[Larry Hickey]

Del,

Thanx for posting this. Yes, Volume I of the 43rd history will be available in about a month. It is a magnificent book, as can be seen from the website previews. This covers the B-17 era from the formation, training and deployment of the unit, through the unit's early operations in the Southwest Pacific theater after it replaced the the 19th B.G. (which retuned to the States in late 1942), through mid-October, 1943, when the conversion of the 43rd B.G. to the B-24 was completed. Thereafter the few remaining B-17s left in the theater were used as armed transports or VIP aircraft, and late-in the war, a very small number of new aircraft were brought to the theater for highly specialized air-sea rescue work.

Volume II covers the 43rd's history from late-October, 1943 through the end of the war. During November, 1943, one squadron, the 63rd, converted to low altitude bombers, which conducted night, radar assisted search and destroy missions agains enemy shipping all across the Pacific, eventually to the shores of China and Japan itself. The other three squadrons remained standard daylight heavy bombers. Combined, the two volumes will contain well over 1000 photos, massive color profiles and artwork, maps, cut-away drawings, color photos etc. Like all "Eagles over the Pacific" series books, this work was compiled from all known official records, and with the assistance of hundreds of veterans of the unit, whose stories and experiences are woven throughout the text.

We hope to have Vol II to press within a few months. It is now undergoing an extensive final editing process.

The plan is to follow this immediately with Vol I of the 38th B.G. (medium B-25 bombers, which arrived in the Southwest Pacific theater in mid-1942, and soon converted to low level strafers after the Battle of the Bismarck Sea. This two volume history will carry the story of the unit from pre-war through September, 1943 (Vol I), including the initial part of the Wewak campaign. Vol II, which will follow soon after (already written), will continue the story to the end of the war.

As can be seen from the IHRA website, Vol I of the 3rd Bomb Group history (A-20s, A-24s and B-25s) is also in an advance state of preparation, and Vol II will follow soon after that, including the conversion of the unit from A-20s to the A-26 very late in the war.

All volumes are extensively illustrated by the spectacular combat paintings and color aircraft profiles of Jack Fellows. Especially the volumes covering the low-level strafers are illustrated with many of the most spectacular photos even taken in air combat.

I hope that you enjoy these long-awaited volumes.

Larry Hickey