Hell Above Earth: The Incredible True Story Of An American WWII Bomber Commander And The Copilot Ordered To Kill Him (2012) - Plot & Excerpts
Its an amazing story that would have made a great longread article, a WWII anthology chapter or even a short book. Unfortunately, the author was compelled to stretch this out way longer than it should have and the overall story suffered for it.The abridged version is that in WWII, Herman Goering's nephew, Werner Goering was the pilot of a B-17 flying bombing missions over Germany. However, due to his questionable ancestry (and the PR coup that would come from his defection or capture) the FBI recruited a roughneck co-pilot that was ordered to shot Goering if the plane ever went down over enemy territory (either voluntarily or via battle damage).While this premise is interesting [SPOILERS AHEAD], since they never actually got shot down, the co-pilot was never actually faced with this dilemma. The more interesting revelation, saved until the epilogue, seems to be that Werner Goering was *not* actually Herman's nephew (which probably would have kept the story from being written had the author known this up front).The theory (which seems very likely) is that Werner's father saw Goering's rise in Germany and, prior to WWII, tried to leverage having the same surname into a small amount of prestige in Salt Lake City, where he lived. Prior to the war, this was a source of pride, but once the war started, the lie had propagated so widely that it was an accepted fact throughout the family, the German community, and eventually the FBI and military intelligence.In addition to just being too long, there were also issues with the audiobook format. It felt like several sections were in the wrong order and sections were occasionally repeated. Just when we thought historians had recorded everything worth knowing about World War II comes Hell Above Earth: The Incredible True Story of an American WWII Bomber Commander and the Copilot Ordered to Kill Him. Stephen Frater has penned a riveting account of what has to be one of the strangest buddy stories of the war. As the Eighth Air Force began its storied bombing campaign over German-occupied Europe, the FBI received word that American-born pilot Werner Goering was the nephew of Luftwaffe chief Hermann Goring. Authorities assigned a copilot secretly ordered to kill Goering if their plane was ever forced down for any reason. The Bureau worried not just about Goering's sympathies; even if he remained loyal to the United States, his capture would present an unacceptable propaganda coup for the Germans. Copilot Jack Rencher faced all the challenges of military aviation and hazards of war, and he did so with the knowledge that he might have to shoot the aircraft commander he had grown to trust and admire. As Frater puts it, Goering became "his leader, his friend, and his target." Decades after the war, one more bizarre twist of history lay in store for Werner Goering. I won't give it away here, but Frater uncovered an unexpected coda to the story he researched. Anyone with an interest in aviation or World War II history will enjoy his fascinating account.
What do You think about Hell Above Earth: The Incredible True Story Of An American WWII Bomber Commander And The Copilot Ordered To Kill Him (2012)?
This had interesting facts, but I was disappointed in the actual story.
—willherondaleisbae
More of a 2 1/2 star review. It was ok. Kind of all over the place.
—dominique3600
