The Continuing Story of Three Coins
"CROSBY'S CURSE"
The Story of Bing Crosby's WWII Bomber
The Saga of Crosby's Curse is a work of narrative nonfiction set in the Southwest Pacific in WWII. They were young boys, flying untested B-24 Liberators into battle off dirt runways after a few short weeks of training against a tenacious enemy. Nothing in their training prepared them for what they would face in the skies over New Guinea.
The story celebrates the brave and selfless men of the 90th Bomb Group of the 5th Air Force, who flew into battle in the skies over the Southwest Pacific in the early darkest days of the war. And most especially to the men who flew and fought in one particular B-24 Liberator known as “Crosby’s Curse” or, as they sardonically renamed her, “Who Shives a Git.” These men flew for their country and for their namesake, Bing Crosby.
“Crosby should have been with us today. The sky was literally crammed with Zeros. What a field day he would have had! We would have stuck him in the top turret. I often think of him and wish he could have come along. We were fighting or dodging those Zeros with no ammunition for about ten minutes of the fight. It is a sick feeling, alright. I’m ready to go home – this stuff is REAL" - Bill Henery
New Guinea 1942-43
In the early days of the war in the Pacific, young American men formed quickly trained B-24 Liberator bomber crews that flew off dirt runways, thousands of miles from home, battling loneliness, a relentless enemy, and jungle pythons. Somehow, against the worst odds they prevailed and saved the world.
Bob Tupa
90th Bomb Group Association
"Russell Low again takes us back to another world, 80 years ago, for a story about a B-24 Liberator named Crosby’s Curse and the men that flew her. He tells the story through the eyes of all ten men who flew this four-engine bomber, not just the pilot but also family members who played a role in their story. Brave men who all volunteered to fight and left their families at home, some never to return. Those who did return home were forever changed. Low tells a story from the war in the Southwest Pacific that you won’t find elsewhere. Also, it is a story about a world-famous entertainer who would answer his door and welcome in servicemen on their way to war, fix them a meal, and entertain them, saying much about him as a person and an American."
Bob Livingstone
WWII and B24 Expert
"There are plenty of books on the air war written in the third person, but Russ Low invokes an entirely different feeling in the reader by writing a first-person story of the war from diaries of the time and much research, a story of young men flying from the jungles of Northern Australia and New Guinea. Russ invokes the times when the US was at the start of the Pacific war, with good times to be had and still really unaware of what was to come.
When the men reached Hawaii, the reality hit home with air raid damage, a curfew, blackouts, and a heavy military presence, and already a crew of their friends lost over the wide Pacific on the flight to Hawaii, never to be seen again. Gradually, the happy-go-lucky airmen become seasoned veterans as the reality of the Pacific war bears on them: poor food, tented accommodations, heat and humidity, air raids, dangerous jungle animals and insects, disease, the pressure of long combat flying and the relentless deaths of their friends, far from home."
Phil Scearce - Author
Finish Forty and Home
The Untold Story of B24's in the Pacific
"Crosby’s Curse captures the challenges faced by B-24 crews in the jungles of the Southwest Pacific. These airmen—young men we now recognize as the Greatest Generation—flew their aircraft into perilous weather and across unforgiving terrain to face a determined enemy flying the most advanced fighter aircraft of its time. Based on the diaries of two pilots of the plane Crosby’s Curse, Russ Low has produced a book to fascinate readers of WWII history."
VIDEOS FOR "Crosby's Curse"
Introducing
"The All-American Crew"
Recollections of
December 7, 1941
Gunnery School
Pilot's Learn to Fly in Stearman Biplane
90th Bomb Group Mission Preparation in New Guinea
First Mission of
"The All-American Crew"
Stan aka "Baby Faced Warrior" - the Nose Gunner
Jerome the Bronx Bombardier
