book details

Book: SHOT DOWN - The true story of pilot Howard Snyder and the crew of the B-17 Susan Ruth by Steve Snyder

categories: Book, World War II, Military, B-17, Aviation, History, Flying Fortress, Eighth Air Force, Non-Fiction, WWII

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Steve Snyder

about this book: Growing up, I knew the basics of my father's war history, but it wasn't until I retired in 2009 that I finally had the time to go through all the material my parents had kept from the war years. Two items were most significant. One was my father's riveting, hand-written account of his plane being shot down which he wrote while missing in action. The other was the many letters my father had written to my mother while he was stationed in England with the 306th Bomb Group. Reading them was fascinating, and the story of my dad and his B-17 "Susan Ruth" crew became my passion.

I read many books about the air war in Europe, spent untold hours doing research on the internet, and started attending reunions of various WW II organizations. I am now president of the 306th Bomb Group Historical Association.

Initially I had no intention of writing a book, and it wasn't until December, 2012 that I actually decided to do so. Based on that all I had learned over the previous three years, I felt that the story of the my father and his crew was so unique and so compelling that it just had to be told and people needed to read about it.

Since being released in August 2014, SHOT DOWN has won 15 national book awards and has a 4.9 Amazon reader review rating with 92% being 5 stars.