"Defenders of Liberty"

(a soft copy)

 

This book was published by the Second Bombardment Association to honor those patriotic citizens who served and those who gave their lives in two world wars.

 

 

 

 

Sold Out

- No Longer In Print -

Soft Copy Only

 

 

History of men and their aircraft 1918-1993.  Detailed accounts of combat missions (412) flown during World War Two by the Group.  Many rare photographs of planes and crews.

 

soft copy can be viewed as a PDF file

 

"The Second Was First"
by Charles "Chuck" Richards

(a soft copy)

 

Chuck was the Archivist for the Second Bomb Group while "Defenders of Liberty" was being written.  His book covers missing air crews, escape narratives of the men of the 2nd Bomb Group and much more information.  This book is a great compliment to "Defenders of Liberty".

 

"The Second Was First" (TSWF) is no longer being published but a soft copy can be viewed as a PDF file by clicking on the "The Second Was First" book cover to the left.  You can navigate through TSWF page by page or you can use the word search function of Adobe Acrobat.

 

 

"Mission No. 263"

by Loy Dickinson, Bill Tune, Frank Pindak

 

This book recounts the events of the air battle (Mission 263 of the 2nd Bomb Group on August 29, 1944) and it's aftermath, to the extent known at the time of publication.  The story contains fifty-year old memories of individuals who once witnessed the tragic turn in the lives of one hundred men who in the summer of 1944 were the crews of ten bombers shot down by enemy forces over the former Czechoslovakia which is today the Czech Republic.  Fifty-nine flyers shot down are known to have survived the battle which is known as the Air Battle Over the White Carpathian Mountains.  Of the forty-one brave men killed in action, twenty eight were buried in a mass grave in Slavicin and others in places near towns that don't appear on most maps.  Names of towns and villages in the area of the air battle are shown on an included map prepared for this purpose.

 

Order Book

Click Here to download and print a PDF copy of the book order form.

 

 

 

"Shot At and Missed"

by Jack R. Myers

 

Jack R. Myers served as a bombardier with the 20th Squadron of the 2nd Bomb Group.  He agrees with Winston Churchill who wrote, "There is nothing quite as exhilarating as being 'Shot At and Missed'."

 

Jack Myers' publisher, University of Oklahoma, has agreed to furnish him hard-copies at cost for the benefit of our members and friends of the 2nd Bomb Group.  The book presently sells at book stores for $29.95, plus S&H and tax.

 

Purchase now direct from the author for $18.00, which includes S&H and tax.

 

 

For an autographed hard bound copy, send a check in the amount of $18.00 to the author.

 

Jack R. Myers

6000 N. Westminster

Arcadia, OK  73007

 

Many members of the 2nd Bomb Group have purchased copies of this book and found it very interesting reading and many memories of our stay in AMENDOLA AIR BASE AT FOGGIA, ITALY DURING WORLD WAR TWO!

 

Now out in paperback $16.00 

 

The following is a book review of "Shot At and Missed" which describes it as one

of the finest memoirs of life and death in the 15th Air Force during WW2.

 

 

    

"Bloody Skies"
by Melvin McGuire

 

 

About how they lived and died in the Fifteenth AAF 2nd Bomb Group

       
Can be Ordered From:

June McGuire
5525 Cottonbloom Ct
Las Cruces, NM  88007

575-524-4767
       

Paperback cost is $20.00 which includes postage and handling.

 

"McGuire's crew arrived in Amendola on the afternoon that the ground crew learned the entire 20th Squadron, seven aircraft, had  been shot down over Czechoslovakia."

(A very sobering bit of information for a new young crew just arriving from the United States - DFC)

 

 

"Mighty By Sacrifice"

 (the story of Mission 263, August 29, 1944)

 

by James L. Noles & James L. Noles, Jr.

  

The Second Bombardment Group -- and, in particular, the 20th Squadron -- is the subject of a book being published by the University of Alabama Press.

 

Mighty by Sacrifice: The Destruction of an American Bomber Squadron, August 29, 1944, is slated to arrive in book stores in late July 2009.

 

It is currently available for purchase on-line,

http://www.uapress.ua.edu/NewSearch2.cfm?id=133907

 and can also be ordered directly from the University of Alabama Press at

800-621-2736 or 773-702-7000.

 

It is also available from Amazon.com

http://www.amazon.com/Mighty-Sacrifice-Destruction-American-Squadron/dp/081731654X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1251768234&sr=8-1

 

Mighty by Sacrifice tells the story of the Group's ill-fated mission to bomb an oil refinery and railroad marshaling yard in Moravska Ostrava, Czechoslovakia, in 1944.  The 20th Squadron, 2nd Bombardment Group, dispatched seven bombers to participate in the raid.  All seven, however, were shot down by German fighters, as were several other bombers.
 
Mighty by Sacrifice focuses on several of the airmen on this mission, thereby providing a remarkable personal window into the Allies’ Combined Bomber Offensive at its height during WWII.  In a microcosm, their stories encapsulate how the U.S. Army Air Force built, trained, and employed one of the mightiest war machines ever seen.  Their stories also illustrate, however, the terrible cost in lives demanded by that same machine.   

Veterans interviewed for the book include Loy Dickinson, the late Bill Garland, Jim Martin, the late Willard Netzley, Joseph Owsianik, Duane Seaman, Ed Smith, Paul Sumner, the late Bill Tune, and Leo Zupan. Familes of other veterans and casualties of the mission were also interviewed.
 
The book has already garnered high praise in academic circles. "This is a great story that deserves to be told," said Stephen L. McFarland, the coauthor of To Command the Sky: The Battle for Air Superiority over Germany, 1942–1944.  "The authors do such a wonderful job of relating the terror and speed of aerial combat.”
 
The book is authored by James L. Noles, Jr., and his father, James L. Noles.
 
Noles, Jr., is a graduate of the United States Military Academy at West Point and is an attorney in Birmingham, Alabama.  He is also the author of last year's A Pocketful of History: Four Hundred Years of American -- One State Quarter at a Time and  2004's Twenty-Three Minutes to Eternity: The Final Voyage of the Escort Carrier USS Liscome Bay (also published by the University of Alabama Press).
 
Noles' co-author and father is a retired Army officer who currently resides in Florence, Alabama.
 
The title, Noles explains, comes from a line in Rudyard Kipling's poem "The Islanders," which reads in part, "Cleansed of servile panic, slow to dread or despise.  Humble because of knowledge, mighty by sacrifice." 
 
Both authors credit the gracious assistance they received in researching this book from the mission's veterans and their families.  "It simply would have been impossible to write this book without them," they said, "and we certainly hope that we honored their and their loved ones' legacy and sacrifice with our work.  Frankly, that was our main goal." 

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/opinion/chi-oped0828americaaug28,0,4268113.story

 

 

"15 Days to Freedom"
by Kemp F. Martin

 

 

Three Army Air Corps Lieutenants huddled together in a tiny Italian barn.  They were trying to keep warm and dry while wondering how they managed to end up in the middle of the German lines.  Less than two weeks ago they were sitting in a prisoner of war camp waiting for a train to take them north to the "Fatherland."  That's when they decided and executed a successful escape.

 

On the outside, they made for the "high country."  That translated into some seventy miles of struggling in the cold, rain and mud.  Help had come from a limited number of friendly farmers who provided some food and tattered civilian clothing.  Their situation looked bleak until the afternoon of the big battle.

       
Can be Ordered From:

Author House Publishing
1-888-280-7715

 

1-4259-0405-X  (Hardcover ISBN)     $20.90

1-4259-0406-8   (Softcover ISBN)      $12.30
 

 

 

 

 

"The Story of

the Silver Bracelet"

by Todd Weiler

 

"Some 19 years ago I learned of the 2nd Bomb Group Association's existence while discovering my Uncle James A. Weiler’s history KIA on Mission 263.  After 19 years of talking with all the veterans at the reunions, four visits to the Czech Republic to see and talk to the witnesses of Mission 263, and after linking with a global network of WWII historians, I have distilled this wonderful and enlightening experience into my “Magnum Opus” as one Czech friend called it."

 

 

 

 

"WORLD WAR II: OSS TRAGEDY

IN SLOVAKIA"

by Jim Downs

 

The story opens with American airmen, victims of the Luftwaffe, falling out of the sky.  It continues with the OSS Organizing plans to rescue them as the Slovak National Uprising erupts.  The Slovak government, which has been a friendly partner to the Third Reich, suddenly finds elements of the population caught up in the revolt.  Berlin recognizes the strategic reality of their threatened rear, and Hitler orders his SS storm troopers to crush the uprising. Actually, the SS units are patch-work units hastily organized. Nevertheless, a succession of explosive tragic events follows.

 

Chapter I   Blechhammer Raid   

The  beginning chapter is about the Blechhammer Raid conducted by the 15th Air Force from Italy which included the 2nd Bomb Group at Foggia.  Pilot Ira Corpening and Co-pilot Jack Kellogg tell the story of the loss of their B-17 and fate of the crew.

 

"This is a superior bit of writing, I was fascinated as I read it" Richard K. Radtke, President, 2nd Bomb Group Assoc.

 

 

Letters of a WWII Airman

 

Linda Gartz's Website

 

Letters of Her Uncle

- Lt Frank Ebner Gartz -

Navigator

2nd Bomb Group / 49th Squadron

 

 

 

The Diary of

Lt. T. Michael Sullivan

 

B-17 Bombardier

15th Air Force

5th Bomb Wing

2nd Bomb Group

429th Bomb Squadron

 

Diary Entries from

September 23, 1943

thru June 4, 1944

 

Transcription by his son, Terry Sullivan

 

Includes data and records at the beginning.

The diary begins on page 16.

 

soft copy can be viewed as a PDF file

 

The 96th Aero Squadron

by Hughes Glantzberg

(a soft copy)

 

Its Creation and Activities Before the Beginning of the St. Mihiel Operations, August 10, 1918

 

Courtesy of

Hughes Glantzberg

 

soft copy can be viewed as a PDF file

 

 

Ed Wade's WW2 Story

by Edwin C. Wade

Radio Operator / Gunner

2nd Bomb Group / 49th Squadron

(a PowerPoint slide presentation of photos)

 

Courtesy of

Ed Wade

 

 

98 Days of High Adventure

by Vincent Sterling Werner

(a soft copy)

Survived, I did! It proved to perhaps be the most important period of my life, now closing in on nearly 95 years.

What future use this document may have is unknown.  Perhaps it will help some great ( 3rd or more great) grandchild in that year 2094 history class to better appreciate what their ancestors experienced a century and half previous, in year 1944.

 

Courtesy of

Vincent Sterling Werner

 

soft copy can be viewed as a PDF file

 

 

Edward B. Mierzejewski

Ball Turret Gunner

2nd Bomb Group

49th & 96th Squadrons

- Training & Missions -

- Photos, Journal Logs, News Clippings -

(a PowerPoint slide presentation viewable as a PDF)

 

Courtesy of

Donna McManus

daughter of Edward B. Mierzejewski

 

 

 

2nd Bomb Group

In Italy

(a soft copy)

 

by Sgt. Charles C. Faig

 

This is a vintage WW2 souvenir photo booklet

of the 2nd Bomb Group

at Amendola Air Field in Italy.

The first two pages are a brief history

of the 2nd Bomb Group

followed by photos taken at Amendola Field. 

 

Courtesy of

Alfred Flowers,

and his son, Joseph Flowers

 

soft copy can be viewed as a PDF file

 

Bee Tee G.A.A.F.

Class 43-I

Graduation 7-28-1943

(a soft copy)

 

Army Air Forces

Basic Flying School

Gardner Field, California

 

Courtesy of

James Warwick

 

soft copy can be viewed as a PDF file

 

The Bobcat M.A.A.F

Class 43-I

Graduation 10-1-1943

(a soft copy)

 

Army Air Forces

Advanced Flying School

Marfa, Texas

 

Courtesy of

James Warwick

 

soft copy can be viewed as a PDF file

 

 

5th Bomb Wing

History of Aircraft Assigned

 

2nd BG / 97th BG / 99th BG

301st BG / 463rd BG / 483rd BG

 

by Richard E. Drain

 

A compiled list of all B-17s assigned to the 2nd Bomb Group, 97th BG, 99th BG, 301st BG, 463rd BG, and the 483rd BG.  This book also contains a chronological list of the missions flown by each bomb group during WW2.

 

Courtesy of

Frank Drain

 

soft copy can be viewed as a PDF file

 

 

"The Co-Pilot's Demons"

by Jack R. Myers

 

The Co-Pilot’s Demons is a novel about a co-pilot in the 2nd Bomb Group.  Although it’s a piece of fiction, the backdrop of the story is factually based on the scenes at and around Amendola airbase near Foggia, Italy and the missions that were flown by the 2nd Bomb Group during the summer of 1944 thru early 1945.

 

The Co-Pilot’s Demons is available online from Amazon.com and at Barnes & Noble.  It is also possible to obtain an autographed copy by sending a check for $14.95 to the author.

 

 

Jack R. Myers

6000 N. Westminster

Arcadia, OK 73007

(405) 396-2898

jrm@airosurf.net

 

 

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