JAN CRESS DONDI
The Navigator's Letter
True Story: Two Airmen—linked by Fate and One Woman—and the US Campaign to destroy Hitler's Oil Fortress at Ploesti, Romania
Discover The Navigator's Letter
A True World War II Story
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 with a touch of unexpected love emerging amid the chaos of war.
Crippling the Nazi war machine meant striking at its heart: fuel. The target was Ploesti, Romania—a vast, heavily fortified oil complex supplying high-octane fuel that powered Hitler’s tanks, trucks, and planes. Even Churchill and FDR had a hand in the planning.
On paper, the idea was brilliant.
In execution, it was near suicidal.
On August 1, 1943, the U.S. launched Operation Tidal Wave — a daring, zero-altitude bombing raid — 167 B-24 bombers flew straight into hell that day—54 aircraft went down and 532 airmen were lost. Among the missing was Capt. John B. White, Jr., a young navigator from Hillsboro, IL. But there was hope—a handful of parachutes had been seen from his falling ship.
John B.’s friend, Lt. Robert 'Bob' Cress, also a navigator from Hillsboro, set out to uncover his fate.
But on May 31, 1944, during another bombing run over Ploesti, Bob’s plane was shot down—now, two friends from the same small town were
missing in action.
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.
Through the lives of the two airmen, the story chronicles the U.S. campaign to destroy the Ploesti oil fields from the first low-level raid and multiple high-altitude bombing missions before culminating with 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 in 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 that raged onboard; and seeing friends shot down before their eyes—harrowing reminders of their own mortality.
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.
Union Square/Hachette Publishing
Book Release February 2026.