4-Chapter+8

Important Events Questions Level 1 Level 2 Level 3
 * "We just sat there and watched the plane pass the island, and it never came back," he said. "I could see it on the radar. It makes you feel terrible. Life was cheap in war."
 * In 1943, a navy lieutenant Art Reading ditched his two-man plane and was knocked unconscious. Readings navigator, Everett Almond, pulled Reading out of the plane, inflated their Mae Wests, and lashed himself to Reading. As reading woke, Almond began towing him toward the nearest island, twenty miles away. sharks began circling and one swept in, bit down on Almond's leg, and dove, dragging both men deep underwater.then something gave way and the men rose to the surface in a pool of blood. Almond's leg had apparently been torn off. he gave his Mae West to Reading then sank away. Reading was found and he was alive thanks to Almond.
 * According to Jesse Stay, a pilot in Louie's squadron, airmaen trying to fulfill the forty combat missions that made up a Pacific bomber crewman's tour of duty had a 50% chance of being killed.
 * A report issued by the AAF surgeon general suggests that in the Fifteenth Air Force, between November 1, 1943, and May 25, 1945, 70% of men listed as killed in action died in operational aircraft accidents, not as a result of enemy action.
 * Many doomed planes sent no distress call, and often, no one knew a plane was down until it missed its estimated time of arrivial, which could be as long as 16 hours after the crash.
 * Masses of POWs were beheaded, machine gunned, bayoneted, and burned alive.
 * Historians estimate that the Japanese military murdered between 200,000 and 430,000 Chinese, including the 90,000 POWs, in what became known as the Rape of Nanking.
 * Hunger, thirst, and exposure to blistering sun by day and chill by night depleted survivors with frightening rapidity. Some men died in days. If they didn't die with that they had the possibility of going insane.
 * According to reports made by the Far East Air Force air surgeon, fewer than 30 percent of men whose planes went missing between July 1944 and February 1945 were rescued.
 * The Japanese military surrounded the city of Nanking, stranding more than half a million civilians and 90,000 Chinese soldiers. The soldiers surrendered and, assured of their safety, submitted to being bound. Japanese officers then issued a written order: ALL PRISONERS OF WAR ARE TO BE EXECUTED
 * Many islands were so short that engineers had to plow coral onto one end to create enough length for a runway.
 * From the ground came antiaircraft fire, including flak, which burst into razor-sharp metal shards that sliced planes open.
 * Whenever rescue planes went out to find you they would usually get shot down too.
 * 1) How did most men in the military die during this time?
 * 2) If a man went missing how long did they have until they were declared dead?
 * 3) How many AAF men were killed in combat during World War II?
 * 1) Why did most men fear ditching their planes?
 * 2) Why does Louie write in his journal a lot? What's the use of his journal to him?
 * 3) How does Louie survive so many battles?
 * 1) How do you continue to live and move on after surviving, when somebody else close to you didn't?
 * 2) How do you survive in a hard struggle?
 * 3) Do you think when a person does something for you because you can't and gets hurt that it was meant for you?

Vocabulary:


 * attrition - "The surprise of the attrition rate is that only a fraction of the ill-fated planes were lost in combat." - a reduction or decrease in numbers, size, or strength
 * flanked - "...or threading through the mountains that flanked some Hawaiian runways." - the side of anything, as of a building.
 * squall - "...Phil was detouring around a squall, Cuppernell asked him if he dare fly into it. - a sudden, violent gust of wind, often accompanied by rain, snow, or sleet.
 * delusory - "Seeing a delusory boat, he pitched himself overboard and drowned." - misleading; deceptive
 * precedent - "...Japan had only reinforced the precedent." - a legal decision or form of proceeding serving as an authoritative rule or pattern in future similar or analogous cases.