Air War
Bomber crews, fighter aces, and missions that rarely appear in popular histories.
3 articles
Air War
The Bomber Pilot Who Wrote 31 Letters to His Wife
A B-17 pilot wrote one letter per mission before going down over Cologne
James Callahan flew B-17 missions for the 8th Air Force. Before every mission, he wrote a letter to his wife Margaret in Chicago. He sealed 31 of them, numbered…
Air War
The Dambusters Raid: Operation Chastise's 127 Airmen Who Never Came Home
617 Squadron destroyed the dams of the Ruhr Valley — but only 11 of 19 crews returned
On the night of May 16-17, 1943, 19 Lancaster bombers of the RAF's 617 Squadron, led by Wing Commander Guy Gibson, took off from RAF Scampton to attack the dams…
Air War
The Great Tokyo Express: How U.S. PT Boats Terrorized Japanese Supply Lines
Small, fast, and fearless: PT boats waged a war of attrition against Japanese destroyers
The Tokyo Express was the Allied nickname for the nightly Japanese naval reinforcement and supply runs to Guadalcanal and other contested islands. What is less …