Sketches of a Black Cat - Story of a night flying WWII pilot and artist
by Ron Miner
This title was previously available on NetGalley and is now archived.
Send NetGalley books directly to your Kindle or Kindle app
1
To read on a Kindle or Kindle app, please add kindle@netgalley.com as an approved email address to receive files in your Amazon account. Click here for step-by-step instructions.
2
Also find your Kindle email address within your Amazon account, and enter it here.
Pub Date Jul 26 2017 | Archive Date Oct 27 2017
Description
Howard Miner never expected to contract the first documented case of the mumps in Guadalcanal history.
As a Navy Black Cat, he took his share of
chances during the ten-hour, night long flights in darkened PBYs painted
entirely black, searching the seas for enemy ships and downed fliers — the original
stealth aircrafts. But wartime was unpredictable, and whether landing on
an exotic tropical isle where the women he saw from the air turned out to be
topless, or dropping wing tanks containing a strange new substance called
“Napalm,” this was clearly a very different world than he had known as a
college student in Indiana.
His is a tale of seven buddies, all pilots
who flew at night, slept and got into mischief by day, then repeated.
Their seaplane odyssey stretched from the Solomon Islands to the northern
tip of the Philippines and included a full range of missions, from search,
attack, and bombing runs, to daring sea rescues. Howard’s journey through
training and tours of duty is skillfully captured in his art and narratives,
framing a wartime drama with a personal coming of age story. The descriptive
verse from the artist’s viewpoint gives us a creatively told and intriguing
portrayal of WWII’s Pacific Theater.
A Note From the Publisher
To accommodate file size, this version of Sketches of a Black Cat does not include all images.
Advance Praise
"An inherently fascinating and impressively informative read from cover to cover. Thoroughly ‘reader friendly,’ Sketches of a Black Cat is unreservedly recommended for personal, community, and academic libraries..." - Midwest Book Review
“Miner combines his father's writings and interviews with WWII veterans to craft a loving tribute to the young men who fought in WWII…He does his father and other WWII veterans proud."- Publisher's Weekly/Booklife
“From boxes of notes and drawings comes a book illuminating a WWII pilot’s experiences as part of the Black Cat Squadron…accounts of support missions, rescues of airmen and interactions with indigenous island peoples told in vivid but unembellished detail…a handsome volume that reads breezily and is punctuated with photos and drawings from Howard’s war years.” - Mike Francis the Oregonian
“A wholly enjoyable story!” - Stewart Bailey, Curator, Evergreen Aviation and Space Museum
“As a former flight engineer aboard a PBY in WWII… I can truly say I felt as though I was on Howard’s Catalina. Many episodes were warm and compelling. I highly recommend this book to vets, historians, and students. You won’t put down Sketches of a Black Cat till you’ve read it cover to cover!” - Win Stites, VP-91, VP2-1 served in both Atlantic and Pacific regions during WWII, Former President PBY Memorial Foundation and Museum
Available Editions
| EDITION | Ebook |
| ISBN | 9781535054881 |
| PRICE | $7.99 (USD) |
