THE HEROES WE NEEDED

The story of a time when young Americans showed remarkable courage.

They were, in their way, beautiful pieces of aviation machinery. The B-29 Superfortress bomber was the largest combat airplane of World War II, yet it displayed a streamlined, silver grace. They, and the young men who flew in them, were pivotal in the victory over Japan, and McIntyre tells their story with authority and compassion. His project began, he says, when he bought a scrapbook on eBay, which turned out to be about one of the men killed on a B-29 mission. McIntyre began to collect militaria, as well as journals and official records, then interviewed some of the surviving airmen. He explains that designing and building the B-29 was a massive undertaking. Each plane was made of 40,540 parts, with much of the construction work done by women. The first combat missions were flown in June 1944, and the number of planes gradually increased. But the cost was high, with Japanese fighters shooting down scores of B-29s and even deliberately ramming them. McIntyre recounts the stories of many airmen who did not return, which are undeniably touching, as are the photographs he includes. Because of their size, the B-29s were able to drop the atomic bombs that ended the war. But it is the human stories that resonate the most. In fact, McIntyre says he occasionally had to put the book aside because of the emotional toll it took on him. “We all know that freedom isn’t free, but most people really don’t know the price of freedom,” he writes. “Now you do.”

A heartfelt account of the men who flew the combat airplane known as the Superfortress.