The Navigator's Letter
It was a time before GPS. Skies could kill. And luck held your fate.
Discover The Navigator's Letter
Author's Journey
Jan Cress Dondi's journey began in Hillsboro, Illinois, 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
Jan Cress Dondi's journey began in Hillsboro, Illinois, 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two B-24 navigators—John B. and Bob—and a POW diary together with historical documents became the backbone of this book.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, she graduated from the University of Georgia; lived years in Anchorage, AK, where she pursued post-graduate studies at the University of Alaska; and built a career as a litigation paralegal. Married nearly forty years, she is the mother of two daughters and grandmother of four and currently resides in Fort Lauderdale, FL.
(Photo: SnapBack Films & Photography)
The story...
A True WWII Story—
Two Airmen, a Doomed Mission, and
the Woman Who Bound Them Together.
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 pl
A True WWII Story—
Two Airmen, a Doomed Mission, and
the Woman Who Bound Them Together.
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 were lost, and 532 airmen never returned. Among the missing was John B., 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, Bob, also a navigator,
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.
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.
Union Square/Hachette Publishing
Book Release February 2026.