Franco Monti:
African Masks - edizione con copertina flessibile
2002, ISBN: 0887f428e56f9dc6d7d47efe35642267
edizione con copertina rigida
Simon & Schuster. Very Good. 6.13 x 0.8 x 9.25 inches. Paperback. 2002. 299 pages. <br>Stephen E. Ambrose, acclaimed author of Band of Br others and Undaunted Courage, carries u… Altro …
Simon & Schuster. Very Good. 6.13 x 0.8 x 9.25 inches. Paperback. 2002. 299 pages. <br>Stephen E. Ambrose, acclaimed author of Band of Br others and Undaunted Courage, carries us along in the crowded and dangerous B-24s as their crews fought to destroy the German war machine during World War II. The young men who flew the B-24s ov er Germany in World War II fought against horrific odds, and, in The Wild Blue, Ambrose recounts their extraordinary heroism, skil l, daring, and comradeship with vivid detail and affection. Ambr ose describes how the Army Air Forces recruited, trained, and sel ected the elite few who would undertake the most demanding and da ngerous jobs in the war. These are the boys-turned pilots, bombar diers, navigators, and gunners of the B-24s-who suffered over fif ty percent casualties. With his remarkable gift for bringing ali ve the action and tension of combat, Ambrose carries us along in the crowded, uncomfortable, and dangerous B-24s as their crews fo ught to the death through thick black smoke and deadly flak to re ach their targets and destroy the German war machine. Twenty-two- year-old George McGovern, who was to become a United States senat or and a presidential candidate, flew thirty-five combat missions (all the Army would allow) and won the Distinguished Flying Cros s. We meet him and his mates, his co-pilot killed in action, and crews of other planes. Many went down in flames. As Band of Brot hers and Citizen Soldiers portrayed the bravery and ultimate vict ory of the American soldiers from Normandy on to Germany, The Wil d Blue illustrates the enormous contribution that these young men of the Army Air Forces made to the Allied victory. Editorial Re views Review Dorman T. Shindler The Denver Post [The Wild Blue] demands our attention...page-turning reading. Calvin L. Christma n The Dallas Morning News The Wild Blue is right on target...[the book] finally gives those men of the 15th Air Force the tribute they so richly earned. Larry King USA Today Brilliant...It is a terrific story. About the Author Stephen E. Ambrose was a renown ed historian and acclaimed author of more than thirty books. Amon g his New York Times bestsellers are Nothing Like It in the World , Citizen Soldiers, Band of Brothers, D-Day - June 6, 1944, and U ndaunted Courage. Dr. Ambrose was a retired Boyd Professor of His tory at the University of New Orleans and a contributing editor f or the Quarterly Journal of Military History. Excerpt. ® Reprint ed by permission. All rights reserved. The Wild Blue The Men an d Boys Who Flew the B-24s Over Germany 1944-45By Stephen E. Ambro se Simon & Schuster Copyright © 2002 Stephen E. Ambrose All right reserved. ISBN: 0743223098 Prologue The B-24 was built li ke a 1930s Mack truck, except that it had an aluminum skin that c ould be cut with a knife. It could carry a heavy load far and fas t but it had no refinements. Steering the four-engine airplane wa s difficult and exhausting, as there was no power except the pilo t's muscles. It had no windshield wipers, so the pilot had to sti ck his head out the side window to see during a rain. Breathing w as possible only by wearing an oxygen mask -- cold and clammy, sm elling of rubber and sweat -- above 10,000 feet in altitude. Ther e was no heat, despite temperatures that at 20,000 feet and highe r got as low as 40 or even 50 degrees below zero. The wind blew t hrough the airplane like fury, especially from the waist gunners' windows and whenever the bomb bay doors were open. The oxygen ma sk often froze to the wearer's face. If the men at the waist touc hed their machine guns with bare hands, the skin froze to the met al. There were no bathrooms. To urinate there were two small rel ief tubes, one forward and one aft, which were almost impossible to use without spilling because of the heavy layers of clothing t he men wore. Plus which the tubes were often clogged with frozen urine. Defecating could be done only in a receptacle lined with a wax paper bag. A man had to be desperate to use it because of th e difficulty of removing enough clothing and exposing bare skin t o the arctic cold. The bags were dropped out of the waist windows or through the open bomb bay doors. There were no kitchen facili ties, no way to warm up food or coffee, but anyway there was no f ood unless a crew member had packed in a C ration or a sandwich. With no pressurization, pockets of gas in a man's intestinal trac t could swell like balloons and cause him to double over in pain. There was no aisle to walk down, only the eight-inch-wide catwa lk running beside the bombs and over the bomb bay doors used to m ove forward and aft. It had to be done with care, as the aluminum doors, which rolled up into the fuselage instead of opening outw ard on a hinge, had only a 100-pound capacity, so if a man slippe d he would break through. The seats were not padded, could not be reclined, and were cramped into so small a space that a man had almost no chance to stretch and none whatsoever to relax. Absolut ely nothing was done to make it comfortable for the pilot, the co -pilot, or the other eight men in the crew, even though most flig hts lasted for eight hours, sometimes ten or more, seldom less th an six. The plane existed and was flown for one purpose only, to carry 500 or 1,000 pound bombs and drop them accurately over enem y targets. It was called a Liberator. That was a perhaps unusual name for a plane designed to drop high explosives on the enemy w ell behind the front lines, but it was nevertheless the perfect n ame. Consolidated Aircraft Corporation first made it, with the in itial flight in 1939. When a few went over to England in 1940, th e British Air Ministry wanted to know what it was called. Reuben Fleet of Consolidated answered, Liberator. He added, We chose the name Liberator because this airplane can carry destruction to th e heart of the Hun, and thus help you and us to liberate those mi llions temporarily finding themselves under Hitler's yoke. Conso lidated, along with the Ford Motor Company, Douglas Aircraft Comp any, and North American Aviation -- together called the Liberator Production Pool -- made more than 18,300 Liberators, about 5,000 more than the total number of B-17s. The Liberator was not opera tional before World War II and was not operational after the war (nearly every B-24 was cut up into pieces of scrap in 1945 and 19 46, or left to rot on Pacific islands). The number of people invo lved in making it, in servicing it, and in flying the B-24 outnum bered those involved with any other airplane, in any country, in any time. There were more B-24s than any other American airplane ever built. It would be an exaggeration to say that the B-24 won the war for the Allies. But don't ask how they could have won th e war without it. The Army Air Forces needed thousands of pilots , and tens of thousands of crew members, to fly the B-24s. It nee ded to gather them and train them and supply them and service the planes from a country in which only a relatively small number of men knew anything at all about how to fly even a single-engine a irplane, or fix it. From whence came such men? Copyright ® 2001 by Ambrose-Tubbs, Inc. Continues... Excerpted from The Wild Blue by Stephen E. Ambrose Copyright © 2002 by Stephen E. Ambrose. Excerpted by permission. All rights reserved. No part of this ex cerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writin g from the publisher. Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. s olely for the personal use of visitors to this web site. </div ., Simon & Schuster, 2002, 3, Columbia University Press, 1997. Paperback. Very Good. Disclaimer:A copy that has been read, but remains in excellent condition. Pages are intact and are not marred by notes or highlighting, but may contain a neat previous owner name. The spine remains undamaged. An ex-library book and may have standard library stamps and/or stickers. At ThriftBooks, our motto is: Read More, Spend Less.Dust jacket quality is not guaranteed., Columbia University Press, 1997, 3, Clarion Books, 1994. 129pp. Hardback, DJ has five very tiny tears along edges, BCE, A novel of a young African girl who attempts to reject the man who has been chosen to be her husband, . Book Club (BCE/BOMC). Hard Cover. Very Good/Good+., Clarion Books, 1994, 2.75, Columbia University Press. Used - Very Good. Former library book; may include library markings. Used book that is in excellent condition. May show signs of wear or have minor defects., Columbia University Press, 3, HarperCollins Publishers. Used - Good. Used book that is in clean, average condition without any missing pages., HarperCollins Publishers, 2.5, Columbia University Press. Used - Very Good. Former library book; may include library markings. Used book that is in excellent condition. May show signs of wear or have minor defects., Columbia University Press, 3, Paul Hamlyn, 1969. Hardcover. Fine. Gray cloth hardcover with silver title on spine. Tight glossy white text block with numerous color photographs of African masks. DJ: Glossy paper, price clipped, with small Kenya witch doctor's association taped inside., Paul Hamlyn, 1969, 5<
