Great book: The Secret of Anzio Bay
 

I just finished a recently published book titled The Secret of Anzio Bay.

This is a heart-warming story about a U.S. Army Air Corps P-40 pilot (Lt. Michael Mauritz) who ditched his aircraft off the Anzio Beach Head after an engine failure. He was taken prisoner by the Germans, escaped, and hiked for five months from N. Italy to S. Italy where he met up with allied troops and returned to the U.S.

In 1998 the P-40 was recovered in shallow water off Anzio and sits in the Piana delle Orme museum in Latina, Italy.

I highly recommend this book. See www.anziobay.com and it is available on Amazon. Also see www.pianadelleorme.it for info on the museum.


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Another good book:

"The Berlin Raids" by Martin Middlebrook
Subtitled: "RAF Bomber Command Winter 1943-44".


Bomber Command dispatched nineteen major raids
between August '43 and March '44 in which more than 10,000 aircraft sorties dropped over 30,000 tons of bombs on Berlin.
It was the RAF's supreme attempt to end the war by bombing, but Berlin was not destroyed and the RAF lost more than 600 aircraft and their crews.

Not to be pendantic, looks like the good Lt. was an ARmy Air Corps pilot not a naval aviator. Wouldn't USN never used P-40s but not likely many.

Correction
 

Iron City, you are very correct. This was a Freudian slip. Lt. Mauritz certainly was in the U.S. Army Air Corps. Thank you for pointing out my obvious error.

I have corresponded with him and he signed my copy of his book. He is a real gentleman, and certainly a member of "the Greatest Generation."

We also visited the Piana delle Orme Museum in Latina in February where "Skipper" is preserved for eternity. This is a wonderful museum. The owner has one of the largest military vehicle collections in the world. It only costs 8 euro for entrance, and consists for fourteen buildings, of which ten are open currently.

We highly recommend a visit. It is located near Anzio approximately 30 minutes south of Rome Fumicino Airport (FCO).



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Post originally made by Solotk but lost in the move:

Image of recovered P-40 here

It's not that obvious an error Check 6.

If you ever visit Turtle Creek (pronounced "crick" if you must talk to the locals for directions) don't miss Monroeville and "Winky's" in Wilmerding.