Product Description

As a World War II combat navigator, the author flew 31 missions and broke two rules: he kept an accurate diary of these missions as well as some of the maps and charts issued only to navigators. Here, he recounts his exploits.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #3540548 in Books
• Published on: 1998-06-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 240 pages

Customer Reviews

A different perspective of life on a World War II B-24 crew
From my perspective as a former Strategic Air Command (SAC) B-47 and B-52H radar navigator (bombardier)who went through nav school in 1950, I found Stewart's book more interesting than the casual reader might, but I can understand the disappointment of the non-professional reader. Nevertheless, his explanations of navigation and his duties were well done, and I especially enjoyed his candid description of life on and off a bomber base during his combat tour in England. .

One glaring mistake was his statement that there were no B-17 units in the 15th Air Force. There were six, including the 98th Bomb Group, which I was later in myself as a B-47 nav in Lincoln, Nebraska, from 1958-60, when it was a wing. I was also surprised to find so many spelling errors, e.g.,intervalometer, especially for a Ph.D. who taught at the University of Michigan, my alma mater. Navigators such as Stewart was in B-24s are indeed relics, as he says, but I don't think the B-52H radar navigators and navigators on crews that operated so successfully in Desert Storm or in Kosovo more recently will agree.

The most boring WWII book I have ever read.
I was hoping that a "forbidden diary", written as the action happened, would be very interesting. It wasn't. I am sure the author went through some hairaising experiences, cheating death on every mission. I just wish he had told the reader about them. Instead, we get a very technical description of the airplane written in a boring style. His Editor should have known better. That's why we buy these books...to get a feel of how it really was. Unfortunately, the description of his missions felt no more exciting than a commercial flight between New York and Chicago. "We went up, dropped the bombs, then came down." Wild stuff.