Jimmy Stewart, Starr Smith
Jimmy Stewart, Starr Smith
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Jimmy Stewart
Bomber Pilot

Author: Starr Smith, Walter Cronkite

Narrator: Adam Grupper

Unabridged: 5 hr 35 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Tantor Media

Published: 08/08/2017

Synopsis

Of all the celebrities who served their country during World War II—and they were legion—Jimmy Stewart was unique. On December 7th, when the attack on Pearl Harbor woke so many others to the reality of war, Stewart was already in uniform—as a private on guard duty south of San Francisco at the Army Air Corps Moffet Field. Seeing war on the horizon, Jimmy Stewart, at the height of his fame after Mr. Smith Goes to Washington and his Oscar-winning turn in The Phadelphia Story in 1940, had enlisted several months earlier.

Jimmy Stewart, Bomber Pilot chronicles his long journey to become a bomber pilot in combat. Author Starr Smith, the intelligence officer assigned to the movie star, recounts how Stewart's first battles were with the Air Corps high command, who insisted on keeping the naturally talented pilot out of harm's way as an instructor pilot for B-17 Flying Fortresses and B-24 Liberators. By 1944, however, Stewart managed to get assigned to a Liberator squadron that was deploying to England to join the mighty Eighth Air Force. Once in the thick of it, he rose to command his own squadron and flew twenty combat missions, including one to Berlin.

About Starr Smith

Starr Smith is an international journalist and author who has chronicled his adventures to more than one hundred countries. Smith was a combat intelligence officer with the Eighth Air Force in England during World War II, and later served on General Eisenhower's press staff at his London and Paris headquarters.

After the war, Smith worked with the military's top brass, including Anderson, Arnold, Doolittle, Eaker, Kenney, Spaatz, and other great World War II leaders and generals. He has been a correspondent for NBC Radio, a reporter for Newsweek, and his byline has appeared in newspapers and magazines from six continents.

Smith's books include Only the Days are Long and Starr Smith's Southern Scenes. He lives in Montgomery, Alabama.

Reviews

Goodreads review by Phrodrick slowed his growing backlog on April 09, 2022

Attempting to write an objective review of Starr Smith’s Jimmy Stewart: Bomber Pilot Kindle Edition create a problem. Absent any other source a reader can only conclude that Jimmy Stewart was a good person, a patriot and a very good combat leader. I have no information to argue against any of this d......more

Goodreads review by Laurie on July 01, 2023

A bit dry, but overall, a very informative book. So much respect for a man who volunteered for service, worked his way up from a private to a colonel, and served in such a humble manner that people didn't even know who he was at times.......more

Goodreads review by Anne (In Search of Wonder) on July 01, 2023

One of the few Hollywood actors I have any respect for. I didn't know anything about his military service during WW2, so this was very interesting. The narrator was pretty good. His Jimmy Stewart impression got really close.......more

Goodreads review by Hal on June 18, 2015

I would like to have given this book four stars, but at the end I just couldn't go it. Starr Smith writes efficiently and authoritatively on the life Jimmy Stewart and his rise from an Army private to bird colonel in WWII. Stewart eventually got his brigadier general much later while serving in the......more

Goodreads review by Rosaire on November 14, 2019

If you only know Jimmy Stewart from his films, then you know him for who he is - at least that's the take-away from this excellent book that shows a humble man who enlisted before it was fashionable and did what it took to get into an airplane and into combat. With more than 20 combat missions, Star......more

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