The Original Hell's Angels: 303rd Bombardment Group of World War II

by Smart, Valerie

• ISBN13: 9780738509105
• ISBN10: 0738509108
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2001-08-01
• Publisher: Arcadia Pub

Summary

During World War II, there was a famed B-17 aircraft named Hell's Angels. The men who worked together to keep the plane flying over Hitler's occupied Europe, those of the U.S. Army Air Force's 303rd Bombardment Group, were the first in the 8th Air Force to complete twenty-five missions from their base in Molesworth, England. These men, or "Hell's Angels" as they became known, went on to complete forty missions without ever turning back to base for mechanical failure of the plane. In The Original Hell's Angels: 303rd Bombardment Group of World War II, you will take an exciting historical journey to meet these men and to experience the total forty-eight missions they flew without having a member wounded or killed before the plane and members of its crew were commissioned to return to America for a war-bond tour. Also, you will learn how the entire 303rd became known as Hell's Angels, the first heavy bombardment group to complete three hundred missions from American air force bases in England.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments	6	(1)
Introduction	7	(2)
The Plane Hell's Angels	9	(10)
The Men of Hell's Angels	19	(16)
Life in the U.S. Army Air Force	35	(18)
Preparing for Combat	53	(14)
For the War Effort	67	(32)
Other Crews in the 303rd	99	(14)
Other Planes in the 303rd	113	(8)
To Honor and Remember	121