Air Combat At 20 Feet: Selected Missions From A Strafer Pilot'S Diary [Paperback]

Garrett Middlebrook (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 27, 2004

Enter the cockpit and become a co-pilot with a WWII straffer bomber-pilot attacking at 20 feet. In route to the target share his fear and agony. When attack time comes observe that his mental concentration consumes his fear as he fights with 8 machine guns while bombing and maneuvering. Intelligence is his ultimate weapon. An inferno of the target is the result. Departing the target, he fights 10 Jap fighter planes in an hour-long battle. When you reach home base you will say: "I never want to relive that horrendous ordeal". But wait! Your pilot must attack again the next day. So order the book and translate the words into real life drama!

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

The Author joined the Air Force and entered pilot training in July 1941. A year later he flew the Pacific to Australia with no navigational aids except those in Hawaii. He flew 65 missions being among the first to attack from tree top height. He was rotated back to the States in November 1943 and became commanding officer of a navigational training squadron. He was released from active duty in 1946 but remained in the reserves until 1955, retiring with rank of Major. He practiced trial law for a short time, but shortly changed professions to invest in, develop and finance real estate. He operated a title insurance company for years. He retired in 2002, observing the course of history.

Product Details

• Paperback: 676 pages
• Publisher: AuthorHouse (September 27, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1418477893
• ISBN-13: 978-1418477899
• Product Dimensions: 7.8 x 5 x 1.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.5 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #535,107 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars If you liked Chickenhawk by Robert Mason, you'll love this!, June 10, 2005

By 

Patience H. C. Mason (High Springs, FL) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Air Combat At 20 Feet: Selected Missions From A Strafer Pilot'S Diary (Paperback)

Garrett Middlebrook has written a detailed, gut-wrenching tale of the amazing feats of his B-25 strafer unit and their long and dangerous missions over New Guinea in 1942 and 1943, before Guadalcanal! The heroism of these men, flying under dangerous conditions with battered equipment, is simply remarkable. Middlebrook does not tell you this, however. He shows it and you feel like you are in the plane with him.

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Incredible Valor, January 10, 2007

By 

Michael A. Bills "Mike Bills" (Fort Worth, Texas) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Air Combat At 20 Feet: Selected Missions From A Strafer Pilot'S Diary (Paperback)

I couldn't put the book down! It is almost unimaginable the narration Garrett Middlebrook shares in this book of incredible stories taken from his personal journals, written during his tour of duty in the South Pacific during WWII. One of America's unbelievably tenacious and youthful pilots, at the age of 23, he heroically flies his plane against all odds, with a youthful crew, some in their teens, to defend and protect the freedom of America against a relentless and unmerciful enemy, and in riveting detail he puts you in the seat of his B-25 Stafer to experience the pressure, fear and tragedy of war. It will absolutely mesmerize you.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Rip-Roaring Tales of a 5th AF Strafer Pilot!, March 9, 2010

By 

Michael OConnor "Wordsmith" (Wausau, WI USA) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Air Combat At 20 Feet: Selected Missions From A Strafer Pilot'S Diary (Paperback)

Though there have been many memoirs written by USAAF WW II four-engined bomber pilots, there have been precious few from their medium bomber compatriots. AIR COMBAT AT 20 FEET chronicles Garrett Middlebrook's service with the 405th Bomb Squadron, 38th Bomb Group, a B-25 unit assigned to George Kenney's 5th Air Force. Middlebrook flew 62 missions in all, earning a Silver Star, DSC and DFC.

Middlebrook served with the 38th BG from August 1942 to October 1943. As such, he was involved in early B-25 ops and the evolution of the Mitchell into a heavily-armed low-level strafer bristling with .50-caliber machine guns and armed with HE bombs and parafrags. He survived harrowing missions against Buna, Rabaul, Lae and other targets, attacks on Japanese warships and merchantmen not to mention the god-awful SWPA weather that was as deadly as the enemy. He wrote off two Mitchells in crashlandings by the end of his tour.

AIR COMBAT AT 20 FEET is 655 pages of rip-roaring action. Middlebrook describes each mission in great detail, recounting what he said, did and thought. And that's where I have a problem. Middlebrook states several times in the book that he kept a diary/journal. Well and good but was that diary so fulsome that details such as specfic bearings, altitudes, power settings and Middlebrook's exact thoughts not to mention lengthy conversations he had with other crewmen and squadronmates were recorded verbatim? Don't get me wrong - AIR COMBAT AT 20 FEET is one exciting read. Yet I have trouble remembering just what I said a week ago...let alone 40 years ago!?!

The book is illustrated with dozens of photographs of 38th BG aircraft and aircrews, wrecked Japanese aircraft, air combat scenes and squadron life along with maps.

If you're looking for an exciting, in-the-cockpit look at strafer ops in the Southwest Pacific, AIR COMBAT AT 20 FEET will fill the bill nicely. Recommended.