JAN CRESS DONDI
The Navigator's Letter
How do you turn 100s of wartime letters into a work of narrative nonfiction that reads with the pace of a historical novel?
Discover The Navigator's Letter
USA TODAY Bestseller
What others have said about The Navigator’s Letter :
“...captured the tenor of the times. It took me back, vividly reminding me of what went on. An honest and powerful portrayal." ~Brig Gen Richard ‘Shotgun 1’ Baughn, WWII P-51 fighter pilot
“...is terrific…gripping, timely and easy on the eye.” ~Donald L. Miller, author of Masters of the Air
In modern warfare, “no other item is more essential than oil” and Ploesti lay at the core of the German oil supply. ~AFHRA (6/15/44)
~A True World War II Story~
Crippling the Nazi war machine meant striking at its heart: oil. 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 — some 1,700 airmen and 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 a high-altitude bombing raid over Ploesti, Bob’s plane was shot down—now, two friends from the same small town went missing over the same dreaded target.
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 Liberators were forced down over the same target, months apart; and both navigators went missing-in-action.
Their parallel journeys converged over Ploesti. Told through the voices of John B. and Bob, the story chronicles the U.S. campaign to destroy Hitler's oil refineries from the first zero-altitude raid through multiple high-altitude bombing missions before culminating with Operation Reunion, the largest evacuation by air in history repatriating 1,162 POWs as the Tuskegee Airmen flew cover over the entire operation.
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 with a thread of love woven throughout the narrative amid the chaos of war.
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.
(Hachette /Union Square)