Leatherneck Bombers: Marine Corps B-25/PBJ Mitchell Squadrons in World War II, is a powerful story of an elite group of men chosen to form the U.S. Marine Corps only medium bomber group to serve in World War II.
Leatherneck Bombers: Marine Corps B-25/PBJ Mitchell Squadrons in World War II, is a powerful story of an elite group of men chosen to form the U.S. Marine Corps only medium bomber group to serve in World War II.
Through information obtained from veterans, squadron historians, and official government sources, Alan C. Carey, the author of three previous Schiffer books on U.S. Navy PB4Y operations, now documents the history of Marine Corps B-25/PBJ squadrons. Veterans, in their own words, recall the missions they flew and the friends that were lost fighting Japanese forces in the South and Central Pacific.
During the last two years of the war, VMB-413, 423, 433, and 443 flew heckling missions against enemy garrisons on Bougainville and New Ireland in the South Pacific. In the Philippines, VMB-611 used the bomber to conduct rocket and strafing attacks in support of American ground forces. While, in the Central Pacific, VMB-612 and 613 conducted heckling and anti-shipping strikes with aircraft fitted with a 75 millimeter cannon or "Tiny Tim" air-to-ground rockets.
The book includes:
Over 170 photographs and maps.
12 color profiles of individual squadron aircraft.
A tabulation of PBJ Mitchell bureau bombers and squadron assignment.
A listing of personnel missing or killed in action including individual names and service ranks.
