Hell Hawks! is the story of a band of young American pilots and their gritty, close-quarters fight against Hitler's vaunted military. They were the 365th Fighter Group, three squadrons of fighter-bomber pilots. Beginning just prior to D-Day, June 6, 1944, these pilots fresh from flight training in the United States (most were barely twenty years old) flew in close support of Eisenhower's ground forces as they advanced across France and into Germany. They flew the rugged, heavily armed P-47 Thunderbolt -- affectionately known as "the Jug" -- a big tub of a plane that could absorb a pounding from the enemy and still fly back home. Living in tents amid the cold mud of their front-line airfields, the 365th's daily routine had much in common with the GIs they supported. - Jacket flap.