Air Apaches

The True Story of the 345th Bomb Group and Its Low, Fast, and Deadly Missions in World War II

Jay A. Stout

• Publisher: Stackpole Books
• Year: 2019
• eBook ISBN: 9780811768092
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: World War II
• Index: History

The American 345th Bomb Group--the Air Apaches--was legendary in the war against Japan. The first fully trained and fully equipped group sent to the South Pacific, the 345th racked up a devastating score against the enemy. Armed to the teeth with machine guns and fragmentation bombs, and flying their B-25s at impossibly low altitudes--often below fifty feet--the pilots and air crews strafed and bombed enemy installations and shipping with a fury that helped cripple Japan. One of the sharpest tools in the U.S. arsenal, the 345th performed essential missions during Gen. Douglas MacArthur’s campaigns in New Guinea and the Philippines, earning an impressive four Distinguished Unit Citations.

This was punishingly dangerous work, and the 345th lost 177 aircraft and 712 men--young men doing their duty in the spirit of the Greatest Generation. Neither was this the more gentlemanly war of Europe, with its more temperate climate, resistance networks aiding downed crews, and POW camps. Airmen shot down in the Pacific theater faced drowning in the ocean, disappearing in the jungle, or torturing and beheading by the Japanese in a war of no quarter expected, no quarter given.

A compelling follow-up to Jay A. Stout’s Hell’s Angels, Air Apaches reconstructs the missions of the 345th Bomb Group in striking detail, with laser focus on the men who manned the cockpits, navigated the B-25s, dropped the bombs, serviced the planes, and helped win the war. To tell this remarkable story, Stout worked closely with the group’s surviving veterans and dug deep into firsthand accounts. The result is a compelling narrative of men at war that will keep readers on the edge of their seats.

Table of contents

• Contents
• Foreword
• Preface
• Introduction
• Chapter 1: “It Couldn’t Be Much Worse”
• Chapter 2: “That Made Him Very Happy”
• Chapter 3: “The Enemy Was Taken Completely by Surprise”
• Chapter 4: “The Squadron Was Attacked”
• Chapter 5: “The Pilots Did Not Appear Eager”
• Chapter 6: “I Turned Back to Pick Him Up”
• Chapter 7: “We Think We Destroyed the Mission”
• Chapter 8: “Many Strange Faces”
• Chapter 9: “I Hate to See Them Go”
• Chapter 10: “Torn to Death”
• Chapter 11: “Love to All and Write Real Often”
• Chapter 12: “A Perfect Swan Dive”
• Chapter 13: “It’s All for the Best, Dad”
• Chapter 14: “We Seemed to Be Awfully High”
• Chapter 15: “He Was Even More Handsome in His Uniform”
• Chapter 16: “Jap Fighters Making Long Range Passes”
• Chapter 17: “I Inflated My Mae West”
• Chapter 18: “I Jerked and Ducked Instinctively”
• Chapter 19: “He Also Flew Missions with Several Other Crews”
• Chapter 20: “Well, I’m Done For”
• Epilogue
• Acknowledgments
• Notes and References
• Bibliography