The American Air Forces #2

When Japanese bombers threaten Kunming, the vital Chinese city on the Burma Road, a small squadron of American volunteer pilots gets its chance to prove itself in combat on December 20, 1941. Flying their distinctively painted P-40s against overwhelming odds, these fourteen airmen must demonstrate whether their training and tactics can turn the tide against an enemy that has bombed the city with impunity for months. Their performance that day would earn them an honored name that still echoes through history.

A radioman finds himself jumping with the paratroopers when a pilot accidentally gives the "abandon ship" signal—a mix-up that turns a routine flight into an unexpected adventure in this wartime humor story from 1944.

Colonel Philip G. Cochran leads the First Air Commando Force in daring operations across India and Burma from February through May 1944, striking Japanese positions with unconventional tactics and newfound methods of aerial warfare. Working alongside British jungle fighters, Cochran's fliers employ everything from depth charges to reconnaissance tricks, all while managing the brutal realities of combat—from locating hidden enemy gun emplacements to rescuing wounded men from territory held by both sides. It's a sharp-edged look at how American ingenuity and guts carved out a new kind of air combat in one of the war's toughest theaters.

On June 22, 1944, the U.S. Navy unveiled Task Force 58—a revolutionary armada of carriers, battleships, cruisers, and destroyers that would become the Pacific theater's most powerful striking force. This non-fiction account follows the fleet's composition, capabilities, and early combat operations, from the assault on Palau through the pivotal Battle of the Eastern Philippines, showcasing how American industrial might and naval innovation turned the tide of war in the Pacific.

First Lt. Mangus W. Francis gets exactly what he wished for when his patrol over the South Pacific turns into a fierce aerial dogfight—he downs enemy fighters in quick succession, but his luck runs out when he's caught in a dangerous situation with a Zero pack. After taking shrapnel and bailing out, Francis must survive not just enemy fire, but the ocean itself in a grueling four-hour ordeal that teaches him a hard lesson about being careful what you ask for.

One Way to Catch a Train... Two Mustang fighter pilots of the U.S. 8th Air Force set out on a mission to seal off a German rail line in France, spotting a Nazi train making a desperate run for a tunnel. With fuel running low and ingenuity running high, these American flyers devise an unorthodox tactic to keep their target from escaping.