Customer Reviews

Pacific Warbird: Coming of Age in World War II

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Bob Hamilton was the navigator aboard the B-24 that my uncle, Marvin Seitz, piloted during World War II. Marvin was one of my mom's two older brothers.
Bob relates the story of love and life during World War II - a very personalized account. He and the crew trained together here in the States and they worked very hard to keep the crew together so they could be assigned together to the same outfit as a bomber crew when they were posted overseas.
The Consolidated B-24 - known as the "Liberator" (not, as it has been reported, the "Flying Fortress" which was the B-17 built by Boeing) - was a huge, 4-engined bomber with tricycle landing gear (the B-17 was a "tail-dragger"), a twin-rudder tail, "roll-up" bomb bay doors ("roll-up" like a "roll-top" desk, instead of outward-opening bomb bay doors that were typical on WWII bombers), a nose turret, top turret, tail turret, and a retractible belly turret, each equipped with 2 - .50 caliber machine guns. There were machine guns also mounted in the left and right waist positions as well as each side of the nose - a very heavily armed bomber, indeed!
Bob relates what it was like living in the islands of the Southwest Pacific, some of their adventures on the ground, as well as adventures on missions. Their number of take-offs equaled their number of landings, which is always good, but there was one mission from which they were returning where they were throwing everything out of the plane that wasn't nailed, bolted, or riveted down, to lighten the plane in order to keep the plane in the air - just like we may have seen in war movies: art really did at times imitate life.
I don't know if the conversation and what everyone said was accurate or dramatized, but Bob writes a riveting adventure and it was the only way I ever learned about what it was like for my uncle Marvin to experience World War II from the cockpit of a B-24 Liberator in the Southwest Pacific.
I met Bob several years ago, not long after publication of his book - after uncle Marvin had died of cancer. He was a very friendly and affable guy and it was a pleasure and an honor, really, to meet him. He very generously signed my copy of his book.
Dramatized or not, Pacific Warbird is another account of those of the "Greatest Generation" who took a stand against evil and for freedom at a critical time in the world's history.

Long after new first person books about World War II have been written, Bob Hamilton has written one that will inspire and inform the families of those who served in the Air Force during World War II, especially those who served in the Pacific.

Bob Hamilton was a navigator aboard a B24 bomber, known as the Flying Fortress. His 13th Air Force squadron flew bombing runs against targets throughout the Pacific. And many times the planes didn't come back. The mission was to destroy the Japanese installations and prepare the islands for invasion by the Allies. His ability to take one there as if it were yesterday is incredible. The book is written about real experiences by real people but it reads like a novel. Those who lived through those times will be moved by his details. Those who are younger may know why this generation has been called "The Greatest Generation".

How did Bob Hamilton recall such detail? Through the years he collected personal letters and letters written by his crewmen, logs kept at the time and research done at the Historical Research Agency at Maxwell Air Force base, Montgomery, Alabama where the author copied over 500 pages of relevant records. This material was declassified in 1983.

I would highly recommend this book not only for World War II veterans but for their families who would like to understand what that war was like and what it was like to fly when one navigated by the stars. Bob Hamilton is a gifted writer and this book is a gift to his generation...a generation fast passing from the scene

I was to young to serve in WWII, and but I have always enjoyed reading the history of the war. Hamilton's book was extremely interesting, as it presented a first person account of the air war in the Pacific, and at the same time told the experiences of young men forced to grow up too fast and far from home, while being shot at on an almost daily basis. I would highly recommend the book.