NCW Libraries

"Malcolm Gladwell weaves together the stories of a Dutch genius and his homemade computer, a band of brothers in central Alabama, a British psychopath, and pyromaniacal chemists at Harvard to examine one of the greatest moral challenges in modern American history. Most military thinkers in the years leading up to World War II saw the airplane as an afterthought. But a small band of idealistic strategists had a different view. This 'Bomber Mafia' asked:...

Chronicle of the U.S. 8th Air Force's daylight bombing campaign over Europe during World War II, from its genesis to the end of the war.

A stirring tribute to the men of the Eighth Air Force, who flew deadly missions during World War II. Half of the U.S. Army Air Force2s casualties during the war were suffered by the Eighth. Director Erik Nelson tracked down nine of the surviving Eighth Air Force veterans to recall the harrowing experiences they endured in the summer of 1943.

"For nearly a decade Brett Velicovich was at the center of America's new warfare: using unmanned aerial vehicles--drones--to take down the world's deadliest terrorists across the globe. One of an elite handful in the entire military with the authority to select targets and issue death orders, he worked in concert with the full human and technological network of American intelligence--assets, analysts, spies, informants--and the military's elite operatives,...

Offering a naval history of the entire Pacific Theater in World War II through the lens of its most famous ship, this is the epic and heroic story of the aircraft carrier USS Enterprise and of the men who fought and died on her from Pearl Harbor to the end of the conflict. Award-winning author Barrett Tillman has been called “the man who owns naval aviation history,” and Enterprise is the work he was born to write: the first complete story of...

Told largely in the veterans' own words, Mission to Berlin covers all the players in a long-range bombing run, including pilots and other aircrew, ground crew, and escort fighters that accompanied the heavy bombers on their perilous missions. Long stretches of quite flight high above the fields of Europe were punctuated by moments of intense danger and adrenalin as flak sliced through the hull and crew alike and aircraft. Bomber crews also faced high-altitude...

The Flying Fortress Mary-Ann and its crew leave San Francisco for Honolulu on a routine training flight the day before Japan's sneak attack on Pearl Harbor. Subsequently, the crew mans the Mary-Ann through action at Wake Island, the Philippines, the Battle of the Coral Sea, and Australia. The B-17 seen in many of the scenes would later be lost in action with its crew over the Pacific.

In this captivating and lavishly illustrated young adult edition of her award-winning #1 New York Times bestseller, Laura Hillenbrand tells the story of a former Olympian's courage, cunning, and fortitude following his plane crash in enemy territory. This adaptation of Unbroken introduces a new generation to one of history's most thrilling survival epics. 
On a May afternoon in 1943, an American military plane crashed...

"The vivid story of the young Americans who fought and died in the aerial battles of World War I. The Unsubstantial Air is a chronicle of war that is more than a military history; it traces the lives and deaths of the young Americans who fought in the skies over Europe in World War I. Using letters, journals, and memoirs, it speaks in their voices and answers primal questions: What was it like to be there? What was it like to fly those planes, to...