50 Mission Crush

This unpretentious memoir features a neglected airplane and an overlooked Air Force. In 1944 Currier, who retired in 1969, was the navigator of a B-24 Liberator, flying strategic-bombardment missions with the 15th Air Force, based in Italy. The B-24, overshadowed by its more exciting stablemate, the Flying Fortress, was nevertheless an excellent aircraft for the long ranges and demanding flight conditions of the Mediterranean theater. And if the primary targets of the 15th Air Force lacked the obvious glamour of Hamburg or Berlin, Ploesti, Regensburg and Vienna were no milk runs. Currier's matter-of-fact description of the war of attrition waged over Europe during WW II is highlighted by a minor statistic. Of the 17 crews trained together in Currier's squadron, 10 were shot down in six months. The flight crews' distinctive grommetless cap, the ``fifty-mission crush,'' had a steep price. (July)