by Adam Makos
First published 2012
December 21, 1943. Charlie Brown, a 21-year-old farm boy from West Virginia, pilots his damaged B-17 bomber through German airspace. Half his crew lies wounded or dead after their first mission goes catastrophically wrong. Behind him, a sleek Messerschmitt fighter closes in. The German pilot, Franz Stigler, is a Bavarian ace who could destroy the American bomber with a single burst. What happens next defies all military protocol. The encounter becomes so sensitive that the American 8th Air Force classifies it as top secret. Franz faces execution if he ever speaks of it. Both men survive the war but carry the memory for forty years. Charlie endures takeoffs through English fog over burning wreckage, flak bursts that illuminate his cockpit, and enemy fighters circling like predators. Franz battles desert sandstorms, crashes alone at sea, and confronts formations of 1,000 bombers bristling with guns. As old men, they begin searching for each other, hoping this final mission might bring peace to their haunted lives.
Genres: historical-fiction, 20th-century, military-fiction, adventure, action, aviation
Vibes: emotional, fast-paced, thought-provoking
Tropes: enemies-to-lovers, found-family
Setting: Germany, West Virginia
Period: 1943, World War II
392 pages · Hardcover · Dutton Caliber
Content warnings: war