![]() ![]() Often I’d stand up and look out the cockpit at the flak coming up at us. “I sat right behind the copilot on a little stool that swiveled out from the bomber’s frame. “We weren’t harassed by enemy fighter planes, but the flak from German 88 antiaircraft guns was heavy,” McKalip recalled. The Allied saturation bombing destroyed 15 square miles of the city’s center, killing an estimated 25,000 to 40,000 residents. A total of 1,300 heavy bombers dropped 3,900 tons of high explosive and incendiary bombs on the capital of Saxony. 13-15, 1945, fewer than three months before the end of the war in Europe. The story I heard was that the Americans bombed Dresden because the Russians insisted on it,” the 86-year-old former sergeant explained.ĭresden was bombed by the American Air Force and the Royal Air Force on Feb. “Dresden was supposed to be an open city. The Dresden mission devastated that city and was very controversial. His four-engine heavy bomber was dubbed “This Above All.” resident, was a member of the 466th Bomb Group, 8th Air Force, which flew out of Attlebridge, England. ![]() The mission that made the biggest impression on him 65 years later was the flight that leveled Dresden, Germany. Photo providedĭavid McKalip flew 30 combat missions as a radio operator on a B-24 “Liberator” bomber during World War II. McKalip is standing in the back row at far right. flew on in World War II as part of the 8th Air Force in England. ![]() In short, she wants readers to know that the events in her biography are factual.This is the crew of “This Above All” a B-24 “Liberator” bomber Dave McKalip of Port Charlotte, Fla. She includes pictures of family and friends, and gives detailed lists of Louie’s B-24 bomber crew. She explains the “Norden bombsight” in detail. For example, she writes about the first battle of Wake Atoll-even though Louie has nothing to do with it-because the battle sets a precedent for the Japanese enslavement of American POWs. These facts lend credence to the tales she relates about Louie’s war experiences. As a result, this chapter is filled with specific details and data about WWII. In this chapter, Hillenbrand emphasizes what she considers to be vitally important: She is telling a true story. Where he has failed before, Louie now thrives and succeeds. His training as a bombardier is difficult, but now he has a whole team of people who not only want him to be the best at what he does, they need him to be the best. The aimless, unmotivated college dropout suddenly finds himself back in an atmosphere where a hundred kinds of “Petes” (commanders, fellow soldiers, and especially Phil) demand that he improve, excel, and succeed. Louie doesn’t want to be drafted into war, but military service becomes something of a second redemption for him. They are stationed in Hawaii, at Hickam Field on the island of Oahu. On November 2, 1942, Louie, Phil, and the rest of their crew take their B-24 (nicknamed “Super Man”) and fly into the war. After that, he continues training and becomes friends with Russell Allen “Phil” Phillips, a pilot and the son of a pastor in Indiana. Meanwhile, Louie graduates from Army Flying School and is commissioned as a second lieutenant. In the Army Air Corps, Louie trains as a bombardier and joins a crew that flies the B-24 Liberator class of airplane nicknamed “The Flying Coffin.” In December 1941, Japan attacks the United States at Pearl Harbor in Hawaii and on the island of Wake Atoll. Part V Chapter 36: The Body on the Mountain.Part IV Chapter 32: Cascades of Pink Peaches.Part IV Chapter 29: Two Hundred and Twenty Punches.Part IV Chapter 20: Farting for Hirohito.Part IV Chapter 19: Two Hundred Silent Men.Part IV Chapter 18: A Dead Body Breathing.Part III Chapter 16: Singing in the Clouds.Part III Chapter 15: Sharks and Bullets.Part II Chapter 11: “Nobody’s Going to Live Through This”.Part II Chapter 9: Five Hundred and Ninety-four Holes.Part II Chapter 8: “Only the Laundry Knew How Scared I Was”.Part I Chapter 1: The One-Boy Insurgency. ![]()
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