True Aviation Picture-Stories #11

Staff Sergeant Henry Eugene Erwin, a radio operator aboard the B-29 "City of Los Angeles," faces an impossible choice when a faulty phosphorus bomb gets stuck in the bomb chute during a 1945 raid over Japan. Blinded and burning, Erwin makes a split-second decision that will test his courage and determine the fate of his entire crew. This is the true story of one man's extraordinary act of heroism under fire.

Lt. Harvey J. Bevier and his Flying Fortress crew fight off a ferocious attack by sixty-five German fighters over Italy in December 1943, with their gunners battling hard to protect the ship after dropping their bombs. When a mysterious aircraft begins pursuing them relentlessly, Bevier and his crew must use every evasive maneuver in the book to shake their pursuer—only to discover the shocking truth about what's really on their tail.

Commander Joseph "Jumping Joe" Clifton earned his restless nickname at Annapolis and never lost his appetite for action—when war came, his relentless drive and flying hours landed him the assignment to organize and command Fighting Twelve, one of the Navy's most formidable fighter squadrons. From the raid on Rabaul to strikes across the Pacific and beyond, Clifton welded his flyers into an unstoppable team through sheer force of personality and insistence on cooperation, leading them through forty-two successful missions. A true portrait of the officer whose energy and leadership proved as decisive as any fighter plane in the skies.