Thorndike Press large print popular and narrative nonfiction.

Wanderlust -- The wild blue yonder -- Jay & Joe -- "The sacred duty of the leading race" -- The fortress -- The winds of war -- The Japanese Citadel -- Into the fight -- Breaking the code -- The renegade pilot -- The Bulldog -- A microscopic metropolis -- Ken's men -- A place where trouble started -- "Clear as a bell" -- The missing General -- Pushing North -- A fine reunion -- "A motley collection of outcasts" -- Blood on the Bismarck Sea -- The flight of the geishas -- Old 666 -- The outlaws -- No position is safe -- New additions -- "Hell, no!" -- Buka -- "Give 'em hell!" -- The desperate dive -- Get it home -- "He's all right" -- Dobodura

It is 1942, the Japanese war machine has rolled up nearly all of the Pacific Theater, and American forces are clinging to what little unconquered territory remains. While US Marines claw their way across Guadalcanal, small contingents of US Army Airmen make their way to the lonely, embattled Allied airbase on Papua New Guinea. Their mission: to defend Australia from invasion, harass Japanese supply lines, fly perilous bombing missions over enemy-held strongholds, and make reconnaissance runs to provide intelligence for America's nascent island-hopping campaign. Among these men are the pilot Captain Jay Zeamer and the bombardier Sergeant Joseph Raymond Sarnoski, whose swashbuckling reputations precede them. Zeamer, who cannot convince his superiors to give him his own plane, teams up with Sarnoski to recruit a crew of fellow misfits to rebuild a dilapidated B-17 bomber from spare parts in the base's junkyard. They christen the plane Old 666, naming it from its tail identification numbers. In June 1943, Zeamer and Sarnoski and their crew volunteer for a 1200-mile suicide mission into the heart of the Japanese Empire that may well change the course of the war -- but which only one of the two friends will survive