Operation PLUM: The Ill-fated 27th Bombardment Group and the Fight for the Western Pacific (Volume 117) (Williams-Ford Texas A&M University Military History Series) - Softcover

Martin, Adrian R.; Stephenson MD, Dr. Larry W.

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1603441840 ISBN 13: 9781603441841

Publisher: Texas A&M University Press, 2010

Synopsis

They went in as confident young warriors. They came out as battle-scarred veterans, POW camp survivors

. . . or worse. The Army Air Corps’ 27th Bombardment Group arrived in the Philippines in November 1941 with 1,209 men; one year later, only 20 returned to the United States.

The Japanese attacked the Philippines on the same morning as Pearl Harbor and invaded soon after. Allied air routes back to the Philippines were soon cut, forcing pilots to fight their air war from bases in Java, Australia, and New Guinea. The men on Bataan were eventually taken prisoner and forced into the infamous Death March.

The 27th and other such units were pivotal in delaying the Japanese timetable for conquest. If not for these units, some have suggested, the Allied offensive in the Pacific might have started in Hawaii or even California instead of New Guinea and the surrounding islands.

Based largely on primary materials, including a fifty-nine-page report written by the surviving unit members in September 1942, Operation PLUM (from the code name for the U.S. Army in the Philippines) gives an account of the 27th Bombardment Group and, through it, the opening months of the Pacific theater.

Military historians and readers interested in World War II will appreciate the rich perspective presented in Operation PLUM

About this title

About the Author:

ADRIAN R. MARTIN, a retired high school teacher, is the author of three books, including Brothers from Bataan: POWs 1942–1945. He lives in Menasha, Wisconsin.
LARRY W. STEPHENSON, the nephew of Capt. Glenwood Stephenson, a participant in Operation PLUM, is the Ford-Webber Professor of Surgery at Wayne State University in Detroit, Michigan. A retired Army colonel, Stephenson also serves as an associate editor of a major medical journal and has written six other books and more than 300 articles

Review:

“This work details the experiences of pilots of an Army Air Forces’ dive bomber group caught up in the 1941–42 Philippines campaign without their aircraft, a story not previously covered as a single volume in the literature. By heavily relying on the pilots’ own descriptions of personal experiences, the authors are able to present a graphic picture of the frustrations the young and combat-inexperienced airmen endured in the early months of the Pacific War.”--William H. Bartsch, Independent Historian (William H. Bartsch, Independent Historian)

"This book is a great read, well researched and with extensive end notes, excellent appendixes including one giving the later careers of the surviving pilots. . ." (Amazon 2008-12-23)

"This is a fine tale of a little-known chapter in World War II, complete with maps and excellent black-and-white photos. Martin and Stephenson, the latter the nephew of a 27th pilot, should take particular pride in their thorough research."--Proceedings (Proceedings 2009-03-01)

About this edition

• Publisher: Texas A&M University Press
• Publication date: 2010
• ISBN 10: 1603441840
• ISBN 13: 9781603441841
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 363