Hell Above Earth

An unforgettable and thrilling tale of two WWII bomber pilots who forged an unexpected friendship in the flak-filled skies over Germany. The air battle over Nazi Germany in WWII was hell above earth. For the British it lasted six years, for the Americans three, and the final death toll was 125,000 Allied aircrew, including 56,000 from the RAF and 26,000 Americans from the British-based Eighth Air Force. For bomber crews, every day they flew was like D-Day, exacting tremendous emotion and trauma. Death could come in many guises: an unlucky flak burst, Luftwaffe fighters that could appear anywhere at any time, or pilot error while flying less than twenty feet apart. Twenty-year-old US Captain Werner Goering accepted this, and even thrived on the adrenalin rush – he was an exceptional pilot. But Werner was also known to be the nephew of Herman Göring, Commander-in-Chief of the Luftwaffe – and because of it he became a marked man. When Werner Goering qualified to become a bomber commander in 1942, the FBI and the American military could not prevent him from serving his American homeland in war, but neither were they prepared to risk the propaganda coup that his capture, or even his desertion, would represent for Nazi Germany. So, in early 1943, J. Edgar Hoover instructed his FBI agents to find a man capable of flying with Werner who was also willing to shoot him dead in the cockpit should their plane be downed in Nazi-occupied Europe. They found Jack Rencher, a tough, insular, B-17 instructor from Yuma, Arizona, who also happened to be one of the Army's best pistol shots. That Jack and Werner became unlikely friends is just one more twist in Hell Above Earth, one of the most incredible untold tales to come out of WWII.