Try free for 30 days
-
Above the Reich
- Deadly Dogfights, Blistering Bombing Raids, and Other War Stories from the Greatest American Air Heroes of World War II, in Their Own Words
- Narrated by: MacLeod Andrews, Mark Bramhall, Arthur Morey, Pete Bradbury, Dominic Hoffman, Fred Sanders, Patricia Santomasso, Sean Patrick Hopkins, Barrett Leddy
- Length: 12 hrs and 54 mins
Failed to add items
Add to basket failed.
Add to Wish List failed.
Remove from Wish List failed.
Follow podcast failed
Unfollow podcast failed
Buy Now for $26.99
No valid payment method on file.
We are sorry. We are not allowed to sell this product with the selected payment method
Listeners also picked
-
Air Apaches
- The True Story of the 345th Bomb Group and Its Low, Fast, and Deadly Missions in World War II
- By: Jay A. Stout
- Narrated by: Robertson Dean
- Length: 15 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The American 345th Bomb Group - the Air Apaches - was legendary in the war against Japan. The first fully trained and fully equipped group sent to the South Pacific, the 345th racked up a devastating score against the enemy. Armed to the teeth with machine guns and fragmentation bombs, and flying their B-25s at impossibly low altitudes - often below 50 feet - the pilots and air crews strafed and bombed enemy installations and shipping with a fury that helped cripple Japan.
-
-
A bit soporific
- By Dr. Eric Thevathasan on 10-05-2023
-
Life's Too Short to Cry
- The Compelling Story of a Battle of Britain Ace
- By: Tim Vigors
- Narrated by: Roger Davis
- Length: 9 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
It is not often that a long-hidden gem of a manuscript is published, bringing a moment in WWII history to vivid life for today’s audiences. Geoffrey Wellum’s First Light was one example. The memoir of Timothy Vigors is another. Born in Hatfield but raised in Ireland and educated at Eton and Cranwell, Vigors found himself in France in 1940 flying Fairey Battle bombers. After the Fall he joined the fighters of 222 Squadron, with whom he saw frantic and distinguished service over Dunkirk and persevered through the dangerous days of the Battle of Britain, when he became an ace.
-
-
Ended too early
- By Samuel Peacocke on 29-11-2022
-
Fly
- By: Michael Veitch
- Narrated by: Michael Veitch
- Length: 9 hrs and 13 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Simultaneous release of the thrilling new volume of true stories from airmen of the Second World War, from the author of Flak (also available in audio by Bolinda). Michael Veitch's life-long obsession with the aircraft of the Second World War led him to conclude that every single person who flew, or flew in them, has at least one extraordinary story to tell. With most of these veterans in their 80's, he knew that it was a matter of urgency to find them now, before their personal stories disappear forever.
-
-
Terrific number of individual stories
- By James S. on 31-01-2023
-
Flames in the Sky
- By: Pierre Clostermann
- Narrated by: Julian Elfer
- Length: 5 hrs and 16 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
From near-suicidal RAF attacks in 1940 through to the dawn of the jet age in 1945, Flames in the Sky captures the astonishing drama, intensity, heroism, and incomparable exhilaration of the World War Two air war like no other book. This epic global struggle between Spitfires, Hurricanes, Mustangs, Mosquitos, Messerschmitts, Zeros, Kamikazes, and more is brought vividly to life by a writer who was himself in the thick of the action.
-
Hogs in the Sand
- A Gulf War A-10 Pilot's Combat Journal
- By: Buck Wyndham
- Narrated by: Jim Seybert
- Length: 15 hrs and 46 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The mighty, iconic A-10 Warthog was first thrust into battle in Operation Desert Storm. The men who took it through walls of flak and surface-to-air missiles to help defeat the world's fourth-largest army were as untested as their airplanes, so they relied on personal determination and the amazing A-10 to accomplish their missions, despite the odds.
-
-
How the a10 is green
- By Anonymous User on 13-02-2024
-
Flying Start
- A Fighter Pilot's War Years
- By: Hugh Dundas
- Narrated by: Elliot Fitzpatrick
- Length: 9 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
This is the autobiography of Group Captain Sir Hugh Dundas CBE, DSO, DFC, who was one of the most distinguished fighter pilots of World War II. He writes of his wartime experiences, and particularly of his period as Squadron Leader and Wing Commander and his involvement in the Battle of Britain.
-
-
AI reading
- By David Shaw on 14-12-2023
-
Air Apaches
- The True Story of the 345th Bomb Group and Its Low, Fast, and Deadly Missions in World War II
- By: Jay A. Stout
- Narrated by: Robertson Dean
- Length: 15 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The American 345th Bomb Group - the Air Apaches - was legendary in the war against Japan. The first fully trained and fully equipped group sent to the South Pacific, the 345th racked up a devastating score against the enemy. Armed to the teeth with machine guns and fragmentation bombs, and flying their B-25s at impossibly low altitudes - often below 50 feet - the pilots and air crews strafed and bombed enemy installations and shipping with a fury that helped cripple Japan.
-
-
A bit soporific
- By Dr. Eric Thevathasan on 10-05-2023
-
Life's Too Short to Cry
- The Compelling Story of a Battle of Britain Ace
- By: Tim Vigors
- Narrated by: Roger Davis
- Length: 9 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
It is not often that a long-hidden gem of a manuscript is published, bringing a moment in WWII history to vivid life for today’s audiences. Geoffrey Wellum’s First Light was one example. The memoir of Timothy Vigors is another. Born in Hatfield but raised in Ireland and educated at Eton and Cranwell, Vigors found himself in France in 1940 flying Fairey Battle bombers. After the Fall he joined the fighters of 222 Squadron, with whom he saw frantic and distinguished service over Dunkirk and persevered through the dangerous days of the Battle of Britain, when he became an ace.
-
-
Ended too early
- By Samuel Peacocke on 29-11-2022
-
Fly
- By: Michael Veitch
- Narrated by: Michael Veitch
- Length: 9 hrs and 13 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Simultaneous release of the thrilling new volume of true stories from airmen of the Second World War, from the author of Flak (also available in audio by Bolinda). Michael Veitch's life-long obsession with the aircraft of the Second World War led him to conclude that every single person who flew, or flew in them, has at least one extraordinary story to tell. With most of these veterans in their 80's, he knew that it was a matter of urgency to find them now, before their personal stories disappear forever.
-
-
Terrific number of individual stories
- By James S. on 31-01-2023
-
Flames in the Sky
- By: Pierre Clostermann
- Narrated by: Julian Elfer
- Length: 5 hrs and 16 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
From near-suicidal RAF attacks in 1940 through to the dawn of the jet age in 1945, Flames in the Sky captures the astonishing drama, intensity, heroism, and incomparable exhilaration of the World War Two air war like no other book. This epic global struggle between Spitfires, Hurricanes, Mustangs, Mosquitos, Messerschmitts, Zeros, Kamikazes, and more is brought vividly to life by a writer who was himself in the thick of the action.
-
Hogs in the Sand
- A Gulf War A-10 Pilot's Combat Journal
- By: Buck Wyndham
- Narrated by: Jim Seybert
- Length: 15 hrs and 46 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The mighty, iconic A-10 Warthog was first thrust into battle in Operation Desert Storm. The men who took it through walls of flak and surface-to-air missiles to help defeat the world's fourth-largest army were as untested as their airplanes, so they relied on personal determination and the amazing A-10 to accomplish their missions, despite the odds.
-
-
How the a10 is green
- By Anonymous User on 13-02-2024
-
Flying Start
- A Fighter Pilot's War Years
- By: Hugh Dundas
- Narrated by: Elliot Fitzpatrick
- Length: 9 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
This is the autobiography of Group Captain Sir Hugh Dundas CBE, DSO, DFC, who was one of the most distinguished fighter pilots of World War II. He writes of his wartime experiences, and particularly of his period as Squadron Leader and Wing Commander and his involvement in the Battle of Britain.
-
-
AI reading
- By David Shaw on 14-12-2023
-
The Scrap Iron Flotilla
- By: Mike Carlton
- Narrated by: Mike Carlton
- Length: 15 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
When the Second World War broke out in September 1939, the British asked Australia for help. With some misgivings, the Australian government sent five destroyers to beef up the British Royal Navy in the Mediterranean. HMAS Vendetta, Vampire, Voyager, Stuart and Waterhen were old ships, small with worn-out engines. Their crews used to joke they were held together by string and chewing gum; when the Nazi propaganda minister Josef Goebbels heard of them, he sneered that they were a load of scrap iron.
-
-
Great book to hear from the author.
- By Kindle Customer on 17-08-2022
-
Ace Pilots of World War II Series, Fighter Aces of the R.A.F 1939-1945
- A Gripping Compilation of WWII Air War Heroes - the Famous and the Forgotten
- By: E. C. R. Baker
- Narrated by: Dennis Kleinman
- Length: 8 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Only a boy when World War II broke out, E. C. R. Baker was gripped by the stories he heard of heroism in the skies as the Allies defeated the mighty Luftwaffe. But in the years after the war, he was struck by how few of the RAF's legendary fighter aces could be named by the general public.
-
-
Heroes who we should know about
- By Anonymous User on 14-09-2023
-
The Fleet at Flood Tide
- America at Total War in the Pacific, 1944-1945
- By: James D. Hornfischer
- Narrated by: Pete Larkin
- Length: 23 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
With its thunderous assault on the Mariana Islands in June 1944, the United States crossed the threshold of total war. In this tour de force of dramatic storytelling, distilled from extensive research in newly discovered primary sources, James D. Hornfischer brings to life the campaign that was the fulcrum of the drive to compel Tokyo to surrender—and that forever changed the art of modern war.
-
-
A Mighty Historical Overview
- By Hamish on 19-05-2017
-
Beaufighter Boys
- True Tales from Those Who Flew Bristol’s Mighty Twin
- By: Graham Pitchfork, ACM Sir David Cousins KCB AFC RAF [RTD] - foreword
- Narrated by: Shawn Compton
- Length: 9 hrs and 13 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Graham Pitchfork has built on these reminiscences to trace the roles of Beaufighter squadrons spread across all the theaters of World War Two operations. From home bases, through north-west Europe, North Africa, Malta, and the Mediterranean to the far Far East and south-west Pacific, the Beaufighter served far and wide as did the crews of the RAF, RAAF, SAAF, and New Zealand and Canadian squadrons. All are covered in this quite unique book to be savored by all those interested in the war in the air from 1939-1945.
-
-
Why?
- By Spiff on 21-06-2021
-
Australia's Secret Army
- By: Michael Veitch
- Narrated by: Michael Veitch
- Length: 10 hrs and 33 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Established after World War I by the Royal Australian Navy, the Coast Watchers were a loose organisation of several hundred European settlers, missionaries, patrol officers and planters living in British and Australian Pacific Island territories whose job it was to observe and report on the enemy. They were mostly all unpaid volunteers whose job it was simply to observe and report on foreign shipping and aeroplane movements. It was never envisaged that the Coast Watchers would do any fighting, nor operate inside enemy-occupied territory.
-
-
Truly engaging
- By Bob Hartley on 26-02-2023
-
To Fly and Fight
- Memoirs of a Triple Ace
- By: Clarence E. Bud Anderson
- Narrated by: Joshua Katinger
- Length: 12 hrs and 40 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Bud Anderson is a flyers flyer. The Californians enduring love of flying began in the 1920s with the planes that flew over his father's farm. In January 1942, he entered the Army Air Corps Aviation Cadet Program.
-
-
Entertaining
- By Anonymous User on 14-08-2023
-
Retaking Kokoda
- The Battles for Templeton's Crossing, Eora Creek and the Oivi-Gorari Positions
- By: David W. Cameron
- Narrated by: Steve Shanahan
- Length: 16 hrs and 32 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Japanese Major General Horii Tomitarō, commanding the South Seas Force, had the Australians on the back foot. Australia was holding the last defendable ridge in the Owen Stanley ranges, Imita Ridge. Horii to his distress was then given orders from Imperial Headquarters in Tokyo that he was to fall back across the mountains to the Japanese beachheads at Gona, Sanananda, and Buna, leaving a force between Templeton's Crossing and Eora Creek to stop any Australian advance through the mountains.
-
-
get it right.
- By matthew brown on 27-03-2024
-
The Big Show
- The Classic Account of WWII Aerial Combat
- By: Pierre Clostermann
- Narrated by: Julian Elfer
- Length: 8 hrs and 16 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Pierre Clostermann DFC was one of the oustanding Allied aces of the Second World War. A Frenchman who flew with the RAF, he survived over 420 operational sorties, shooting down scores of enemy aircraft while friends and comrades lost their lives in the deadly skies above Europe. The Big Show, his extraordinary account of the war, has been described as the greatest pilot's memoir of WWII.
-
-
Powerful tribute to the pilots of WW2
- By Stewart on 26-06-2023
-
Tank Action
- An Armoured Troop Commander's War 1944-45
- By: Captain David Render, Stuart Tootal
- Narrated by: Roger Davis
- Length: 11 hrs and 36 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In 1944, David Render was a 19-year-old second lieutenant fresh from Sandhurst when he was sent to France. Joining the Sherwood Rangers Yeomanry five days after the D-Day landings, the combat-hardened men he was sent to command did not expect him to last long. However, in the following weeks of ferocious fighting in which more than 90 per cent of his fellow tank commanders became casualties, his ability to emerge unscathed from countless combat engagements earned him the nickname of the 'Inevitable Mr Render'.
-
-
A great story
- By Samuel Peacocke on 22-09-2019
-
Lords of the Sky
- Fighter Pilots and Air Combat, from the Red Baron to the F-16
- By: Dan Hampton
- Narrated by: John Pruden
- Length: 17 hrs and 25 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The New York Times best-selling author of Viper Pilot and retired USAF F-16 legend Dan Hampton offers the first comprehensive popular history of combat aviation - a unique, entertaining, and action-packed look at the aces of the air and their machines, from the Red Baron and his triplane in World War I to today's technologically expert flying warriors in supersonic jets.
-
-
An American view on aviation history.
- By Thane on 15-11-2016
-
Neptune's Inferno
- The U.S. Navy at Guadalcanal
- By: James D. Hornfischer
- Narrated by: Robertson Dean
- Length: 18 hrs and 38 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
With The Last Stand of the Tin Can Sailors and Ship of Ghosts, James D. Hornfischer created essential and enduring narratives about America’s World War II Navy, works of unique immediacy distinguished by rich portraits of ordinary men in extremis and exclusive new information. Now he does the same for the deadliest, most pivotal naval campaign of the Pacific war: Guadalcanal. Neptune’s Inferno is at once the most epic and the most intimate account ever written of the contest for control of the seaways of the Solomon Islands.
-
-
Brilliant!
- By IRB on 08-01-2020
-
Black Tulip
- The Life and Myth of Erich Hartmann, the World's Top Fighter Ace
- By: Erik Schmidt
- Narrated by: Keith Sellon-Wright
- Length: 9 hrs and 10 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Black Tulip locates the ambiguous truth about Erich Hartmann and so much of the German Wehrmacht in general: that many of these men were neither full-blown Nazis nor impeccable knights. They were complex, contradictory, and elusive. This book portrays a complex human rather than the heroic caricature we're used to, and it argues that the tidy, polished hero stories we've inherited about men like Hartmann say as much about those who've crafted them as they do about the heroes themselves.
-
-
Mind numbingly boring German History lecture
- By Geoff Alford on 17-06-2021
Publisher's Summary
Sensational eyewitness accounts from the most heroic and legendary American aviators of World War II, never before published as a book
They are voices lost to time. Beginning in the late 1970s, five veteran airmen sat for private interviews. Decades after the guns fell silent, they recounted in vivid detail the most dangerous missions that made the difference in the war. Ed Haydon dueled with the deadliest of German aces - and forced him to the ground. Robert Johnson racked up 27 kills in his P-47 Thunderbolt, but nearly lost his life when his plane was shot to ribbons and his guns jammed. Cigar-chomping Curtis LeMay was the Air Corps general who devised the bomber tactics that pummeled Germany's war machine. Robin Olds was a West Point football hero who became one of the most dogged, aggressive fighter pilots in the European theater, relentlessly pursuing Germans in his P-38 Lightning. And Jimmy Doolittle became the most celebrated American airman of the war - maybe even of all time - after he led the audacious raid to bomb Tokyo. Today these heroes are long gone, but now, in this incredible volume, they tell their stories in their own words.
Critic Reviews
"Readers with military background in general, and interest in and knowledge of the war in particular, will welcome and applaud this revealing history. Readers encountering information about the war for the first time may have their eyeballs pop out on springs.... The text pulls you along like an action/adventure novel, owing to the vivid voices of these five men and the obstacles they had to overcome. At the same time, it feels like you’re sitting in the same room with them hearing the stories firsthand." (New York Journal of Books)
"Colin Heaton has once again produced a series of first-person accounts from the men who made aviation history...an invaluable addition to military history." (Adam Makos, New York Times best-selling author of A Higher Call and Spearhead)
"Among the top tier of World War II histories." (Jay A. Stout, author of Hell's Angels)
More from the same
What listeners say about Above the Reich
Average Customer RatingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Daniel
- 13-02-2022
Great insight
Overall the book was extremely well read by all narrators, I do like how they changed for each person.
Majority of the stories were interesting, especially the first few although at times for the last two pilots, I found it a little boring and more going into politics then actual air battles.
Overall a great insight to these pilot’s lives and I’m glad I did listen to this book. But again, sometimes they went on a little bit, especially the last two pilots. No offence:)
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Steve Belcher
- 18-05-2022
Very solid interviews and stories
I was a bit reluctant to get into this one. But once I did, it flowed very well. It has some of the best American pilots re-count their exploits down to them leaving the force. A very good rounded book.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Geoff Alford
- 13-08-2021
Outstanding
Brilliant, just brilliant. Very hard to stop listening to these first hand accounts. Highly recommended.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Hamish
- 19-07-2021
Amazing collection of honest 1st person accounts.
What a great book! The way the interviews were voiced by different narrators, the gripping, sometimes brutal, accounts of action and the honest unvarnished thoughts and opinions of these great pilots, leaders and men. I laughed. I cried. I almost felt like I was there, listening to them in person. One of the best books on war in the air from a pilot's, leader's and veteran's perspective. This is how Audiobooks should be done. Truly superb.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!