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In the Hands of Fate - The Story of Patrol Wing Ten, 8 December 1941-11 May 1942 (Paperback)
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In the Hands of Fate - The Story of Patrol Wing Ten, 8 December 1941-11 May 1942 (Paperback)
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Patrol Wing Ten was the only U.S. Navy aviation unit to fight the
Japanese in the early weeks of World War II, and the daring
exploits of its PBY scout-plane pilots offer a dramatic tale of
heroism, duty, and controversy. Poorly equipped and dead tired from
flying back-to-back patrols with no fighter cover, the men lost
sixty-six percent of their aircraft in just eight weeks as they
took on an enemy that outnumbered them nearly 1,000 to one. This
forceful narrative places the reader right in the midst of their
courageous battle. Dwight Messimer's aggressive research on the
topic has resulted in a work that provides moving details to their
desperate but valiant acts against the seemingly invincible
Japanese juggernaut that swept across the southwest Pacific at the
opening of the war.
By Christmas Day in 1941, Patrol Wing Ten was forced to split into
two groups, one fighting an air and sea campaign in Java, the other
fighting as infantry on Bataan and Corregidor. Moving back and
forth between the two groups, Messimer skillfully interweaves their
experiences with the major events of the overall war. He uses
material from the fifty survivors he managed to track down and
deftly captures their ability to maintain a sense of humor in the
face of overwhelming danger. The more than one hundred personal and
official documents uncovered during years of research reveal new
information relating to technical points about the planes, facts
verified by the PBY crews that do not agree with popularly accepted
ideas. To those who believe the wing accomplished nothing--and this
group includes many pilots--Messimer argues that while attempts to
bomb the Japanese fleet proved futile because the PBYs were
unsuitable for such a task, the wing's rescue and evacuation
missions saved many lives. The airdales themselves were not so
lucky. When Corregidor fell, nearly half of them were captured and
many died in captivity.
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