title: The Wild Blue: The Men and Boys Who Flew the B-24s Over Germany 1944-45
author:  Stephen E. Ambrose 
description: Long before he entered politics, when he was just in his early 20s, South Dakotan George McGovern flew 35 bomber missions over Nazi-occupied Europe, earning a Distinguished Flying Cross for bravery under fire. Stephen Ambrose, the industrious historian, focuses on McGovern and the young crew of his B-24 bomber, volunteers all, in this vivid study of the air war in Europe.
zlib_text: THE WILD BLUE
  THE MEN AND BOYS WHO FLEW THE B-24S OVER GERMANY
  1944-45
  Stephen E. Ambrose
  
  For Eleanor
  
   
  TABLE OF CONTENTS
  AUTHOR’S NOTE
  PROLOGUE
  CAST OF CHARACTERS
  CHAPTER ONE - Where They Came
  CHAPTER TWO -
  CHAPTER THREE -
  CHAPTER FOUR - The
  CHAPTER FIVE -
  CHAPTER SIX  - Learning
  CHAPTER SEVEN -
  CHAPTER EIGHT - The
  CHAPTER NINE - The
  CHAPTER TEN - Missions
  CHAPTER ELEVEN - Linz:
  EPILOGUE
  ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
  BIBLIOGRAPHY
  
  About the Author
  Also by Stephen E. Ambrose
  Copyright
  NOTES
  
  AUTHOR’S NOTE
  I HAVE BEEN A FRIEND and supporter of George McGovern’s for
  nearly three decades. I knew something about his career in the Army
  Air Forces, which I always felt he could have used to more effect in
  his 1972 presidential campaign. Politics aside, I had long been an
  admirer of what he had done in his B-24 bomber. He seemed to me
  to be a good representative of his generation, a man who had risked
  all not for his own benefit but to help bring about victory.  In the
  summer of 1999, McGovern, his wife,