Don S Gentile

One-Man Air Force Don S Gentile

-'Vivid... the combat history of an American ace' NEW YORK TIMES -This new 2021 Spitfire Publishers edition includes all the images from the original 1944 edition, extra contemporary photographs, a selection of Gentile's 'Encounter Reports' and additional first-hand testimony from Gentile's fellow pilots, John Godfrey and Duane BeesonCalled a 'One-man air force' by General Eisenhower, Don Gentile set the pace for the Hun-killing tournament fought over the skies of Europe in 1944 by P-51 Mustang and P-47 Thunderbolt pilots. But what is he thinking when he sees a yellow-nosed Messerschmitt barrelling in for the kill? Is he scared? How does he feel when an enemy Focke-Wulf 190 is in his sights and he starts pouring steel into its frail fuselage? This short wartime memoir, written with the aid of Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Ira Wolfert, has the urgency of war reportage and the honesty of a 23-year-old former high-school football hero from Piqua, Ohio. 'Answers truthfully the questions everyone would like to ask a fighter pilot' NEW YORK TIMES. ABOUT THE AUTHORDominic Salvatore 'Don' Gentile was born in 1920 in Piqua, Ohio to Italian immigrants Patsy and Josephina Gentile. Fascinated by flying from an early age his father eventually paid for flying lessons and his own Aerosport single-seater biplane. By 1941 Don had clocked up over 300 flying hours. With the war raging in Europe, Don enlisted in the Royal Canadian Air Force and by 1942 was flying Spitfires from England with 133 Squadron, one of the famed American 'Eagle Squadrons'. The Eagle squadrons were transferred to the USAAF to form the 4th Fighter Group flying the P-47 Thunderbolt and Don and his fellow pilots were the first to fly combat missions over Germany. Re-equipment with the P-51 Mustang in February 1944 was a game-changer. The Fourth were the first to escort bombers over Berlin in March and Don quickly became an ace in the exceptional Mustang fighter, building his tally to twenty-two aerial kills and six ground kills by the end of his tour. He survived the war but was killed in a flying accident in 1951.