In Defense of Freedom

An honor roll and an indelible remembrance of sacrifice, courage, and brotherhood in World War II

The twenty-eight stories in this book serve as a graphic reminder of the selfless heroism of America’s World War II Army Air Forces flyers, and how necessary they were to achieve Allied victory. Wolfgang Samuel and the pilots he interviewed reveal the peril these men faced to achieve a daunting task, impossible without their bravery. And their sacrifices were stunning—American bomber crews suffered the highest casualties (KIA, MIA, POW, wounded) of all American armed services in World War II. The stories preserved in this book bear that grave danger out. A member of a heavy bomber crew in the 8th Air Force in the period from mid-1942 to spring 1944 was less likely to survive than a US Marine fighting on Iwo Jima or Okinawa.

The stories in this unique book are about men who went face to face with their adversaries, who saw their buddies die, who crashed planes, and became prisoners of war. Many later went on to become the backbone of the postwar Air Force, serving in Korea, Vietnam, and the Cold War.

Young Ken Chilstrom led a flight of eight A-36 fighter bombers on a low level foray in Italy. Only he and two others came home. Bob Hoover thought he could take on the entire German air force, but on his first mission he was shot down, nearly perished, and suffered the remainder of the war in a prisoner of war camp. Young Bernard Nolan dreaded stepping into his B-17. His prime emotion in those days was fear—white knuckles, wet palms, and at times sheer terror. Yet the twenty-one-year-old climbed into those “aluminum death cages,” not wanting to let the others down. Wolfgang Samuel’s new book is all about men like Ken, Bob, and Bernie, and the many friends they lost, who saw World War II through to the bitter end and gave freedom to so many others.

Colonel Wolfgang W. E. Samuel, Fairfax Station, Virginia, immigrated to the United States in 1951 and was commissioned a 2nd Lieutenant in the US Air Force in 1960. Colonel Samuel flew his first operational missions during the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962, then flew over 100 dangerous reconnaissance missions against the Soviet Union during the Cold War. He flew combat during the Vietnam War, was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross three times and multiple Air Medals. He is the author of German Boy: A Refugee's Story, I Always Wanted to Fly: America’s Cold War Airmen; The War of Our Childhood: Memories of World War II; American Raiders: The Race to Capture the Luftwaffe's Secrets; and Coming to Colorado: A Young Immigrant's Journey to Become an American Flyer, all from UPM.