Details

Subject(s)

• World War, 1939-1945—Aerial operations, American [Browse]
• Bomber pilots—United States—Biography [Browse]
• Air pilots, Military—United States—Biography [Browse]
• United States Army Air Forces—Biography [Browse]
• Cole, Richard Eugene 1915-2019 [Browse]

Library of Congress genre(s)

• Biographies [Browse]

Series

American military experience series [More in this series]

Summary note

With American wartime morale at a low, the Japanese attack on Pearl harbor galvanized Americans to enter World War II combat operations. Four months later, on April 18, 1942, the first air assault on the Japanese Home Islands provided an important boost to American morale. That raid, immortalized in numerous films, became known as the Doolittle Raid. Sixteen bombers set out to bomb targets in Japan with a plan to land in China. All but three of the crew survived. Although every plane was lost, sixty-nine of the eighty members escaped capture or death, including Lieutenant Colonel Richard "Dick" Cole, one of two surviving members of the famous mission. The Doolittle Raiders were awarded the Congressional Gold Medal in May 2014. Doolittle's Raid was only opening act of Cole's flying career during the war. When that mission was complete, many of the survivors were assigned to combat units in Europe. Cole remained in India and was assigned to Ferrying Command, flying the Hump (the Himalayas) for a year in the world's worst weather, with inadequate aircraft, few aids to navigation, and inaccurate maps. More than six hundred aircraft with their crews were lost during this monumental effort to keep China in the war, but Cole survived and rotated home in 1943. He was home just a few months when he was recruited for the 1st Air Commandos and he returned to India to participate in Project 9, the aerial invasion of Burma. Dick Cole's War is the fascinating story of one American's yearning for adventure in the skies and unstinting service to country. -- Inside jacket flap.

Bibliographic references

Includes bibliographical references (pages 299-303) and index.

Contents

• Prologue
• The raid
• The Hump
• The invasion
• Epilogue.

Show 2 more Contents items

ISBN

• 9780826220660 ((alk. paper))
• 0826220665 ((alk. paper))

LCCN

2015943638

OCLC

909974827

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