The View From the Bottom Up: Growing Up Fast in World War II

by Robert Gilbert

Merriam Press World War 2 Memoir Series. This memoir is the story of a young aerial machine gunner, on a B-17 Flying Fortress bomber, who had to grow up fast. He participated as a teenaged enlisted man in the World War II Big League of air war É the ETO. In his ball turret hanging under that storied bomber, he was positioned to defend his bomber from the LuftwaffeÕs deadly fighter aircraft. This compelling story presents his perspective of the committed life he and his peers brought to manned bomber warfare, which is The View From The Bottom Up É literally and figuratively. This memoir is written against that historic backdrop and takes place during the Fall and Winter of 1944/45, when the USAAF and the RAF bombing reached its peak. It is not as much about the war as it is of the war and its effect on the young people involved. 29 photos and documents.

232 pages, Hardcover

First published January 4, 2012