Shot Down
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5.0 • 1 Rating
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- £6.99
Publisher Description
Belgium ... February 8, 1944 ... Shot Down and Alive
For the first time, the full and complete story of the B-17 Flying Fortress Susan Ruth is shared in unbelievable detail. Author Steve Snyder’s story of his father, Lieutenant Howard Snyder, and the Susan Ruth crew, provides in-depth details about many aspects of World War II few understand or know about including the:
• separation for young families as men went off to war;
• training before heading to foreign soil;
• military combat operations;
• underground and resistance and what Lt. Snyder did when he joined it;
• German atrocities toward captured crew and civilians;
• behind-the-scenes stories of the Belgium civilians who risked all to save American flyers who were in the air one moment, spiraling down in flames the next;
• creation and dedication of the monument to the Susan Ruth and its crew located in Macquenoise, Belgium in 1989
Shot Down was created from the vast number of letters and journals of Howard Snyder; diaries of men and women on the ground who rescued, sheltered and hid the crew; and interviews conducted by historians. Centered around the 306th Bomb Group in Thurleigh, England, it is informative, insightful and captivating.
For most, 70 years is a long time ago. World War II fades in importance as each year goes by. Shot Down moves history out of the footnotes into reality, keeping the stories of real people alive as they experience being shot down. You are there, almost holding your breath as Lt. Snyder gets his crew out of his B-17 when bailing out over Nazi occupied Europe.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Snyder shares the story of his father's WWII bombing crew and their fate after being shot down over Belgium. He uses his personal relationship with the surviving crewmen and their families, as well as interviews, wartime letters, and official histories, to reconstruct the experiences of the crew from enlistment through to the war's end. The book unfolds in three stages: it opens with a well-told account of industrial-scale aircrew training in the U.S., moves into an exploration of the life of U.S. airmen in England that is valuable for its insights into the social life and the daily routine on a U.S. bomber base, and finally describes the crew's experiences after they are shot down and attempt to evade capture and survive the war. Throughout the book the author is careful to set the larger context of the war without losing readers to unnecessary acronyms or overly technical discussions. This is a great introduction to the history of the U.S. air war in Europe, humanized by the experience of a single bomber crew. Maps and illus. (BookLife)
