''Half a Wing, Three Engines and a Prayer'', is a book about

B-17 The Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress is an American four-engined heavy bomber aircraft developed in the 1930s for the United States Army Air Corps (USAAC). A fast and high-flying bomber, the B-17 dropped more bombs than any other aircraft during ...

crews and missions in

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

, written by

Brian D. O'Neill Brian D. O'Neill is an American author and attorney, best known for '' Half a Wing, Three Engines and a Prayer'', a book about the U.S. Eighth Air Force and B-17 crews and missions in World War II. He is also the author of ''303rd Bombardment Grou ...

. He is also the author of ''303rd Bombardment Group'', on the same subject. During Vietnam, O'Neill served with the

U.S. Navy The United States Navy (USN) is the maritime service branch of the United States Department of Defense. It is the world's most powerful navy with the largest displacement, at 4.5 million tons in 2021. It has the world's largest aircraft ...

as a

destroyer In naval terminology, a destroyer is a fast, maneuverable, long-endurance warship intended to escort larger vessels in a fleet, convoy, or carrier battle group and defend them against a wide range of general threats. They were conceived i ...

gunner officer and shipyard repair officer. Since then he became an attorney and the General Counsel of

Curtiss-Wright Corporation The Curtiss-Wright Corporation is an American manufacturer and services provider headquartered in Davidson, North Carolina, with factories and operations in and outside the United States. Created in 1929 from the consolidation of Curtiss, Wrigh ...

, the aviation company that had manufactured the P-40 Warhawk fighter and the

Cyclone In meteorology, a cyclone () is a large air mass that rotates around a strong center of low atmospheric pressure, counterclockwise in the Northern Hemisphere and clockwise in the Southern Hemisphere as viewed from above (opposite to an ant ...

B-17 engines during World War II. The narrative relies heavily on crew diaries and

Eighth Air Force The Eighth Air Force (Air Forces Strategic) is a numbered air force (NAF) of the United States Air Force's Air Force Global Strike Command (AFGSC). It is headquartered at Barksdale Air Force Base, Louisiana. The command serves as Air Forces S ...

registry. The author usually gives a brief description of the upcoming events and the event itself is shown through the tales of various crew members. Each downed Fortress or enemy fighter shot down was usually witnessed by various people, since each B-17 carried ten crew members, including four

officers An officer is a person who has a position of authority in a hierarchical organization. The term derives from Old French ''oficier'' "officer, official" (early 14c., Modern French ''officier''), from Medieval Latin ''officiarius'' "an officer," fro ...

(pilot, co-pilot, navigator and bombardier) and six enlisted men (engineer,

ball turret A ball turret is a spherical-shaped, altazimuth mount Aircraft gun turret, gun turret, fitted to some American-built aircraft during World War II. The name arose from the turret's spherical housing. It was a manned turret, as distinct from remot ...

gunner, radioman,

tail gunner A tail gunner or rear gunner is a crewman on a military aircraft who functions as a gunner defending against enemy fighter or interceptor attacks from the rear, or "tail", of the plane. The tail gunner operates a flexible machine gun or au ...

and two waist gunners). The story centers around the crew of pilot Lt. Robert J. Hullar, from the

303d Bombardment Group 3 (three) is a number, numeral (linguistics), numeral and numerical digit, digit. It is the natural number following 2 and preceding 4, and is the smallest odd prime number and the only prime preceding a square number. It has religious and cul ...

. Each crew was put together and trained since before going to the European Theater of Operations, and sometimes concluding the 25-mission tour at the same time.

Bibliography

*''Half a Wing, Three Engines and a Prayer''. McGraw-Hill Companies, 1999. *''303rd Bombardment Group''. Osprey Publishing, 2003. and 9781841765372

References

History books about World War II Military books Aviation books {{aviation-book-stub

See also

Bibliography

References