Pacific skies

"At Pearl Harbor, the Japanese struck without warning and won an overwhelming victory. Their Zeros and torpedo bombers could outfly almost anything America put in the air." "Despite what looked like long odds, American flyers responded to the challenge." "From 1941 to 1945 the skies over the Pacific Ocean afforded the broadest arena for battle and the fiercest action of air combat during World War II. It was in these skies that air power launched from carriers became a new form of engagement and where the war ultimately ended with kamikaze attacks and with atomic bombs dropped over Japan." "Throughout the conflict American flyers felt a call to supplement official news and military reports. In accounts written soon after combat and in reflective memoirs recorded years after peace came, both pilots and crew members detailed their stories. Their first-person testimonies describe a style of warfare invented at the moment of need and at a time when the outcome was anything but certain." "Gathering more than a hundred personal narratives from American and Japanese flyers, Pacific Skies recounts a history of this tremendous struggle. Included are the words of such famous aces and bomber