First published 2002
Robert Morgan grips the controls of the Memphis Belle as flak bursts around his B-17 Flying Fortress. At 20,000 feet above Nazi-occupied Europe, he and his crew face German fighters and anti-aircraft fire on their bombing runs. Morgan must keep his men alive through twenty-five daylight missions, the magic number that means a ticket home to America. Each sortie over France and Germany brings new dangers. Enemy planes swarm their formation. Shrapnel tears through the aircraft. Crew members are wounded or killed on neighboring bombers. Morgan watches other pilots crack under the pressure or fail to return from their missions. His own crew grows more superstitious and battle-worn with each flight. The odds are stacked against them, but Morgan pushes forward, mission by mission, toward that twenty-fifth flight that will make them the first complete crew to finish their tour and return to the United States. This is the story of survival against impossible odds in the deadly skies over wartime Europe.
Genres: historical-fiction, 20th-century, military-fiction, adventure, action, world-war-ii, aviation, american-history
Vibes: emotional, fast-paced, suspenseful
Tropes: against-all-odds, based-on-true-story
Setting: Europe, France, Germany, United States
Period: World War II
400 pages · Paperback · NAL Trade