Description: Of all the celebrities who served their country during World War II--and they were legion--Jimmy Stewart was unique. On December 7th, when the attack on Pearl Harbor woke so many others to the reality of war, Stewart was already in uniform--as a private on guard duty south of San Francisco at the Army Air Corps Moffet Field. Seeing war on the horizon, Jimmy Stewart, at the height of his fame after Mr. Smith Goes to Washington and his Oscar-winning turn in The Phadelphia Story in 1940, had enlisted several months earlier.
Jimmy Stewart, Bomber Pilot chronicles his long journey to become a bomber pilot in combat. Author Starr Smith, the intelligence officer assigned to the movie star, recounts how Stewart's first battles were with the Air Corps high command, who insisted on keeping the naturally talented pilot out of harm's way as an instructor pilot for B-17 Flying Fortresses and B-24 Liberators. By 1944, however, Stewart managed to get assigned to a Liberator squadron that was deploying to England to join the mighty Eighth Air Force. Once in the thick of it, he rose to command his own squadron and flew twenty combat missions, including one to Berlin.Brief description: Starr Smith is an international journalist and author who has chronicled his adventures to more than one hundred countries. Smith was a combat intelligence officer with the Eighth Air Force in England during World War II, and later served on General Eisenhower's press staff at his London and Paris headquarters. After the war, Smith worked with the military's top brass, including Anderson, Arnold, Doolittle, Eaker, Kenney, Spaatz, and other great World War II leaders and generals. He has been a correspondent for NBC Radio, a reporter for Newsweek, and his byline has appeared in newspapers and magazines from six continents. Smith's books include Only the Days are Long and Starr Smith's Southern Scenes. He lives in Montgomery, Alabama.
Review Quotes: Smith's clear admiration for Stewart comes through on every page, but with an understatement that even George Bailey could have lived with.--Publishers Weekly "Publishers Weekly"