Superfortress: The Story of the B-29 and American Air Power - Softcover

Curtis E. LeMay; Bill Yenne

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0425118800 ISBN 13: 9780425118801

Publisher: Berkley, 1989

Synopsis

Provides a definitive history of the famed Boeing B-29 Superfortress, from its 1920s inception by General Billy Mitchell to the skillful piloting of Curtis LeMay, the man who flew the plane into battle

About this title

From Publishers Weekly:

Drawing on Air Force and Boeing archives plus conversations between LeMay and Yenne ( Boeing ), this is an account of the military/civilian effort that brought forth in record time the second-most formidable weapon of World War II. LeMay, the first combat commander of the B-29 force and later head of Strategic Air Command, has a few churlish remarks to make about the Army's tardiness in recognizing the value of Gen. Billy Mitchell's early vision of strategic air power. He credits Gen. Henry Arnold, wartime Air Force chief-of-staff, with providing the inspiration and direction of the B-29 project. The book is an eloquent tribute to the unity of purpose displayed by a handful of Air Force officers, Boeing executives and engineers and thousands of plant workers across the country. LeMay incidentally remarks in passing that the Superfortress became operational, from drawing board to flight line, in about a quarter of the time it would take for today's equivalent. In noneuphemistic language, the general describes how he deployed his B-29s over Japan during the final year of the war. Photos. Military Book Club selection.
Copyright 1988 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal:

Ret. Air Force General LeMay offers an informal account of the B-29 bomberfrom its ambiguous genesis to its successful integration into World War II, from the disastrous Seattle test flight to the epochal flight over Hiroshima in 1945. It is an interesting storyespecially at the point where the general becomes personally involved. Yet the tone is hopelessly macho and the protagonist shows no remorse over the enormous civilian death toll caused by his incendiary bombings of major Japanese cities. These aren't exactly revelations, however; it has only been two decades since LeMay was George Wallace's running mate and talked of bombing the North Vietnamese back into the Stone Age. For public libraries. Mark R. Yerburgh, Trinity Coll. Lib., Burlington, Vt.
Copyright 1988 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About this edition

• Publisher: Berkley
• Publication date: 1989
• ISBN 10: 0425118800
• ISBN 13: 9780425118801
• Binding: Mass Market Paperback
• Number of pages: 222