Jimmy Stewart: Bomber Pilot

Starr Smith

Aug 2017 · Tantor Media Inc · Narrated by Adam Grupper

About this audiobook

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 the author

Starr Smith is an international journalist and author who has chronicled his adventures to more than one hundred countries. He has been a correspondent for NBC Radio, a reporter for Newsweek, and has appeared in newspapers and magazines. Smith's books include Only the Days are Long and Starr Smith's Southern Scenes.

A veteran audiobook narrator, Adam Grupper has recorded more than eighty titles and garnered honors from AudioFile magazine, Publishers Weekly, the Society of Voice Arts and Sciences, and the Audio Publishers Association. He has been in eleven Broadway productions, including the acclaimed revival of Fiddler on the Roof.