Publisher's Synopsis
This is the story of a band of young fighter pilots and their gritty, close-quarters fight against Hitler?s vaunted military machine. The ?Hell Hawk?s? were a band of young pilots ? many barely twenty years old, and fresh out of training ? who never the less became one of the most successful P47 fighter groups of the US Forces in Europe in WW II, fighting form February 1944 to May 1945. Initially stationed at RAF Gasfield, they moved to RAF Beaulie, where they destroyed 29 enemy aircraft, and this ferocious toll on the enemy continued across the European combat theatre, from Azeville in France to the final posting in Tritzar, Germany, on VE Day, for fourteen months of grinding combat over the mud and ruins of Europe. From bomber support runs, to dog-fights, the 365th supported Eisenhower?s military push with justifiable success, flying 1, 241 missions, with Oherstlutenant Egon Mayer, one of the Luftwaffe?s most successful aces, as one of their victories, destroying eight enemy bombers in one day, and many other notable victories that sit alongside the daily routine of living in tents alongside the GI?s they fought with, coping with the fear, loss, boredom, and sheet terror of this demanding year ? making this a book sure to interest any military historian and aviation enthusiast.
