One Man Air Force E-Book

Don S. Gentile

• Herausgeber: The P-47 Press
• Kategorie: Geisteswissenschaft
• Sprache: Englisch
• Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2021

Beschreibung

One Man Air Force is the autobiography of World War II fighter-pilot ace Dominic Salvatore "Don" Gentile. The book outlines the celebrated flyer's early experiences with flight through to his entry in the Second World War and continues through the course of 350 combat hours in 182 sorties. Gentile's vivid descriptions of aerial combat place the reader in the hurly-burly of battle, recreating the feeling of engaging an enemy in a dogfight, of having a Messerschmidt close on your tail, and of soaring into the air in Spitfires, Thunderbolts, and Mustangs. The admiration that Gentile commanded was demonstrated when General Dwight D. Eisenhower presented the pilot with the Distinguished Flying Cross and stated, "You are a One-Man Air Force."

Leseprobe

One Man Air Force

Don S. Gentile

Published by The P-47 Press, 2021.

Copyright

––––––––

One Man Air Force by Don S. Gentile. First published in 1951.

New edition published by The P-47 Press, 2021.

All rights reserved.

Table of Contents

Title Page

Copyright Page

Preface

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

Further Reading: Joe Foss Flying Marine: The Story of his Flying Circus

Preface

CAPTAIN DON SALVATORE Gentile, a Piqua, Ohio boy of twenty-three, the only son of parents who emigrated to the United States from Italy, has been called by General Dwight D. Eisenhower a one-man air-force. Coming from the Commander-in-chief of the Allied forces, this is something a boy can put on his chest and strut behind for the rest of his life.

When the general said this to his face, Don blushed and looked as embarrassed as his military posture would permit. This boy who has destroyed thirty German airplanes—more than any other American has done in two wars so far, and the equivalent nearly of two whole Luftwaffe squadrons—is called “Gentle” by his mates at the Eighth Air Force Fighter Base in England. He is soft-spoken and self-effacing, a rather naive and quite unworldly boy, who has never done anything much or cared to do anything except fly. I moved in with him sometime in April about two weeks before he got his thirtieth plane. In those two weeks he lived a tragic, harrowing, prodigiously dangerous climax to his life. It was the peak few men ever attain and even fewer, once attaining, survive.

At such a time one can get to know a man very well, and this, I think, I managed with “Gentle.” We spent our evenings and nights in beds separated by a radio whose soft music he turned on to soothe the banging his beaten-up nerves take. He spent his days among the enemy's bullets, sometimes killing the enemy and sometimes seeing the enemy kill his friends.