Race of Aces
WWII's Elite Airmen and the Epic Battle to Become the Master of the Sky
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Narrated by:
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Brian Troxell
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By:
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John R. Bruning
About this listen
The astonishing untold story of the WWII airmen who risked it all in the deadly race to become the greatest American fighter pilot.
In 1942, America's deadliest fighter pilot, or "ace of aces" - the legendary Eddie Rickenbacker - offered a bottle of bourbon to the first US fighter pilot to break his record of 26 enemy planes shot down. Seizing on the challenge to motivate his men, General George Kenney promoted what they would come to call the "race of aces" as a way of boosting the spirits of his war-weary command.
What developed was a wild three-year sprint for fame and glory, and the chance to be called America's greatest fighter pilot. The story has never been told until now.
Based on new research and full of revelations, John Bruning's brilliant, original book tells the story of how five American pilots contended for personal glory in the Pacific while leading Kenney's resurgent air force against the most formidable enemy America ever faced.
The pilots - Richard Bong, Tommy McGuire, Neel Kearby, Charles MacDonald and Gerald Johnson - riveted the nation as they contended for Rickenbacker's crown. As their scores mounted, they transformed themselves from farm boys and aspiring dentists into artists of the modern dogfight.
But as the race reached its climax, some of the pilots began to see how the spotlight warped their sense of duty. They emerged as leaders, beloved by their men as they chose selfless devotion over national accolades.
Teeming with action all across the vast Pacific theater, Race of Aces is a fascinating exploration of the boundary between honorable duty, personal glory, and the complex landscape of the human heart.
"Brings you into the cockpit of the lethal, fast-paced world of fighter pilots.... Fascinating." (Sara Vladic)
"Extraordinary.... a must-read." (US Navy Captain Dan Pedersen)
"A heart-pounding narrative of the courage, sacrifice, and tragedy of America's elite fighter pilots." (James M. Scott)
"Vivid and gripping.... Confirms Bruning's status as the premier war historian of the air." (Saul David)
©2020 John R. Bruning (P)2020 Hachette BooksListeners also enjoyed...
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Critic reviews
"Here is a true story with something for everyone. Love, war, treachery, adventure, and above all an intimate portrait of the made-for-Hollywood life of a man who broke all the rules and remade them to his liking...Bruning shows us a big-hearted man determined to save his family - and a brilliant scientist-pilot who was determined to win the war along the way." (Adam Makos, New York Times best-selling author of A Higher Call and Devotion)
"This is a beautifully told story of a family separated by war, and of an extraordinary father, driven to avenge his family, who by sheer force of character changed the nature of warfare. A superbly told tale of love, honor, courage, and devotion." (Alex Kershaw, New York Times best-selling author of Avenue of Spies)
"Satisfying...Combat aviation buffs will enjoy Bruning's explorations of a little-known history." (Kirkus Reviews)
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Born in the Philippines to an American father and a Filipina mother, George Cooper is one of the few surviving veteran pilots who saw action over such fearsome targets as Rabaul and Wewak. Not just another flag-waving story of air combat, Jayhawk describes the war as it really was - a conflict with far-reaching tentacles that gripped and tore at not only the combatants, but also their families, friends, and the way they lived their lives.
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An absolute must for any student of the Pacific Air War
- By Ginger on 10-07-20
By: Jay A. Stout, and others
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Dead Reckoning
- The Story of How Johnny Mitchell and His Fighter Pilots Took on Admiral Yamamoto and Avenged Pearl Harbor
- By: Dick Lehr
- Narrated by: Will Damron
- Length: 12 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
“AIR RAID, PEARL HARBOR. THIS IS NOT DRILL.” At 7:58 a.m. on December 7, 1941, an officer at the Ford Island Command Center frantically typed what would become one of the most famous radio dispatches in history as the Japanese navy launched a surprise aerial assault on the American navy stationed in Hawaii. In a little over two hours, the Japanese killed more than 2,400 Americans and propelled the US’s entry into World War II. Dead Reckoning is the story of the mission to avenge that devastating strike.
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Half Soap Opera, target audience 20 something male
- By Donald L. Hogan on 03-20-21
By: Dick Lehr
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The Fighting Corsairs
- The Men of Marine Fighting Squadron 215 in the Pacific during WWII
- By: Jeff Dacus
- Narrated by: Jim Seybert
- Length: 9 hrs and 44 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
From historian and columnist in Leatherneck and Armor magazines, this is the exciting, personal account of a marine fighter squadron in the South Pacific during the critical days of 1943, when the tide turned against the Japanese. Based on individual interviews and wartime documents, this is a thrilling narrative of the marines who lived, and died, during the toughest battles of the entire war.
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The Fighting Corsairs
- By Thomas S. Connelly on 05-10-21
By: Jeff Dacus
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Unsung Eagles
- True Stories of America’s Citizen Airmen in the Skies of World War II
- By: Jay A. Stout
- Narrated by: Traber Burns
- Length: 11 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
The nearly half-million American air crewmen who served during World War II have almost disappeared. And so have their stories. Award-winning writer and former fighter pilot Jay A. Stout uses Unsung Eagles to save an exciting collection of those accounts from oblivion. These are not rehashed tales from the hoary icons of the war. Rather, they are stories from the masses of largely unrecognized men who - in the aggregate - actually won it.
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A great look into what so many gave for & to us.
- By Duane on 08-02-21
By: Jay A. Stout
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The Last Zero Fighter
- By: Dan King
- Narrated by: Drew Bott
- Length: 12 hrs and 25 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Firsthand accounts from interviews conducted in Japan with five WWII Japanese Naval aviators. All are veterans of the pivotal battles of the Pacific War including; USS Panay, Nanking, Pearl Harbor, Wake Island, Rabaul, Port Darwin, Indian Ocean Raid, Ceylon, Midway, Guadalcanal, Marshall Islands, Tarawa, Iwo Jima, Okinawa, the kamikaze in the Philippines, the home defense and the dropping of the atomic bomb. Includes an introduction to the Japanese pilot training system for both officers and enlisted men.
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Fascinating and humanizing story
- By courtney mckean on 07-03-23
By: Dan King
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I Flew for the Führer
- The Memoirs of a Luftwaffe Fighter Pilot
- By: Heinz Knoke, Richard Overy - introduction
- Narrated by: P.J. Ochlan
- Length: 8 hrs and 8 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Heinz Knoke was one of the outstanding German fighter pilots of the Second World War. This vivid firsthand record of his experiences has become a classic among aviation memoirs and is a fascinating counterbalance to the numerous accounts written by Allied pilots.
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Very interesting wish it had a bit more detail
- By Quinn Richter on 05-21-21
By: Heinz Knoke, and others
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The Mighty Eighth
- The Air War in Europe as Told by the Men Who Fought It
- By: Gerald Astor
- Narrated by: Kaleo Griffith
- Length: 23 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Europe has fallen. Pearl Harbor is in flames. Enter: the Eighth. In 1941 the RAF fought a desperate battle of survival against the Luftwaffe over Britain. Then, from across the Atlantic, came a new generation of American pilots, gunners, and bombardiers, a new generation of flying machines called the B-17 Flying Fortress, the B-24 Liberator, the P-47 Thunderbolt, and the P-51 Mustang fighter.
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A Good Listen with 1 problem
- By Matthew Schuller on 08-23-19
By: Gerald Astor
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Lucky 666
- The Impossible Mission
- By: Bob Drury, Tom Clavin
- Narrated by: Jeremy Bobb
- Length: 9 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
From the authors of the New York Times best-selling The Heart of Everything That Is and Halsey's Typhoon comes the dramatic untold story of a daredevil bomber pilot and his misfit crew who fly their lone B-17 into the teeth of the Japanese Empire in 1943, engage in the longest dogfight in history, and change the momentum of the war in the Pacific - but not without making the ultimate sacrifice.
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A WWII Pacific Tale
- By A. L. DeWitt on 11-15-16
By: Bob Drury, and others
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War's End
- An Eyewitness Account of America's Last Atomic Mission
- By: Maj. Gen. Charles W. Sweeney, James A. Antonucci - contributor, Marion K. Antonucci - contributor
- Narrated by: Eric Jason Martin
- Length: 9 hrs and 10 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
On August 9, 1945, on the tiny island of Tinian in the South Pacific, a 25-year-old American Army Air Corps major named Charles W. Sweeney climbed aboard a B-29 Superfortress in command of his first combat mission, one devised specifically to bring a long and terrible war to a necessary conclusion.... The last military officer to command an atomic mission, Maj. Gen. Charles W. Sweeney has the unique distinction of having been an integral part of both the Hiroshima and the Nagasaki bombing runs.
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the history of the details.
- By Don on 10-23-24
By: Maj. Gen. Charles W. Sweeney, and others
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Hawkeye
- The Enthralling Autobiography of the Top-Scoring Israel Air Force Ace of Aces
- By: Brigadier General Giora Even-Epstein
- Narrated by: Paul Boehmer
- Length: 9 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
For more than 30 years, Giora Even-Epstein flew fighters for the Israel Air Force, achieving recognition as a highly skilled military aviator and the highest-scoring jet-mounted ace with the most number of confirmed victories in the French Mirage. Having overcome numerous hurdles just to learn how to fly, he went on to compile a record of Arab MiGs and Sukhoi kills that bettered any other combat aviators' tally in the entire world. This fast-moving autobiography details his experiences particularly in the intense conflicts of 1967, the Six Day War, and 1973, the Yom Kippur War.
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Not a writer
- By Checco on 11-26-21
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The Last Fighter Pilot
- The True Story of the Final Combat Mission of World War II
- By: Don Brown, Captain Jerry Yellin - foreword, Captain Jerry Yellin - contributor, and others
- Narrated by: Robertson Dean
- Length: 4 hrs and 40 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
On the morning of August 15, 1945, Captain Jerry Yellin flew the last combat mission of World War II out of Iwo Jima. Today, Captain Yellin is a sharp, engaging, 93-year-old veteran whose story is brought to life by best-selling author Don Brown.
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A history Air War in the South Pacific & Iwo Gima
- By Amazon Customer on 06-30-20
By: Don Brown, and others
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Topgun
- An American Story
- By: Dan Pedersen
- Narrated by: Jim Meskimen
- Length: 9 hrs and 48 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Dan Pedersen takes listeners on a colorful and thrilling ride - from Miramar to Area 51 to the decks of aircraft carriers in war and peace - through a historic moment in air warfare. He helped establish a legacy that was built by him and his "Original Eight" - the best of the best - and carried on for six decades by some of America's greatest leaders. Topgun is a heartfelt and personal testimonial to patriotism, sacrifice, and American innovation and daring.
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I loved it!
- By "airplane_cfii" on 10-09-19
By: Dan Pedersen
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Enola Gay
- Mission to Hiroshima
- By: Gordon Thomas, Max Morgan-Witts
- Narrated by: Joe Barrett
- Length: 10 hrs
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Painstakingly researched, the story behind the decision to send the Enola Gay to bomb Hiroshima is told through firsthand sources. From diplomatic moves behind the scenes to Japanese actions and the US Army Air Force's call to action, no detail is left untold. Touching on the early days of the Manhattan Project and the first inkling of an atomic bomb, investigative journalist Gordon Thomas and his writing partner Max Morgan-Witts, take WWII enthusiasts through the training of the crew of the Enola Gay and the challenges faced by pilot Paul Tibbets.
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Poor reader
- By Dee on 04-17-22
By: Gordon Thomas, and others
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Kangaroo Squadron
- American Courage in the Darkest Days of World War II
- By: Bruce Gamble
- Narrated by: Mark Boyett
- Length: 14 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
In early 1942, while the American military was still in disarray from the devastating attacks on Pearl Harbor and the Philippines, a single US Army squadron advanced to the far side of the world to face America's new enemy. Based in Australia with inadequate supplies and no ground support, the squadron's pilots and combat crew endured tropical diseases while confronting numerically superior Japanese forces. Yet the outfit, dubbed the Kangaroo Squadron, proved remarkably resilient and successful.
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5 star History!
- By DON COOKE on 03-13-19
By: Bruce Gamble
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Aces Falling
- War Above the Trenches, 1918
- By: Peter Hart
- Narrated by: Roger Davis
- Length: 16 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
At the beginning of 1918, the great aces seemed invincible. Flying above the battlefields of the Western Front, they cut a deadly swathe through the ranks of their enemies, as each side struggled to keep control of the air. This audiobook charts the rise and fall of the WWI aces in the context of the vast battles that were taking place in 1918. It shows the vital importance of reconnaissance, and how large formations of aircraft became the norm - bringing an end to the era of the old, heroic 'lone wolves'.
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A MUST READ for students of military aviation
- By B Taub on 03-03-20
By: Peter Hart
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Mission
- Jimmy Stewart and the Fight for Europe
- By: Robert Matzen, Leonard Maltin - foreward
- Narrated by: Peter Berkrot
- Length: 11 hrs and 46 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
In March 1941 Jimmy Stewart, America's boy next door and recent Academy Award winner, left fame and fortune behind and joined the United States Army Air Corps to fulfill his family mission and serve his country. He rose from private to colonel and participated in 20 often-brutal World War II combat missions over Germany and France. In mere months the war took away his boyish looks as he faced near-death experiences and the loss of men under his command. The war finally won, he returned home with millions of other veterans to face an uncertain future.
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SKIP THIS ONE
- By G-Man on 05-13-18
By: Robert Matzen, and others
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A larger-than-life hero with a towering personality, Robin Olds was a graduate of West Point and an inductee in the National College Football Hall of Fame for his All-American performance for Army. In World War II, Olds quickly became a top fighter pilot and squadron commander by the age of 22—a double ace with twelve aerial victories. But it was in Vietnam where the man became a legend.
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They are voices lost to time. Beginning in the late 1970s, five veteran airmen sat for private interviews. Decades after the guns fell silent, they recounted in vivid detail the most dangerous missions that made the difference in the war. Ed Haydon dueled with the deadliest of German aces - and forced him to the ground. Robert Johnson racked up 27 kills in his P-47 Thunderbolt, but nearly lost his life when his plane was shot to ribbons and his guns jammed. Cigar-chomping Curtis LeMay was the Air Corps general who devised the bomber tactics that pummeled Germany's war machine.
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The American 345th Bomb Group - the Air Apaches - was legendary in the war against Japan. The first fully trained and fully equipped group sent to the South Pacific, the 345th racked up a devastating score against the enemy. Armed to the teeth with machine guns and fragmentation bombs, and flying their B-25s at impossibly low altitudes - often below 50 feet - the pilots and air crews strafed and bombed enemy installations and shipping with a fury that helped cripple Japan.
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Devotion
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Devotion tells the inspirational story of the U.S. Navy’s most famous aviation duo, Lieutenant Tom Hudner and Ensign Jesse Brown, and the Marines they fought to defend. A white New Englander from the country-club scene, Tom passed up Harvard to fly fighters for his country. An African American sharecropper’s son from Mississippi, Jesse became the navy’s first Black carrier pilot, defending a nation that wouldn’t even serve him in a bar.
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BUY A HIGHER CALL FIRST - IS MUCH BETTER
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The Mighty Eighth
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Europe has fallen. Pearl Harbor is in flames. Enter: the Eighth. In 1941 the RAF fought a desperate battle of survival against the Luftwaffe over Britain. Then, from across the Atlantic, came a new generation of American pilots, gunners, and bombardiers, a new generation of flying machines called the B-17 Flying Fortress, the B-24 Liberator, the P-47 Thunderbolt, and the P-51 Mustang fighter.
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In one of the most compelling combat narratives ever written, Staff Sergeant David Bellavia, an Army infantry platoon leader in Iraq, gives a teeth-rattling, first-hand account of 11 straight days of heavy house-to-house fighting during the climactic second battle of Fallujah. His actions in the firefight, which included killing five insurgents in hand-to-hand combat, earned Bellavia the Bronze Star, the Silver Star, and New York state's highest military honor, the Conspicuous Service Cross.
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As raw as it gets
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Masters of the Air
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- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Masters of the Air is the deeply personal story of the American bomber boys in World War II who brought the war to Hitler’s doorstep. With the narrative power of fiction, Donald Miller takes you on a harrowing ride through the fire-filled skies over Berlin, Hanover, and Dresden and describes the terrible cost of bombing for the German people.
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Depth of Detail was incredible!
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Spearhead
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Overall
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Performance
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Excellent
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To Fly and Fight
- Memoirs of a Triple Ace
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Bud Anderson is a flyers flyer. The Californians enduring love of flying began in the 1920s with the planes that flew over his father's farm. In January 1942, he entered the Army Air Corps Aviation Cadet Program.
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Fantastic!!!
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Six Frigates
- By: Ian W. Toll
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- Abridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Before the ink was dry on the U.S. Constitution, the establishment of a permanent military had become the most divisive issue facing the new government. Would a standing army be the thin end of dictatorship? Would a navy protect American commerce against the Mediterranean pirates, or drain the treasury and provoke hostilities with the great powers? The founders, particularly Jefferson, Madison, and Adams, debated these questions fiercely and switched sides more than once.
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BE ADVISED THIS BOOK IS ABRIDGED
- By George Carpenter III on 09-11-08
By: Ian W. Toll
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Lords of the Sky
- Fighter Pilots and Air Combat, from the Red Baron to the F-16
- By: Dan Hampton
- Narrated by: John Pruden
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- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
The New York Times best-selling author of Viper Pilot and retired USAF F-16 legend Dan Hampton offers the first comprehensive popular history of combat aviation - a unique, entertaining, and action-packed look at the aces of the air and their machines, from the Red Baron and his triplane in World War I to today's technologically expert flying warriors in supersonic jets.
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Great history, but ending goes off-topic
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By: Dan Hampton
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Ace Pilots of World War II Series, Fighter Aces of the R.A.F 1939-1945
- A Gripping Compilation of WWII Air War Heroes - the Famous and the Forgotten
- By: E. C. R. Baker
- Narrated by: Dennis Kleinman
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- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Only a boy when World War II broke out, E. C. R. Baker was gripped by the stories he heard of heroism in the skies as the Allies defeated the mighty Luftwaffe. But in the years after the war, he was struck by how few of the RAF's legendary fighter aces could be named by the general public.
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Needs a better narrator
- By David Blacker on 04-21-24
By: E. C. R. Baker
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Wings of War
- The World War II Fighter Plane That Saved the Allies and the Believers Who Made It Fly
- By: David Fairbank White, Margaret Stanback White
- Narrated by: René Ruiz
- Length: 9 hrs and 24 mins
- Unabridged
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Wings of War is the incredible true story of the P-51 Mustang fighter and the unlikely crew of designers, engineers, test pilots, and army officers who brought it from the drafting table to the skies over World War II. This is hardly a straightforward tale of building an airplane—for years, the team was stymied by corruption within the defense industry and stonewalled by the Army Air Forces, who failed to understand the Mustang’s potential.
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Disappointed
- By David Kocol on 06-22-23
By: David Fairbank White, and others
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A Wing and a Prayer
- The “Bloody 100th” Bomb Group of the US Eighth Air Force in Action over Europe in World War II
- By: Harry H. Crosby
- Narrated by: Chris Monteiro
- Length: 10 hrs and 42 mins
- Unabridged
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They began operations out of England in the spring of '43. They flew their Flying Fortresses almost daily against strategic targets in Europe in the name of freedom. Their astonishing courage and appalling losses earned them the name that resounds in the annals of aerial warfare and made the "Bloody Hundredth" a legend. Harry H. Crosby—soon to be portrayed by Anthony Boyle in the miniseries Masters of the Air developed by Tom Hanks and Steven Spielberg—arrived with the very first crews, and left with the very last.
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love love love the history
- By Kindle Customer on 01-20-24
By: Harry H. Crosby
What listeners say about Race of Aces
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- CArolyn conroy
- 02-11-20
Race of aces
Very interesting. Enjoyed the readers voice. Good historical account of brave fighter pilots in ww 11 and their families. Would make a good movie. Recommded to the audio book fans. Carolyn
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8 people found this helpful
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- Max
- 09-08-20
Exciting and educational
The stories of the hero’s within this book were incredible. The narrator did a wonderful job of bringing the book to life and expressing every characters dream of becoming the best of the best. I learn a lot about the planes they flew and the environment where they operated too. I really enjoyed it. Excellent!
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2 people found this helpful
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- Craig M.
- 02-04-21
Truly Engaging Story
There will never be another event like this in history. These men, the Aces of the South Pacific during WWII, got to live the life only dreamed about by videogame enthusiasts. The book focus on five men, but provides the full backstory of their lives and what they had to endure during the last 3 or 4 years of the war. The backstories of the men are almost as interesting and the events that made them famous. This book is anything but boring, and tells an amazing story.
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- Packrat
- 01-13-21
Excellent book.
It was way more detail than I expected. It was an excellent presented history of this time in the Ace race. Is also a cautionary tale about ambition.
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- stuart duke
- 06-21-21
Brilliant
The action scenes were amazing and the author really captures the emotion, had me crying which is very rare.
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- jake
- 07-13-21
worth the listen
great book with captivating moments. take the time to look up and research each person as they present themselves. it will make it much easier to follow the story
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- Ember Conley
- 02-26-21
well done non fiction
I loved the story and highlighting of these young war time men. It had a balance of personal and professional silhouettes that showcased the highs and deep lows of wartime.
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- T Hood
- 09-23-20
what I did not know
This book is truly different from what I normally read. I usually stick With fictional titles. I'm a big fan of military history especially as a member of the military. I take great pride in what I know and I am surprised by this book informing me of what little I actually knew. It's a good way to depict history While telling the individual stories of men flying these aircraft. I was also surprised to learn about people I have heard of being famous before World War II not knowing they actually had direct influence and partook in World War II. It is a true treat and I was pleasantly surprised. The reader has a good voice and is very easy to listen to and Sounds like he could be from that era just the way he speaks. I recommend to anyone who wants a history book that gets into the very serious history without Bogging you down in particular details and statistics the way a traditional history book does.
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- MarkG
- 02-02-23
Inspiring yet heartbreaking
Incredible story, describing some very brave, absolutely heroic men, both pilots and ground crew, doing their duty for country, and each other. Also describes a brutal competition that served to focus, yet also pushed some to lose focus, forgetting lessons learned, lapses in prioritization, that would ultimately be their undoing. A must read for pilots and aviation enthusiasts.
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- Billy
- 02-06-23
Excellent
Well done! Thank you for the history and all the research. Great narration. Great subject title. Thank you very much
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