Alone & Unarmed: An Army Pilot Sharing the Skies With Artillery Fire in WWII Italy

ALONE AND UNARMED is the story of a lone US Army Liaison Pilot, Staff Sergeant Ernest Kowalik, flying the military's version of the 65-hp Piper "Cub", during the Italian Campaign in WWII. Flying without an Observer, because he was the "spare" pilot for the 88th Division Artillery HQ Battalion, Kowalik actually flew more than twice the average number of sorties and hours than the typical division Liaison Pilot, often at dangerously low altitudes. Artillery spotting and scouting for the 88th Infantry "Blue Devil" Division, he saw a wide variety of action, from destroying large enemy guns and rescuing supply caravans from ambush, to making possible several significant breakthroughs of enemy lines. Join Staff Sergeant (later Lieutenant) Kowalik as he relives significant episodes of the world's struggle for freedom in that time. "Directing artillery fire from an unarmed, unarmored light aircraft was surely one of the most dangerous tasks performed on a daily basis during World War II. Flying from rough, unimproved airstrips, often within range of enemy shellfire, added to the perils faced by Field Artillery pilots, as did the ever present threat of bad weather. Such operations are covered in graphic detail by Ernest Kowalik, whose "Alone and Unarmed" is a welcome addition to the small number of books on a little known aspect of WWII." - KEN WAKEFIELD, author of Lightplanes at War, The Flying Grasshoppers, and Luftwaffe Encore.