General Chennault's Secret Weapon: The B-24 in China

(Hardback)

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Description

This book contains the diary of Captain Elmer E. Haynes, who flew low-altitude radar bombing missions against Japanese land targets in China and enemy ships in the South China Sea during World War II. Haynes flew secretly-developed B-24 Liberator bombers equipped with radar that had been integrated with the Norden Bombsight for night missions. These B-24s operated with the 14th Airforce, General Chennault's Flying Tigers. The bombing attacks using radar-equipped B-24s were so successful that, in a little over a year, Haynes and his fellow pilots, had sunk 2,500,000 tons of Japanese shipping. The war in the Pacific was brought to a quicker end by the devastating destruction of such a tremendous number of Japanese merchant and naval vessels in the South China Sea. The radar-equipped B-24s were also used on night scouting missions, locating enemy convoys for US naval ships and submarines. Military historians and anyone interested in World War II will find this story informative. This same radar technology was used by B-17s during the saturation night bombing raids over Germany.

Reviews

General Chennault's Secret Weapon is filled with maps and notes that give the reader a solid background on China and the fighting there. The narrative flows well and reads more like a novel than a diary.-World War II Magazine
It includes far more than tactical descriptions. Several entries deal with activity on and off a World War II air base, offering a glimpse of life not found in traditional war histories.-The Indianapolis Star
"It includes far more than tactical descriptions. Several entries deal with activity on and off a World War II air base, offering a glimpse of life not found in traditional war histories."-The Indianapolis Star
"General Chennault's Secret Weapon is filled with maps and notes that give the reader a solid background on China and the fighting there. The narrative flows well and reads more like a novel than a diary."-World War II Magazine

Author Bio

A.B. FEUER is a military historian and freelance newspaper and magazine journalist. He is the author of Bilibid Diary: The Secret Notebooks of Commander Thomas Hayes (1987), Combat Diary: Episodes from the History of the Twenty-Second Regiment, 1866-1905 (Praeger, 1991), and Coast Watching in the Solomon Islands: The Bougainville Reports, December 1941-July 1943 (Praeger, 1992). He has also published articles in numerous journals, including Military History Magazine, Sea Classics, Civil War Quarterly, and World War II and is a book reviewer for Military Review.