Skies of Thunder: The Deadly World War II Mission over the Roof of the World

In this soaring account, bestseller Alexander (The Endurance) spotlights a group of American airmen stationed in Burma who flew the “Hump” over the Himalayas to deliver supplies to Chinese allies during WWII. Franklin Roosevelt was committed to supporting Chiang Kai-shek’s Nationalist Army against the Japanese, Alexander writes, though the fickle Chiang proved a difficult ally, with increasingly exorbitant demands and few battlefield accomplishments. (One American general later claimed that when a fed-up Roosevelt asked if Chiang could be replaced, the president’s advisers speculated whether the Chinese leader could be “lost” flying over the Hump.) Meanwhile, flying over the world’s highest mountain range tested the skills of young pilots and navigators of the Air Transport Command, who were rushed through training. Accidents were near daily occurrences, and escape meant bailing out into one of two deadly landscapes: the snowcapped Himalayas or the Burmese jungle. Despite the job’s extreme peril, it was viewed as unglamorous; “on the lowest rung of the military aviation hierarchy,” aircrew in Burma, who received little recognition and lived in Spartan conditions, referred to themselves as the FBI—“Forgotten Bastards of India.” (However, as Alexander reveals, the lessons learned flying the Hump proved invaluable in 1948 when the ATC was conscripted to work the Berlin Airlift.) A thrilling aviation adventure that also casts an assured historical lens on a lesser-known arena of WWII diplomacy, this is sure to enrapture readers. (May)