Hell Above Earth

The Incredible True Story of an American WWII Bomber Commander and the Copilot Ordered to Kill Him

This title was previously available on NetGalley and is now archived.
Buy on Amazon Buy on BN.com Buy on Bookshop.org
*This page contains affiliate links, so we may earn a small commission when you make a purchase through links on our site at no additional cost to you.
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 Mar 13 2012 | Archive Date Sep 01 2012

Description

A sensational tale of combat, and an unlikely friendship in the flak-filled skies above Germany.

The air battle against Nazi Germany lasted three years and cost 127,000 Allied aircrew their lives. U.S. Captain Werner Goering, accepted this and thrived on the adrenaline rush, becoming an exceptional pilot. He was also the nephew of Herman Goering, leading member of the Nazi party and Commander in Chief of the Luftwaffe.
When Werner qualified to become a bomber commander in 1942, J. Edgar Hoover issued a top secret order to ensure that if his plane was downed for any reason over Nazi-occupied Europe, someone would be in the cockpit to shoot Captain Werner Goering dead. The FBI and the American military would not prevent Werner from serving his American homeland in war, but neither would they risk the propaganda coup that his desertion or capture would represent for Nazi Germany. So FBI agents fanned out across the U.S. to find a man capable of and willing to shoot Werner dead in the cockpit, who could then get the plane back home. They found Jack Rencher, a tough, insular, B-17 instructor who also happened to be one of the Army's best pistol shots. That Jack and Werner became unlikely friends is just another twist in one of the most incredible untold tales of WWII.

A sensational tale of combat, and an unlikely friendship in the flak-filled skies above Germany.

The air battle against Nazi Germany lasted three years and cost 127,000 Allied aircrew their...


Advance Praise

"Stephen Frater has uncovered one of the greatest and most ironic surprises of World War II. A riveting book, every bit as exciting and unusual as Operation Mincemeat, and demonstrating that there are still things we don't know about World War II." --Michael Korda, New York Times bestselling author of WITH WINGS LIKE EAGLES

"From the opening salvo of words Frater excites and entices. The core story and its surprise ending give us a glimpse of Fate's fickle twists. Multiple tangents tell the horribly brutal history of the ‘heavies,' the B-17 Flying Fortresses of the Mighty Eighth Air Force (Army Air Corps), in the flak filled skies over over Germany-1944-45. I would expect to see this story on the silver screen in the near future." -- JOHN M. DEL VECCHIO, author of THE 13TH VALLEY andFOR THE SAKE OF ALL LIVING THINGS.

"Stephen Frater has uncovered one of the greatest and most ironic surprises of World War II. A riveting book, every bit as exciting and unusual as Operation Mincemeat, and demonstrating that there...


Available Editions

EDITION Hardcover
ISBN 9780312617929
PRICE $25.99 (USD)
PAGES 320