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    Hell Above Earth: The Incredible True Story of an American WWII Bomber Commander and the Copilot Ordered to Kill Him
    Hell Above Earth: The Incredible True Story of an American WWII Bomber Commander and the Copilot Ordered to Kill Him
    Hell Above Earth: The Incredible True Story of an American WWII Bomber Commander and the Copilot Ordered to Kill Him
    Audiobook9 hours

    Hell Above Earth: The Incredible True Story of an American WWII Bomber Commander and the Copilot Ordered to Kill Him

    Written by Stephen Frater

    Narrated by Pete Larkin

    4/5

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    About this audiobook

    Hell Above Earth tells an unforgettable story of two World War II American bomber pilots who forged an unexpected but enduring bond in the flak-filled skies over Nazi Germany. But there's a twist: one of them was related to the head of the Luftwaffe, Reich Marshal Herman Goering, and the other had secret orders from FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover to kill him if anything went wrong during their missions. A heart-wrenching Greatest Generation buddy story, an adrenaline-filled account of aerial combat, and a work of popular history, Hell Above Earth centers around the author's discovery of a half-century old secret that has far-reaching and deeply personal repercussions for the pilots, and profound consequences for the FBI and the "Mighty" Eighth Air Force.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherTantor Media, Inc
    Release dateMar 26, 2012
    ISBN9781452677156

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    Reviews for Hell Above Earth

    4/5

    17 ratings6 reviews

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    • 5/5
      Werner Goering was a B-17 pilot who completed 49 daylight bombing missions over Germany during World War II. What he didn’t know was that co-pilot Jack Rencher had orders from the FBI to kill him rather than allow him to land his plane or be taken as a prisoner of war in Germany. Why? The pilot was the nephew of the Nazi second-in-command Hermann Göring. His falling into German hands, either as a defector or POW, would have been a propaganda coup for the Nazis. Although I’ve read quite a lot about the Eighth Air Force, which my father served in as a B-17 mechanic, none brought home the sacrifices the men made in such vivid detail as Hell above Earth. I loved the detailed explanations the author provided about the flight training, the conditions aboard the bombers, even about the Quonset huts that housed the airmen in England and elsewhere. I also liked the author’s writing style, and that he occasionally allowed his narrative to veer into the moderately crude language that was part and parcel of the airmen’s lives. Stephen Frater writes as a journalist, not as an historian, so the text is not interrupted with footnotes, although readers will find adequate sourcing in the back notes. The bibliography gave me a few ideas for further reading, including a book, The Writing 69th (by Jim Hamilton), about war correspondents. Although I hate it when reviewers mention a surprise ending, I will say the author’s dogged pursuit of the story leads to quite a surprise at the end. Hell above Earth was an altogether engaging read, one that will give readers new appreciation of the sacrifices of The Greatest Generation.
    • 4/5
      Trusting the Wikipedia is accurate and after all listing to the Book ( that I enjoyed) I noted that after WW1 Goring was a Proponent of the “ Stab in the back myth” that supported the Theory that Germany hadn’t really lost the WW2…..
    • 5/5
      This is a story about two men, Werner Goering and Jack Rencher, command pilot and co-pilot respectively of a B-17 bomber during WWII. What makes this book unique is that the co-pilot was charged by the US Government with the task of shooting the pilot should their plane ever come to a point where it was going down or if the command pilot ever acted weird. More than 70 years after it ended, there are still new books being written about the events of that war.One might wonder why a co-pilot would be under such orders but one needs only to look again at the name of the pilot. Not revealed until the very end of this book is the fact the Goering in the book was not indeed related to the Reich Marshall of Hitler's Germany. As revealed in the book, these two men arrived in the cockpit of a B-17 with no prior knowledge of the other, yet one was to be an assassin if need be. Curiously, they became deep friends and complemented each other in the cockpit. Their pre-war backgrounds were hugely different, yet they were children of the depression. Goering was a masterful pilot, never losing a crew member over 49 missions, and Jack filled the roles that Goering didn't.There are many gory details about injuries aloft and brutal statistics made flying in the 8th Air Force an unhealthy occupation. Less than half of the men who went up did not come down the same way they went up. New crews lasted averaged 4 missions. It is argued by some that without the Air Force bombing of the German artificial petroleum industry, the war might have gone on far longer than it did. That argument has been made over and over and it won't be resolved this side of eternity.
    • 3/5
      A good, but not great story of the Eight Air Force in WW2 and one pilot in particular. Werner Goering is a German-American who's family is related to the Reichmarshal himself, Hermann Goring. Werner volunteers to be a bomber pilot and with his friend and co-pilot Jack Rencher, they lead a B-17 and crew through many combat flights over Germany. Werner goes on to be a distinguished pilot in the Air Force after the war and is decorated many times. This isn't just the story of Werner and Jack, but the story of the horrible casualties and conditions these airmen had to endure while carrying out their missions. The story of Jack and Werner is fascinating and well told, but this book jumps around a bit and swings from a personal story to the greater story of the strategic bombing of Germany. A new angle on this piece of history.
    • 2/5
      Interesting story but the story needed editing pretting badly. Facts were repeated several times as if they were the first time. Facts that did nothing to advance the story were presented (a list of the longest serving people in federal service). I'm glad this story was preserved and the author tracked down the facts. I just wish he had it edited by a historian that could have corrected some of the errors and organized the information better.

      For the record, if you play Russian Roulette with a Colt 45 1911 with only one bullet you have greater than a chance of a hole in your head. It's not a revolver.
    • 4/5
      U.S. Captain Werner Goering flew 49 B-17 missions over occupied Europe in WW II. His uncle was Hermann Goering, Hitler's second in command and leader of the Luftwaffe, the very force that was trying to shot Werner down. The American intelligence service was worried that Werner may be sympathetic to the Nazi cause and attempt to land a B-17 to aid the Germans. To make sure this never happened, they assigned Jack Rencher as his co-pilot and Rencher's assignment was to shoot Werner if he tried to land the plane or if there was a chance Werner would be captured.Werner had the distinction of never losing a crew member even though he flew 49 missions and did crash once on takeoff. He went on to fly jets for the Strategic Air Command during the 1950's. He only learned about his friend Rencher's assignment in 2009 when told about it by the author of this book.This isn't just a book about Werner's story. To illustrate what it was like to fly over Occupied Europe day after day, Frater includes many anecdotes about other B-17 crews. He also describes what it was like to fly in a B-17 at incredible heights with poor protection against the cold while fighting off German fighters and shrapnel from the German anti-aircraft guns. This is another excellent addition to the literature about this part of the war with the bonus that we learn about Werner's part in it.