The Legend of Colin Kelly; America's First Hero of WWII

The format is approximately 8.5 inches by 11 inches. iv, 68 pages, plus covers. Illustrated cover. Illustrations. Map. This is World War II Series No. 1. The story of Captain Colin Kelly of the US Army Air Force, credited with being responsible for the destruction of the Japanese battleship Haruna on 9 December 1941 off Manila, by piloting his bomber to enable three direct hits. On the flight home, his plane was attacked by two Japanese fighters. Kelly ordered his crew to bail out, but he was killed when the burning plane exploded. He was posthumously awarded the Distinguished Service Cross. Dennis E. McClendon was a Troop Carrier Command first pilot in North Africa, Sicily and Italy during World War II. After the war he became a commercial pilot. He was a journalist with the Houston Post. He was later recalled back to Air Force duty and retired as a Lieutenant Colonel. Wallace F. Richards had the idea for this work. He had collected many documents relating to Kelly and approached Dennis McClendon to jointly write this long-needed and compelling narrative. Colin Purdie Kelly Jr. (July 11, 1915 December 10, 1941) was a World War II B-17 Flying Fortress pilot who flew bombing runs against the Japanese navy in the first days after the Pearl Harbor attack. He is remembered as one of the first American heroes of the war after ordering his crew to bail out while he remained at the bomber's controls trying to keep the plane in the air before it exploded, killing him. His was the first American B-17 to be shot down in combat. On December 17, 1941, President Franklin D. Roosevelt wrote a letter, "To the President of the United States of America in 1956" asking for an appointment for Kelly's infant son. Colin P. Kelly III went to West Point, but did it on his own taking the examinations and declining the Presidential nomination. He graduated from West Point in 1963.…