Fly Girls: The Daring American Women Pilots Who Helped Win WWII - Softcover

Pearson, P. O’Connell

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1534404112 ISBN 13: 9781534404113

Verlag: S&S Books for Young Readers, 2019

Inhaltsangabe

“A truly inspiring read.” —Booklist (starred review)

“A solid account of women’s contributions as aviators during World War II.” —Kirkus Reviews

In the tradition of Hidden Figures, debut author Patricia Pearson offers a beautifully written account of the remarkable but often forgotten group of female fighter pilots who answered their country’s call in its time of need during World War II.

At the height of World War II, the US Army Airforce faced a desperate need for skilled pilots—but only men were allowed in military airplanes, even if the expert pilots who were training them to fly were women. Through grit and pure determination, 1,100 of these female pilots—who had to prove their worth time and time again—were finally allowed to ferry planes from factories to bases, to tow targets for live ammunition artillery training, to test repaired planes and new equipment, and more.

Though the Women Airforce Service Pilots lived on military bases, trained as military pilots, wore uniforms, marched in review, and sometimes died violently in the line of duty, they were civilian employees and received less pay than men doing the same jobs and no military benefits, not even for burials.

Their story is one of patriotism, the power of positive attitudes, the love of flying, and the willingness to serve others with no concern for personal gain.

Über diesen Titel

Über die Autorin bzw. den Autor

P. O’Connell Pearson has always taught history—first in the high school classroom and then as a curriculum writer and editor across grade levels. Ready to share her enthusiasm for stories of the past in a new way, she earned an MFA in writing for young people from Lesley University and now writes narrative nonfiction for ages ten and up. Her books have received recognition from Bank Street, NCSS, the New-York Historical Society, Arizona Library Association, and more. When Pearson is not writing about history, she can often be found talking about history as a volunteer with the National Park Service in Washington, DC.

Auszug. © Genehmigter Nachdruck. Alle Rechte vorbehalten.

Fly Girls

CHAPTER 1

War Clouds

President Franklin D. Roosevelt stood in front of a well-dressed crowd. His legs, paralyzed by polio years before, were held stiff with braces and hidden behind a large podium. Rain threatened on this April morning, but the president stuck out his chin and smiled in his usual way. Roosevelt was in New York for a happy event—the opening of the 1939 New York World’s Fair, an exhibition of new ideas and innovations for the “World of Tomorrow.” The New York Times reported, PRESIDENT OPENS FAIR AS A SYMBOL OF PEACE.1 Everyone knew about the predictions of war in Europe. The radio news was full of Adolf Hitler’s threats and military aggression every night. But while the president may have been worried about dictators and wars, he understood that visitors to the world’s fair were far more interested in dazzling new technologies and a bit of fun. In his brief remarks FDR mentioned peace and American prayers for an end to strife in Europe, but he didn’t dwell on those ideas.

The 1930s had been an economic disaster in the United States and around the world. After the stock market crashed in 1929, banks closed, businesses shut down, and millions of people lost their jobs and homes. That kind of economic slowdown is called a depression, and this, the Great Depression, had been the worst in history. Roosevelt and the people in his administration had worked tirelessly to ease the misery Americans suffered, yet the Great Depression wasn’t over. Finally, though, businesses had started hiring again, and now more people could afford to buy a few things and relax a little—exactly what they wanted to do. Whatever the radio said about conflicts and threats in Europe, problems three thousand miles away had nothing to do with the United States, they thought. In America it was time to dream a little and look forward to a better decade ahead.

Causes of World War II

During the 1920s and 1930s, dictators gained control in several countries, including Germany and Italy. In Japan a group of military leaders gained the powers of a dictator. Dictators have complete power. They are not limited by constitutions, laws, courts, or elections, and can use their nation’s military to control people. These three totalitarian governments—Germany, Italy, and Japan—were called the Axis. Their people did not have freedom of speech or the right to fair trials. There were no elections, and the government controlled newspapers and radio. The Axis powers built huge militaries and promoted the glory of war. They also promoted extreme nationalism—the belief that their countries and peoples were better than other countries and peoples—and felt they had the right to take over weaker nations (which is called imperialism). The world’s strong democratic countries did almost nothing to stop them. Totalitarianism, militarism, extreme nationalism, and imperialism in the Axis nations were major causes of World War II.

When Roosevelt declared the fair officially “open to all mankind,” a cheer went up from the dignitaries. Then ordinary fairgoers streamed into the park—more than two hundred thousand on the first day alone—having paid their fifty-cent admission and ready to see what the “World of Tomorrow” might look like.

Massive halls filled with elaborate displays from companies including General Motors, Ford, and Westinghouse showed off plans for the future. Before long, regular houses would have marvels like electric refrigerators with freezers, quick-to-cook frozen foods, and dishwashers. Women were promised they’d be able to finish fixing dinner and doing the dishes and still look like the model in the display—“as neat and refreshed as when she started.”2 Those new houses would have air-conditioning, too, and even televisions. In fact, the president’s speech that very morning was the first event ever broadcast on television. The television audience, of course, was almost nonexistent, since companies like RCA and General Electric were just introducing the television at the fair. Everyone wanted to see the display models, but television sales wouldn’t take off for another decade.

Visitors to the fair saw more than household goods in their future. They learned that in just twenty years, by 1960, they’d travel in hover cars zipping at 100 miles per hour above high-speed roadways crisscrossing the country in every direction. Even more amazing, ordinary people would soon be able to travel great distances by air.

Air travel wasn’t new in 1939. Anyone over the age of forty could remember the reports of the Wright brothers’ first airplane in 1903. They’d seen pictures of the amazing flight at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina. The airplane had seemed like a glorious toy at the time, and in some ways it still did, though flying had come a long way in the few decades since then.

During the Great War—what we call World War I—dashing pilots in tiny aircraft had introduced a new kind of warfare and captured the imaginations of people around the country and the world. When the war ended in 1918, most of those people tried to forget the horrible number of deaths and terrible destruction the war had caused. They vowed never to repeat such a thing. But their fascination with the quick little airplanes and heroic pilots who flew them remained.

Many of those pilots continued to fly after the war as barnstormers, holding shows at fairgrounds and in open fields. The sound of their happily buzzing engines let people in towns know they’d arrived. Whole families trooped to wherever the pilots had set down to watch the daredevil performances. Pilots spun straight down toward the earth, pulling their planes up at the last possible second, the crowd gasping in shock. They rolled lazily through the sky as if they never got dizzy. For a fee, a brave spectator could go up for a short ride. When barnstormer and mail pilot Charles Lindbergh flew alone across the Atlantic Ocean in 1927, he became an instant hero worldwide. And everyone worried and then wept when aviator Amelia Earhart disappeared over the Pacific ten years later.

Charles Lindbergh and Amelia Earhart

Charles Lindbergh was the first pilot to fly solo from New York to Paris. He made his transatlantic crossing in 1927 in a tiny plane called the Spirit of St. Louis. Several other pilots had already tried and failed to cross the Atlantic, so the whole world followed news of Lindbergh’s flight and cheered his success. Lindbergh was handsome, clean cut, polite, and humble—traits that made him an instant hero.

Five years later Amelia Earhart became the first woman pilot to fly solo across the Atlantic Ocean. There had been other daring women pilots who made news, but Earhart—who was tall, thin, and fresh-faced like Lindbergh—had the same kind of soft-spoken, polite humility he did and won people’s hearts as well as their admiration. She used her fame to promote aviation and women’s rights and opportunities. While attempting to make a flight around the world in 1937, Earhart and her navigator, Fred Noonan, disappeared near Howland Island in the Pacific. No evidence of their crash has...

Details zur Ausgabe

• Verlag: S&S Books for Young Readers
• Erscheinungsdatum: 2019
• Sprache: Englisch
• ISBN 10: 1534404112
• ISBN 13: 9781534404113
• Einband: Taschenbuch
• Anzahl der Seiten: 224
• Kontakt zum Hersteller: webstar; casetta@mondadori.it; ; Via Mondadori 1,; Segrate Milano; 20090; Italien