Updating Your B -17 FLYING FORTRESS Reference Shelf

摘要

Seventy-six-years after the end of World War Ⅱ, one would think everything there is to know about the conflict would have been documented by now. Unfortunately, that's not the case. For example, the opening day of America's entry into WWII, 7 December 1941, is a quagmire of misinformation, often repeated incorrect stories, and a lack of details that should have been sorted out by now. Enthusiasts were presented with the first era of WWII aviation history books in the mid-1960s to the early 1980s - some outstanding contributions to the historical record, others not so much. Then came the period from the mid-1980s to the new millennium where a number of authors repackaged the same information for a variety of publishers hoping to cash in on the WWII genre. There was nothing worse than buying a book only to find its contents had been previously published in a different wrapper. Then, in the late 1990s and the first years of the new century, many government historical archives were put on-line. This did not present all of the answers for everyone to find, but it gave the cadre of dedicated researchers the keys to unlock what details could be found and where.