Rare, out-of-print & unusual books · Since 1997
Turn the pages with the arrows, keyboard, or a swipe.
Sunflower University Press, Published 1995. Paperback, 194 pp.; 23 cm; illustrated with black-and-white photographs from U.S. Navy sources, maps, and War Department recognition-manual silhouettes of Japanese aircraft; foreword by Captain Royce A. Singleton, USNR (Ret.); bibliography, appendices, index.
In Very Good condition. Glossy pictorial paper covers (escort carrier with Hellcats on deck on front, author's portrait and biography on rear) with light bumping and creasing to edges and corners and mild shelf wear. Binding tight; yellow binding glue visible along the gutter of the title page and at the inside rear cover seam. Light toning to page edges. Pages clean and unmarked. Memoir of a VF 60 Hellcat pilot aboard the escort carrier USS Suwannee (CVE-27), a converted Cimarron-class oiler, from joining Air Group 60 in December 1943 through Tarawa, Kwajalein, Eniwetok, Hollandia, Saipan, Tinian, Guam, Morotai, and Leyte Gulf, where the ship took kamikaze hits on 25 and 26 October 1944 (107 dead and 160 wounded over the two days). Written from the pilot's side of CVE operations, a corner of the carrier war that Singleton's foreword notes had gone largely unrecorded. Photographs include the holed flight deck and hangar after the first hit, the VF 60 pilots and flight surgeon in the Marshalls, a captured Zero, and the Suwannee's TBFs in flight. A memorial page names the 28 Air Group 60 dead; Appendix A gives the VF 60 and VT 60 rosters. Rear cover carries the author's biography: Iowa State materials science professor emeritus, Air Medal with star, close to 5,000 hours in some 150 aircraft types. Contents: Foreword; Acknowledgments; Prologue; Background; The First Operation and Other Considerations; Movement Northwest and Invasion of Kwajalein; Eniwetok and Beyond; Aitape and Hollandia: A Relatively Easy Time; Respite Before the Brouhaha in the Marianas; The War Gets Warmer: Saipan and Tinian; The Action Continues on Guam; Morotai and Halmahera: The Dutch East Indies; From the Dutch East Indies to the Philippines; The Philippines: Initial Phase, 18-24 October 1944; First Hole in the Flight Deck, 25 October 1944; Second Hole in the Flight Deck, 26 October 1944; Return Home; Epilogue; Bibliography; Appendix A; Appendix B; Index.