Acknowledgments Author's Note Prologue Cast of Characters CHAPTER ONE Where They Came From CHAPTER TWO Training CHAPTER THREE Learning to Fly the B-24 CHAPTER FOUR The Fifteenth Air Force CHAPTER FIVE Cerignola, Italy CHAPTER SIX Learning to Fly in Combat CHAPTER SEVEN December 1944 CHAPTER EIGHT The Isle of Capri CHAPTER NINE The Tuskegee Airmen Fly Cover: February 1945 CHAPTER TEN Missions over Austria: March 1945 CHAPTER ELEVEN Linz: The Last Mission: April 1945 Epilogue Notes Bibliography Index

Prologue

The B-24 was built like a 1930s Mack truck, except that it had an aluminum skin that could be cut with a knife. It could carry a heavy load far and fast but it had no refinements. Steering the four-engine airplane was difficult and exhausting, as there was no power except the pilot's muscles. It had no windshield wipers, so the pilot had to stick his head out the side window to see during a rain. Breathing was possible only by wearing an oxygen mask — cold and clammy, smelling of rubber and sweat — above 10,000 feet in altitude. There was no heat, despit ... read full excerpt from The Wild Blue: The Men and Boys Who Flew the B-24s Over Germany ebook