A Wing and a Prayer: The “Bloody 100th” Bomb Group of the US Eighth Air Force in Action over Europe in World War II by Harry H. Crosby is an excellent, well written account of the air war over Europe and life on the ground for US Airmen.
A navigator in the B-17 Flying Fortress, we are introduced to him as he is lead navigator on a training mission over England. He had never been lead before, but a series of events put him in that position on the training flight. He does so well he is made lead for a 12 hour, 1,900 mile bombing mission from England to Trondheim, Norway.
Upon landing, Harry thinks that he has messed up so badly that he will be court martialed. Instead he is awarded his first Distinguished Flying Cross. His humility is a refreshing perspective to the bravado that is so often portrayed in movies, and I think more common among fliers than people realize.
Harry goes on to fly 37 missions in the B-17. He paints the picture of what flying daylight bombing missions was actually like, along with life on the ground when they weren’t in the skies over Europe.
Whether it is describing the climb through 20,000′ of clouds before breaking out on top, trying to marshal together formations, or navigating to and from targets, Harry will have you on the “edge of your seat.”
This one was hard to put down, I wanted to know what was going to happen next. There’s a reason it is the #1 Bestseller in Military Aviation History on Amazon.
