The Navigator's Letter: The True Story of Two WWII Airmen, a Doomed Mission, and the Woman Who Bound Them Together -- Jan Cress Dondi, Hardcover

One of the riskiest air raids of World War II occurred on August 1, 1943, over the oil fields at Ploesti, Romania--Nazi Germany's primary fuel source. The Allies believed that the destruction of Hitler's oil refineries would shorten the war. Using an untested strategy, it was worth the gamble, but the mission did not go according to plan--with 53 aircraft and 532 crewmen lost, it was the costliest US air raid of the war.

A true story, The Navigator's Letter is a tale of uncanny coincidences: two friends from the same small Illinois town; both joined the Air Corps; both became navigators; both were assigned to B-24 Liberators; both flew missions over Europe; both of their planes were forced down over Ploesti; and both went missing-in-action.

Intertwined with events of WWII, the story follows the two B-24 navigators coursing through wartime, both with ties to the same woman. Their lives unfurl with the Air Force's darkest day, Operation Tidal Wave, the first-ever zero-altitude air raid, which lead to Operation Reunion, the largest evacuation by air in history repatriating 1,162 POWs from Romania back to American air bases in Italy.


Author: Jan Cress Dondi
Publisher: Union Square & Co.
Published: 02/10/2026
Pages: 400
Binding Type: Hardcover
Size: 9.25h x 6.25w x 1.13d
ISBN: 9781454956358

About the Author
Jan Cress Dondi has a BS from the University of Georgia, conducted post-graduate studies at the University of Alaska, and has done research and legal writing for decades. She lives in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.