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Michael Lee Lanning - The Blister Club: The Extraordinary Story of the Downed American Airmen Who Escaped to Safety in World War II

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The Blister Club: The Extraordinary Story of the Downed American Airmen Who Escaped to Safety in World War II: summary, description and annotation

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During World War II, some 10,000 American bombers and fighters were shot down over Europe. Of the crews aboard, 26,000 men were killed, while 30,000 survived being shot down only to be captured and made prisoners of war. Against the longest of odds, nearly 3,000 airmen made it to the ground alive, evaded capture, and escaped to safety. These men proudly called themselves the Blister Club.

Drawing on tens of thousands of pages of mostly untapped documents in the National Archives, Michael Lee Lanning tells the story of these courageous airmen. They had received escape-and-evasion (E & E) training, and some were lucky enough to land with their E-&-E kitsbut all bets were off once they hit the ground. They landed after an air catastrophe. The geography was usually unfamiliar. Civilians might or might not be trustworthy. German soldiers and Gestapo agents hunted down airmen as well as civilians who dared help them. If an airman abandoned his uniform for civilian garb, he forfeited Geneva Convention protections. Most faced the daunting task of escaping on foot across hundreds of miles. The fortunate connected with one of the established escape routes to Spain or Switzerland or across the English Channel, or they hooked up with the underground resistance or friendly civilians. Upon return to friendly lines, these men were often able to provide valuable intelligence about enemy troop dispositions and civilian morale. Many volunteered to fly again even though regulations prohibited it.

The Blister Club is history with a punch. With a historians eye, Lanning covers the hows and whys of escape-and-evasion and aerial combat in the European theater, but the book also vividly captures the stories of the airmen who did the escaping and evading, including that of a young pilot named Chuck Yeager, who, during his own escape, aided the French Resistance and helped another downed airman to safetyand then begged to fly again, eventually securing Eisenhowers approval to return to the air, where he achieved ace status.

Stories of escape are popular, especially those set during World War II, as are stories of the war in the air. Combining both of these, The Blister Club should find an enthusiastic audience.

Michael Lee Lanning: author's other books


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Michael Lee Lanning is the author of twenty-eight nonfiction books on military history, sports, and health. More than 1.1 million copies of his books are in print in fifteen countries, and editions have been translated into twelve languages. He has appeared on major television networks as well as the History Channel as an expert on the individual soldier on both sides of the Vietnam War.

The New York Times Book Review declared Lannings Vietnam 19691970: A Company Commanders Journal to be one of the most honest and horrifying accounts of a combat soldiers life to come out of the Vietnam War. The London Sunday Times devoted an entire page to review his book, The Military 100: A Ranking of the Most Influential Military Leaders of All Time. According to the San Francisco Journal, Lannings Inside the VC and NVA is a well-researched, groundbreaking work that fills a huge gap in the historiography of the Vietnam War.

A veteran of more than twenty years in the US Army, Lanning is a retired lieutenant colonel. During the Vietnam War he served as an infantry platoon leader, reconnaissance platoon leader, and an infantry company commander. In addition to having earned the Combat Infantrymans Badge and Bronze Star with V device with two oak leaf clusters, Lanning is Ranger-qualified and a senior parachutist.

Lanning, born in Sweetwater, Texas, earned a BS from Texas A&M University and an MS from East Texas State University. He currently resides in Lampasas, Texas.

B-17 FLYING FORTRESS

The Boeing Company flew the first B-17 bomber in 1934. Upon seeing its large number of machine guns, a Seattle newspaper reporter labeled it the Flying Fortress, a name that forever remains associated with the aircraft. Boeing shared production with Lockheed, Douglas, and Vega to manufacture 12,730 B-17s prior to and during World War II. Over the years the original B-17 went through more than a dozen adaptations and models, with the G model the most popular with nearly 9,000 taking the air. B-17s delivered 44 percent of the 1.5 million tons of bombs dropped on Nazi Germany and its territoriesmore than any other type of aircraft.

General

Crew: 10 (pilot, copilot, navigator, bombardier/nose gunner, flight engineer/top turret gunner, radio operator, waist gunners (2), ball turret gunner, tail gunner)

Length: 74 feet 4 inches

Wingspan: 103 feet 9 inches

Height: 19 feet 1 inch

Empty weight: 36,135 pounds

Gross weight: 54,000 pounds

Max takeoff weight: 65,500 pounds

Powerplant: 4 Wright R-1820-97 Cyclone turbosupercharged radials with 1,200 hp each

Performance

Maximum speed: 287 miles per hour

Cruise speed: 182 miles per hour

Range: 2,000 miles with 6,000 pounds bombload

Armament

Guns: 13 .50 inch (12.7 mm) M2 Browning machine guns in nine positions (two in the Bendix chin turret, two on nose cheeks, two staggered waist guns, two in upper Sperry turret, two in Sperry ball turret in belly, two in the tail, and one firing upward from radio compartment behind bomb bay)

Bombs:

Short range missions (400 miles): 8,000 pounds

Long range missions (800 miles): 4,500 pounds

B-24 LIBERATOR

The first B-24 took to the air from its Consolidated Aircraft manufacture in San Diego in late 1939. Over the next six years, a total of 18,452 rolled off the assembly line in more than sixty variants, making it the most produced aircraft of World War II. One-third of these planes went to Allies of the United States with Great Britain receiving some of the earliest models. It was the Royal Air Force that christened the B-24 as the Liberator and the USAAF soon adopted the name as well.

B-24s were known for their difficult flying characteristics that resulted in a higher accident rate than the B-17. Many in the Air Force referred to the B-24 as the widow maker. It also lacked overall comfort. The B-24 had a lack of interior crew member space and inferior heating. Gasoline fumes often filled the fuselage, requiring the opening of the bomb bay doors to clear the air.

Because of its design, the B-24 was forced to fly at a lower altitude than the B-17s, resulting in a higher rate of combat losses to flak. It was not considered as rugged as the B-17. Despite its flaws, most crews loved their B-24s and argued that the Liberator was superior to the Fortress.

General

Crew: 11 (pilot, copilot, navigator, bombardier, radio operator, nose turret, top turret, two waist gunners, ball turret, tail gunner)

Length: 67 feet 2 inches

Wingspan: 110 feet

Height: 17 feet 7.5 inches

Empty weight: 36,500 pounds

Gross weight: 55,000 pounds

Max takeoff weight: 65,000 pounds

Fuel capacity: 2,344 gallons

Powerplant: 4 Pratt & Whitney R-1830-35 Twin Wasp, R-1830-41 or R-1830-65 14-cylinder two-row air-cooled turbosupercharged radial piston engines, 1,200 hp each

Performance

Maximum speed: 297 miles per hour at 25,000 feet

Cruise speed: 215 miles per hour

Range: 1,540 miles at 237 miles per hour and 25,000 feet with normal fuel and maximum internal bomb load

Armament

Guns: 10 .50 caliber M2 Browning machine guns in four turrets and two waist positions

Bombs: Short range (400 mi): 8,000 pounds

Long range (800 mi): 5,000 pounds

Very long range (1,200 mi): 2,700 pounds

B-26 MARAUDER

The twin-engine medium bomber Martin B-26 Marauder took to the air in the late 1930s. A total of 5,288 in two dozen variants were produced during the war with most flying in the European Theater. Considered difficult and dangerous to fly, it earned the nicknames B-Dash-Crash, Flying Coffin, and Martin Murderer by its crews.

Despite its problems, it earned the record of the best return from mission rate than any other bomber in the war. One B-26, named Flak-Bait, survived 207 missionsmore than any other American bomber in World War II. It completed 725 hours of combat time and returned twice on one engine, had its electrical system knocked out twice, and on another occasion lost its hydraulic system.

General:

Crew: 7 (two pilots, bombardier/radio operator, navigator/radio operator, three gunners)

Length: 58 feet 3 inches

Wingspan: 71 feet 0 inches

Height: 21 feet 6 inches

Empty weight: 24,000 pounds

Gross weight: 37,000 pounds

Powerplant: 2 Pratt & Whitney R-2800-43 Double Wasp 18-cylinder radial piston engines,

Performance

Maximum speed: 287 miles per hour at 5,000 feet

Cruise speed: 216 miles per hour

Range: 1,150 miles with 3,000 pounds bombload and 1,153 gallons of fuel

Armament

Guns: 11 .50 in (12.7 mm) M2 Browning machine guns. One in nose position, four in blisters on fuselage, two in dorsal turret, two in tail turret, two in waist positions

Bombs: 4,000 pounds

A-20 HAVOC

The Douglas Aircraft Company initially designed the A-20 for the French Air Force in 1936 as a medium bomber, fighter, and reconnaissance aircraft. After the fall of France, the A-20 continued as a part of the British Air Force and with the lend-lease program with the Soviet Union. By wars end 7,478 A-20s had been produced.

A-20s were some of the first planes flown by US pilots over Nazi-occupied Europe after the United States entered the war in 1941. On July 4, 1942, twelve A-20s from the 8th Air Force flew the first missions as a part of the Royal Air Forces attack against German airfields in Holland.

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