Gulf War memoir and, as co-author, The First Hellcat Ace. Table of Contents Foreword and Acknowledgments Chapter 1. Oil Chapter 2. Beginnings Chapter 3. Liberator Chapter 4. Preparations Chapter 5. En Route Chapter 6. Chaos Chapter 7. Egress Chapter 8. Assessments Chapter 9. Strategy Chapter 10. Buildup Chapter 11. Loophole Chapter 12. Downed Chapter 13. Defenses Chapter 14. Mountaineers Chapter 15. Bombardiers Chapter 16. Teamwork Chapter 17. Romanian Chapter 18. Lightnings Chapter 19. Germans Chapter 20. Selflessness Chapter 21. Bulgarians Chapter 22. Svengali Chapter 23. Honor Chapter 24. Nightmare Chapter 25. Ingenuity Chapter 26. Night Chapter 27. Terror Chapter 28. Straps Chapter 29. Tally Epilogue Appendix One: Fifteenth Air Force Organizational Chart Appendix Two: Statistics—1944 Ploesti Campaign Chapter Notes Bibliography Index

Fortress Ploesti: The Campaign to Destroy Hitler's Oil

History

Military

Casemate

The American 345th Bomb Group - the Air Apaches - was legendary in the war against Japan. The first fully trained and fully equipped group sent to the South Pacific, the 345th racked up a devastating score against the enemy. Armed to the teeth with machine guns and fragmentation bombs, and flying their B-25s at impossibly low altitudes - often below 50 feet - the pilots and air crews strafed and bombed enemy installations and shipping with a fury that helped cripple Japan. One of the sharpest tools in the US arsenal, the 345th performed essential missions during Gen. Douglas MacArthur's campaigns in New Guinea and the Philippines, earning an impressive four Distinguished Unit Citations. This was punishingly dangerous work, and the 345th lost 177 aircraft and 712 men - young men doing their duty in the spirit of the Greatest Generation. Neither was this the more gentlemanly war of Europe, with its more temperate climate, resistance networks aiding downed crews, and POW camps. Airmen shot down in the Pacific theater faced drowning in the ocean, disappearing in the jungle, or torturing and beheading by the Japanese in a war of no quarter expected, no quarter given. A compelling follow-up to Stout's Hell's Angels, Air Apaches reconstructs the missions of the 345th Bomb Group in striking detail, with laser focus on the men who manned the cockpits, navigated the B-25s, dropped the bombs, serviced the planes, and helped win the war. To tell this remarkable story, Stout worked closely with the group's surviving veterans and dug deep into firsthand accounts. The result is a compelling narrative of men at war that will keep listeners on the edge of their seats.

Air Apaches

Audible Studios on Brilliance Audio

FORTAREATA PLOIESTI: Campania Pentru Distrugerea Petrolului Lui Hitler

Editura Meditatii

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Books by Jay A. Stout