The Navigator's Letter

Jan Cress Dondi's journey began in Hillsboro, IL, where the inspiration for The Navigator’s Letter took root. With thirty years experience in legal writing and research, she learned to trace facts with precision, following threads of the past—across time, language, and continents. Her pursuit was personal—a labor of love of family—a desire to connect historical truth with the human experience. The culmination of which has enriched this narrative with depth and authenticity.

Hundreds of letters from 

two bomber navigators—John B. and Bob—and a POW diary together with historical documents became the backbone of this book. Clues led Dondi on an emotional search for answers, one that carried her across the globe—to her father’s POW camp in Romania, the military archives in Germany, her uncle’s military base in England—where she pieced together a deeply human story of war, courage and love—one that had waited decades to be told. 

Dondi was born in Hillsboro, IL; raised in Atlanta, GA, she graduated from the University of Georgia; lived years in Anchorage, AK, where she pursued post-graduate studies at the University of Alaska; and currently resides in Fort Lauderdale, FL with her husband.

(Photo: SnapBack Films & Photography)

A True WWII Story—

Two Airmen, a Doomed Mission, and

the Woman Who Bound Them Together.

One of the riskiest missions of World War II occurred on August 1, 1943—Operation Tidal Wave, the first-ever zero-altitude air raid. The Allies believed that the destruction of Hitler’s oil refineries at Ploesti, Romania, would shorten the war. Arguably a suicide mission, it was worth the gamble. But the untried strategy did not go as planned—with 54 aircraft and 532 crewmen lost, it was the costliest US air raid of the war. 

The Allies vowed to return.

A true WWII story, The Navigator’s Letter 

is a tale of unlikely coincidences: 

two friends, John B. and Bob, from the same small Illinois town with ties to one woman, Polley; both young men joined the US Army Air Corps; both became B-24 navigators; both were assigned to Europe; both flew as lead navigator; both of their planes were forced down over Ploesti; and both navigators went missing-in-action. But only one returned—during Operation Reunion, the largest evacuation by air in history repatriating 1,162 POWs from Romania back to American air bases in Italy.

Follow along as John B. and Bob defy the odds each time they climbed into a bomber. High above enemy territory, tethered to life—sustaining oxygen lines, they fought for survival against relentless dangers: freezing temperatures through an open fuselage that could drop to minus sixty; explosive flak timed precisely to the bombers' altitude; enemy fighter planes shooting to kill; fighting fires onboard; and seeing friends shot down before their eyes—harrowing reminders of their own mortality.

While the book is rich with daring exploits of airmen—it ultimately unfolds as a story shaped by luck and fate, defined by courage and sacrifice, driven by duty and love. 

Told through historical records that include the National Archives, both American and German, together with wartime letters and a POW diary, the two navigators’ voices echo throughout the narrative—raw, real, and unforgettable. 

Book Release February.