A COPILOT'S MEMORIES

Air Classics, Sep 2004 by Hulett, George

NEW BOOKS FOR THE AVIATION ENTHUSIAST

Recording B-17 combat missions

Return To Base by Jesse Richard Pitts (Howell Press, $29.95 800-868-4512) tells the story of an aircrew's tour of duty with the 379th Bomb Group during World War Two. The tour was 25 missions. The goal: Keep in tight formation, bomb the target (as accurately as possible), avoid flak and fighters, and return safely to base. In this poignant memoir, the author explores these elements of survival, which comprise the duties of a wartime pilot while dealing with other such complicated issues as fear, guilt, courage, relationships, and desertions.

Arriving as a junior birdman at Kimbolton, England, in November 1943, Pitts is immediately initiated to the war-weariness of the veterans who have experienced the first two slaughterhouses at Schweinfurt. The young copilot meets his own nightmares during deadly missions such as Oschersleben, Kiel, and Halberstadt, and he is forever changed. These amazing stories of missions flown by Pitts and the crew of the B-17G Penny Ante memorialize the five months, from November 1943 to March 1944, when these young airmen woke up most mornings to accomplish their mission... a mission from which they may not return.