Customer Reviews

Bloody Skies: A 15th AAF B-17 Crew: How They Lived and Died

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Hadley has captured the recollections of Fifteenth Air Force crewman Melvin McGuire and molded them into a memoir with rare power. Bloody Skies should go down as one of the best memoirs produced concerning the World War II airwar.

The reader gets a great look at the daily life of a B-17 crewman. We learn the way in which he lived with death on a daily basis. WARNING: This book is impossible to put down when it gets going.

The book is also a great contribution to the memory of the Fifteenth Air Force. Having been usually overshadowed by the Eighth Air Force, the Fifteenth was stationed in North Africa-Italy, and bombed strategic targets throughout the underbelly of Europe. The Fifteenth absored horrible casulties while bombing infamous targets including Ploesti, Steyr, and Vienna. McGuire and his fellow airmen lived in cruder and more inhospitable conditions than the England-based Eighth.

This book is one of those rare finds that was purchased because of the title, that actually delivers a strong, well remembered, story about an ordinary man from an ordinary family who becomes part of extraordinary events at the right time. It is a simple story told so well, that you feel like you are flying those B-17s yourself. The style of writing is fast, accurate, and well paced for the reader. The narrative moves along at an almost frightening pace, and the reader is swept up to become part of the events as they occur. I could not put it down. I fully recommend this book for all readers of events during the air war in world war 2. This book is not only worth the asking price, but would be an excellent read, if the price was twice as much. My thanks to the author for having such a great memory, and sharing with the rest of us, those extraordinary times of aerial combat in the skies over Europe during world war 2. All in all, a most treasured book.

I have been a B-17 enthusiast since I can remember, and I have had the privilege of talking with a few pilots as well as touring many of the remaining aircraft; but until I read Bloody Skies, I had never accurately understood what it took to complete a bombing mission over Europe in the height of WWII. Mr. McGuire, through his amazing memory in concert with massive amounts of research and actual written documentation brings the reader as close as anyone could ever hope to become to his war. If you are looking for a thrilling book, which blends raw emotion with factual documentation this is your book. I will never forget Mr. McGuire, his crew, and their sacrifice from this day forward.

What a whale of memory has Mr. McGuire! And he really makes you feel what he felt and saw. This should be required reading. A big book, and I read it in two days.

My father-in-law was a B-17 pilot in the 342nd Bomb Squadron, 97th Bomb Group, 15th Air Force during WWII. Like McGuire, he was stationed at Amendola, Italy. He doesn't talk much about his experiences but I've wanted to know more. BLOODY SKIES has given me such a deeper understanding of and respect for what my father-in-law and others serving has bommber crews over Germany experienced. Melvin McGuire does an excellent job of taking you back there to 1944 in WWII Italy and on the bombing missions that they flew. This is probably the best book about someone's personal experiences in WWII combat that I have ever read. It was hard to put the book down! Thank you Mr. McGuire for writing this book and for the insight that has brought a deeper respect for what you and those like you did for freedom.

I've never read any autobiographies from the people of this war until now; I've read a lot of books from people who were in Nam, but never the WWII book era. What a way to start! It's like test driving the Ferrari before the Honda Accord! Truly a remarkable story, full of humor (im some cases I had to put the book down because I was laughing to hard), emotion, technical foot notes, ancedotes, photos, stories, ..death. You feel like your there, like a movie cam on his head, living the day to day turbulent life of a B-17 crew member. Excellent, Excellent, non-fiction because it is just written so well! Even for those of you who are "gun-shy" about books of this era - trust me, you will not be dissapointed. I haven't read anything in the last 3 month's and I finished this book in 2&1/2 days!. Even a 5 Star rating is not enough!!! A superb account of these fine young men who laid it all out on the line for this country. Thank you Veteran's everywhere. Our country owe's you a debt of gratitude it can never repay.

As the son of a WWII 8th AF B-17 top-turret gunner, I found this book reminded me time and again of stories my dad told me of his experiences over Germany. My dad never wrote about his combat days, but I'm certainly glad that Melvin McGuire did.

The book is an honest, and very personal account of one man's war. It is well-written, and really gives the reader a feel for what combat flying in the B-17 must have been like - at least as much as it will ever be possible to do through words. I can only say that I'm in awe of what Mr. McGuire (and thousands of others like him) did, and very glad he chose to share it with us.

This book is extremely good. It should be on the very top of any B-17 enthusiast's to-get list. To say that "you are there", when those Wright-Cyclones fire up would be an understatement.

Thank you Grandad, your legacy is a good one. This book has become everything and more than you hoped. I am so glad your memories were preserved in this book. Thanks for being my hero. -Micah McGuire-

This has to be one of the best oral histories I've read about the life of a B-17 crew in training and combat. If this is a first-time author, he missed his calling - he's an exceptional writer. McGuire captures for us all of the hardships of training; the waiting for an airplane; the trouble idleness brings while waiting; and more.

He is exceptional at making his experiences most personable: what they wore in combat and how they layered their underwear so as not to sweat while waiting on the hardstand; how to shave; what to do if you need to vomit - things rarely covered in most books. He describes the horrors of war and the harsh life the aircrews had in Italy compared to the comparitive easy life that the 8th Air Force had in England. Again, items you'd never think of - potbellied stoves using gasoline for fuel; hairy and ugly Italian women; the hateful resistance groups in Yugoslavia - incredible stuff. And he talks about what separated good crews from bad crews; the fear of flak and fighters.

You can't go wrong with this book at all!