The Last Mission [Paperback]

In 1944, as World War II is  raging across Europe, fifteen-year-old Jack Raab  dreams of being a hero. Leaving New York City, his  family, and his boyhood behind, Jack uses a false  I.D. and lies his way into the U.S. Air  Force.



From their base in England, he and his crew  fly twenty-four treacherous bombing missions over  occupied Europe. The war is almost over and Hitler  near defeat when they fly their last mission -- a  mission destined for disaster. Shot down far  behind enemy lines, Jack is taken prisoner and sent to  a German POW camp, where his experiences are more  terrifying than anything he'd ever imagined.Harry Mazer’s The Last Mission is drawn closely from his experiences as a seventeen-year-old in the Army Air Corps. Like Jack, he was a Jewish boy from the Bronx full of fantasies about heroism, and like Jack, he became a waist gunner and never fired his guns. Mazer was also the editor of Twelve Shots: Outstanding Short Stories About Guns with contributing stories from Walter Dean Myers, Rita Williams-Garcia, Richard Peck, and other well-known authors to create a riveting collection of short fiction that explores the emotion-driven world of guns.(October 1944. Alexandria Army Air Field, Louisiana.)
Jack Raab knelt in the shadow of the big bomber. It was early, but hot, and there was no shade anywhere on the airfield except under the wings of the plane. The six crewmen sprawled out under the B-17 were waiting for their officers. They were here for the last phase of training before going into combat. To Jack, the other enlisted men were everything he wasn't&mdash;older, tougher, self-confident. None of them seemed nervous.<l#&