Books

To War and Back with the 9th Bomb Squadron 

In the Skies Over Burma, Thailand, and China in 1945

To War and Back follows my father, Lt. Walt Kastner, from the start of World War Two until its end.  He joined a new B-24 bomber crew as a navigator that fought with the 9th Bomb Squadron from its base in India during the drive to liberate Burma from the Japanese Army.  To this end, his air crew attacked Japanese troop concentrations that barred the advance of the British 14th Army, and flew missions deep into Thailand, including attacking the Burma-Siam Railway, the crucial rail link that carried supplies that fed and equipped the Japanese Army in Burma—a railway made famous by the movie, The Bridge on the River Kwai.  When air combat ended in May 1945, the squadron moved to Assam in eastern India, where they hauled aviation gasoline over the Himalayas to 14th Air Force in China.  Flying “the Hump” exposed them to the most dangerous flying conditions in the world.  They flew the Hump until they were sent home in October 1945.

Published by McFarland and Company 

Attacking a railway bridge in southern Thailand