Tag: wartime stories

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Follow the 9th Bomb Squadron Into WW2’s Most Dangerous Flying Conditions

Coming soon from McFarland Publishing and author Charles B. Kastner is To War and Back with the 9th Bomb Squadron: In the Skies Over Burma, Thailand, and China in 1945:

Written by his son, and incorporating his father’s stories, personal papers, and original research, this work follows Lt. Walt Kastner from the start of World War Two until its end. Walt joined a new B-24 bomber crew that fought with the 9th Bomb Squadron from its base in India during the drive to liberate Burma from the Japanese Army. His air crew attacked Japanese troop concentrations that barred the advance of the British 14th Army and flew missions deep into Thailand, including attacking the Burma-Siam Railway, the crucial rail link that carried supplies that fed and equipped the Japanese Army in Burma–a railway made famous by the movie The Bridge on the River Kwai. When air combat ended in May 1945, the squadron moved to Assam in eastern India where they hauled aviation gasoline over “the Hump” to the 14th Air Force in China, exposing them to the most dangerous flying conditions in the world.

The 155 page book is currently available for pre-order with release set for August 21.

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New Book Chronicles Perilous Work of USAF Combat Cameramen

Coming soon from Helion and Company and author Kevin Wright is USAF Combat Camera 1941–1991: The Brave Ones Shoot Bullets, the Crazy Ones Shoot Film, documenting USAF cinematographers and photographers and their frequently hazardous work.

USAF Combat Cameramen and later women have participated in every major US military operation and deployment worldwide. Whilst some of their wartime productions like the original Memphis Belle and The Last Bomb, rightly gained wide public acclaim, the vast majority of their work, often classified, was for the Pentagon’s eyes only. Their main role was to keep senior military commanders and decision-makers informed about USAF operations and to record the challenges faced by US armed forces on the ground.

Combat Camera charts those activities from their origins in Hollywood, producing military training films, through wartime movies, bomber operations over Europe and Japan, the liberation of France, the attacks on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, to Korea, Vietnam, Grenada, Panama and the 1991 Gulf War.

These events are explored mainly through personal accounts from the combat cameramen and women themselves. From acts of individual heroism, through organisational change, new equipment and their often ringside seats at historic events, Combat Camera captures the work of these remarkable men and women and has been produced with cooperation of the membership of the USAF Combat Camera Association.

This volume is profusely illustrated with original photographs and includes unique links to original motion footage shot by the USAF Combat Cameramen, in addition to the @War series signature colour artworks.

The 72 page paperback publication is currently available for pre-order with release set for June 15.

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