Terror of the Autumn Skies

Download or read book Terror of the Autumn Skies written by Blaine Pardoe and published by Skyhorse Publishing Inc.. This book was released on 2011-06 with total page 321 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Frank Luke, Jr. was an unlikely pilot. In the Great War, when fliers were still "knights of the air," Luke was an ungallant loner—a kid from Arizona who collected tarantulas, shot buzzards, and boxed miners. But during two torrid weeks in September 1918, he was the deadliest man on the Western Front. In only ten missions, he destroyed fourteen heavily–defended German balloons and four airplanes, the second highest American tally in the entire war. Author Blaine Pardoe retraces and refreshes Frank Luke’s story through recently discovered correspondence. Frantic, short, and splendid, the life of Frank Luke, Jr. dramatizes the tragic intervention of an American spirit in the war that devastated Europe.