Death at 20,000 Feet

Joey Wear

2/11/15

HST 200

Death at 20,000 Feet

The roar of engines echoes above the clouds. 4000 of them are humming in almost perfect unison. Black puffs burst above and below these massive birds as they struggle to remain steady. With just two words, hundreds of black explosives emit high-pitched whistles as they plummet towards their intended prey below. Suddenly, a swarm of mosquitos appear ahead of them. Bullets fly, metal burns, and forts fall. This was just another day in the life of an American and British bomber crew during the Second World War.

When America entered World War I, her airmen did not even have proper planes to fly in. Therefore, they had to borrow planes from the French and British. They soon realized how huge and bloody the air war was over the skies of Europe and it was there that many airmen soon recognized the status of some of the highest-scoring pilots on both sides. Possibly the most famous example was the German ace Manfred von Richtofen, the “Red Baron”, who scored 80 kills by the time of his death over the Western Front in April 1918 and was widely recognized and respected on both sides. Many other countries also had their own aces including Georges Guynemer of France, Albert Ball of Britain, and Eddie Rickenbacker of America. Also, by the end of the war, German four-engine bombers and Zeppelin airships were striking targets in London. The desire to become a legend like the Red Baron and the attractiveness of the notion of flying turned the airman from an aerial assassin to a national hero. Many believed that the airmen were the real heroes of the air. Yet just twenty years later Adolf Hitler saw the airman as a weapon of a necessary, upcoming war.

Japan’s surprise attack on Pearl Harbor showed that aircraft carriers could deliver a force of several hundred planes anywhere at any time. The attack also showed that America was no longer invulnerable to an attack from overseas. With America now at war, a...