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The Wrong Stuff
- The Adventures and Misadventures of an 8th Air Force Aviator
- Narrated by: James Killavey
- Length: 12 hrs and 34 mins
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Summary
Between April and July 1944, Truman Smith flew 35 bombing missions over France and Germany. He was only 20 years old. Although barely adults, Smith and his peers worried about cramming a lifetime's worth of experience into every free night, each knowing he probably would not survive the next bombing mission. Written with blunt honesty, wry humor, and insight, The Wrong Stuff is Smith's gripping memoir of that time. In a new preface, the author comments with equal honesty and humor on the impact this book has had on his life.
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What listeners say about The Wrong Stuff
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- Mr. DC Lloyd
- 13-10-20
Great subject matter but poor narration
Great subject matter but poor narration.
Super detail of life in the Mighty 8th with some good down to earth stuff. The narrator however needs to find a new career, weird intonation and emphasis put in odd parts of sentences, sounds like a robot or one of those crappy videos on youtube which has automated narration-a shame, still worth a listen though.
They should re do this book using Pete Larkin who did ''Hell Above Earth
The Incredible True Story of an American WWII Bomber Commander and the Copilot Ordered to Kill Him'' which I've just finished, superb reading style and highly recommended.
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- J. A. Hill
- 07-07-15
What a wonderful account of young 8th AF Pilots
What other book might you compare The Wrong Stuff to, and why?
This is a great personal account and has a lot of very funny moments, in this way it's more light hearted than other combat books such as 'A Higher Call'
Which scene did you most enjoy?
Great tales from some of the antics during flying, such as sleeping on route to a bomb run
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- Royston
- 11-04-17
Interesting title that makes total sense.
This book introduced some thought provoking concepts regarding what is required to win a war. Without spoiling it you can see the validity of his philosophy when you look at the wars of the last 40 odd years.
That aside, this is an amazing story of a 20 year old thrust into the thick of air combat as a B 17 Bomber co-pilot. You experience the fear and excitement 5 miles above the ground as the crew strive to survive first 25 combat tours, then as they near that target the marker is moved to 30 before the final move to 35 combat missions. For the crew to reach that figure is indeed a fantastic achievement, couple that with the huge amount of "wrong stuff" that conspired against them makes it even more monumental. This is a story of human sacrifice at its best and its worst, with an early recognition of the mental impact day light air campaigns had on the crews. This is definitely on my listen to again list.
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- The BoatBuilder
- 27-04-15
What an amazing guy
Clearly Truman Smith was a very good pilot as must have been 'Moon'. You couldn't survive a 35 mission tour on luck alone. When Truman takes over the plane for his last few missions it's apparent how much more than pilot ability is required to survive.
What a great read (listen). A very easy style of narrative perfectly suited to describing a life of
continual stress. You are with him all the way.
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2 people found this helpful
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- Shakkers
- 08-02-20
Fantastic stuff.👍
This story took me to 1944 & put me in the B17 with Smitty & his crew . ...What a great read it's been....My third listen in 18months.
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- M. WILLIAMS
- 08-02-16
a great piece of WW2 aviation history
Both funny and informative, with many stores that disagree with the usual books and histories on this subject. Highly recommended, the performance is a little stilted and place names etc can jar a little on English ears.
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- Gogscot
- 21-07-15
Great Story
Great story and amazingly written, only down side is the reader is not the best and is sometimes distracting.
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- rgb
- 26-06-18
sounds like its read by a computer.
a good story, very badly let down by the tinny mechanical voice reading it. Pity.
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1 person found this helpful
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- M
- 06-11-15
no doubt a good story but cannot abide the voice
I normally love these types of book and have several downloaded, but sadly the narrators voice on this was too much like an artificial life form that it detracted from the story itself
so much so I have actually deleted it from my device and got a credit from amazon which is excellent
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