Wings of Morning. Thomas Childers. Signficant Sentences. 05.

Significant sentences from Wings of Morning by Thomas Childers, the story of the last American bomber shot down over Germany in WWII and a vivid re-creation of participation in the war.

"The Wings of Morning" (cont.)

"At twenty thousand feet the frigid crystalline air would howl through the unpressurized aircraft like a gale and the temperatures would plunge to minus thirty or forty degrees Fahrenheit." p. 77.

The electrically heated F-3 flying suit: "Small, well-insulated wires, which would be plugged into the electrical system at his station in the aircraft, ran like veins throughout the dark brown jacket and overall pants." p. 77.

"Slowly the planes, ghostly silhouettes in the dingy mist, nosed ponderously out of their hardstands and began their lumbering procession." p. 81.

"Farrington was flying the artificial horizon, flying blind, ignoring his instincts, his senses, and relying instead on his instruments." p. 83.

"Planes from as many as forty air fields would be surging through the thick clouds into the packed air space over East Anglia at approximately the same time." p. 84.

"In the thin, bone-numbing air of northern Europe at twenty-three thousand feet the temperature inside the plane plunged to thirty below zero." p. 85.

"If the rheostat failed now, if the electric suit shorted out, he would freeze." p. 85.

"The Eighth Air Force, their instructor warned them, lost more men to frostbite than to enemy action." p. 85.

Arming the bombs: "The slippery, frozen catwalk was too narrow for him to wear his parachute, so as he leaned out in the frigid bomb bay, holding with one gloved hand to the vertical stanchions...a false step, he realized, would send him plunging through the doors to his death five miles below." p. 86.

"Mary, Mother of God, get me out of this." p. 88.