Vanishing Point: The Search for a B-24 Bomber Crew Lost on the World War II Home Front
Vanishing Point: The Search for a B-24 Bomber Crew Lost on the World War II Home Front
Wilber, Tom
product information
Condition: New, UPC: 9781501769641, Publication Date: Mon, May 1, 2023, Type: Hardcover ,
join & start selling
description
i>, award winning journalist and author Tom Wilber pieces together the largely forgotten story of the bomber, Getaway Gertie, and an eclectic group of enthusiasts who have spent years searching for it.

At the height of World War II, a B-24 Liberator bomber vanished with its crew while on a training mission over upstate New York. The final hours and ultimate resting place of pilot Keith Ponder and seven other US aviators aboard the plane remain mysteries to this day. The tale is at once a compelling instance of loss on the World War II American home front and a more extensive, largely unreported history. Ponder-a 21-year-old from rural Mississippi-and his crew were tragically unexceptional casualties in the monumental effort to recruit and train an air force en masse to counter the global conquest of Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan. More than fifteen thousand American airmen and, in some cases, women burned, crashed, or fell to their deaths in stateside training accidents during the war-their lives and stories shuffled away in piles of Air Force bureaucracy.

The forgotten story of Getaway Gertie was originally inspired by summer evenings around the campfire on the shores of Lake Ontario, where parts of the plane have washed up. Building on those campfire tales, Wilber deftly connects myth with fact and memory with historicity. The result is a vivid portrait of the forgotten soldier of the home front and a new take on the meaning of wartime sacrifice as the last survivors of the Greatest Generation pass away.

reviews

Be the first to write a review

member goods

No member items were found under this heading.

notems store

The Lost Art of Keeping ...

by Rice, Eva

Paperback /Paperback

Places and Names: On War, ...

by Ackerman, Elliot

Paperback /Paperback

$14.45

The Elements We Live by: ...

by Røyne, Anja

Hardcover /Hardcover

$14.21

listens & views

AT FILLMORE EAST (DLX) (RMST) ...

by ALLMAN BROTHERS

COMPACT DISC

out of stock

$26.49

SLAVE TO THE THRILL (RMST)

by HURRICANE

COMPACT DISC

out of stock

$15.99

II

by TURNER,HUGHES PROJECT

COMPACT DISC

out of stock

$23.49

COMME IL SE DOIT (CAN)

by MARC-ANTOINE

COMPACT DISC

out of stock

$14.99

Return Policy

All sales are final

Shipping

No special shipping considerations available.
Shipping fees determined at checkout.