Ken’s Men Against The Empire Volume I is the fourth hardcover book in the Eagles Over the Pacific series. Activated less than a year before Pearl Harbor, the 43rd Bombardment Group (43rd BG) was created in the rush to quickly build up American air power as the country’s involvement in another global war loomed. It soon moved to Bangor, Maine where it grew into a full-sized bomb group. Only a single prototype of America’s mightiest heavy bomber at that time, the Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress was available to the unit at Bangor until destroyed in a crash. In February 1942, only weeks after the beginning of the war with Japan, the 43rd’s ground echelon prematurely deployed overseas aboard the greatest ocean liner of the era, the Queen Mary, in an unescorted voyage across the Atlantic and Indian Oceans that skirted Africa before reaching Australia.

However, it was not until mid-year that the air echelon began deploying to the Southwest Pacific Theater as B-17s became available and crews trained on the aircraft could be assigned. Equipped, with B-17 model E and model F bombers the air echelon of the 43rd BG trained with and eventually absorbed the remnants of the 19th Bomb Group (19th BG) flying missions since the first days of the Pacific War.

The 43rd began full-scale operations under its own headquarters in mid-November 1942 from bases in northern Australia and later, Port Moresby, New Guinea, conducting missions in the northern Solomons, Papua New Guinea, and against Japanese island bases on New Britain and New Ireland, winning a Distinguished Unit Citation for its participation in the Papuan Campaign. For the next year, the 43rd was one of the two heavy bombardment groups in MacArthur’s Fifth Air Force, that carried the war to the Japanese at Salamaua, Lae, Wewak, and Rabaul.

During this period, on a special mapping mission in the Solomons on June 16, 1943, the crew of a B-17 piloted by Capt. Jay Zeamer was awarded two Medals of Honor, and the rest Distinguished Service Crosses, becoming the most decorated aircraft flight crew in U.S. history. This is the only book to contain the full and complete story of the mission using all available sources. After participating in the watershed Battle of the Bismarck Sea, for which the unit was also awarded the Distinguished Unit Citation, the Group began gradually re-equipping with the B-24 Liberator after the decision was made to discontinue support for two heavy bomber types in the theater. The unit’s B-17 era concludes in October 1943 and the remainder of the 43rd BG history continues in Ken’s Men Against The Empire, Volume II.

Ken’s Men Against the Empire Volume I tells the amazing and important story of the early air war in the Pacific, created from all available surviving unit records integrated with the stories, records, and accounts of hundreds of veterans who served with the group. The book spans 416 pages with over 550 photographs, five comprehensive appendices, three color paintings, and 24 detailed color profiles by aviation artist Jack Fellows.

Reviews

• “5 Stars: This book is a massive undertaking… The result is a magnificent hard-bound volume that comprises well over 400 pages and is filled with hundreds upon hundreds of previously unpublished photographs.” –Air Classics
• “…exhaustively researched chronology with aircrew’s memories and a wealth of photographs tell an epic tale.” –Aviation History Magazine
• “This book is an essential addition to your aviation library.” –PacificWrecks.com
• “The research and time taken to write and produce this book is second-to-none …a must for 43rd Bombardment Group enthusiasts, Pacific War enthusiasts or aircraft enthusiasts…” –LiberatorCrash.com