ANGELS IN THE SKY:

In the tradition of such best-sellers as Unbroken and The Boys in the Boat, ANGELS IN THE SKY chronicles an untold tale of amazing bravery, grit and determination in an underdog fight, where the odds seem impossible to overcome.

Angels in the Sky is the meticulously researched, vibrantly narrated story of the pilots of the Machal, the volunteer force of combat pilots from around the world whose audacious exploits rescued the newly born state of Israel from annihilation in 1948. In the tradition of such best-sellers as Unbroken and The Boys in the Boat, Angels in the Sky will chronicle an untold tale of amazing bravery, grit and determination in an underdog fight, where the odds seem impossible to overcome.

The Machal pilots came from the United States, Britain, Canada, France and South Africa, WWII vets who had more than earned a respite from battle – reunited with their families, freshly settled at university or starting their careers, they went back under fire as divisions from five Arab armies converged on Israel's borders and the Egyptian Air Force ruled the skies. Young, idealistic, swaggering, noble, eccentric, courageous beyond measure, the Machal exemplified “the right stuff.” Each man has a unique story—and a reason—for fighting in Israel. Many are Jews, but a third of them are not. The obstacles they face are enormous: dangerously decrepit planes (many of them, ironically, captured German Messerschmitts with the Swastikas painted out and the Star of David painted in), a woeful lack of supplies, the opposition of Allied governments, which threatened them with criminal prosecution and loss of citizenship. But, with everything at risk, they fly, fight, and die, and not until near the end, does the reader dare believe that these outnumbered and outgunned warriors may actually win.

There are heroes such as ex-Spitfire pilot Syd Cohen who makes the agonizing decision to put his dream of medical school in Johannesburg on hold; Rudy Augarten, a POW camp escapee with ninety-two fighter missions under his belt, who leaves his precious slot at Harvard University; Leon Frankel, a veteran and student at the University of Minnesota, who tells his parents: “Jews are going to fight and it's about time.” Also joining up is Canada's greatest war hero, Buzz Beurling, who longs to return to the life-and-death exhilaration of aerial combat. The connecting viewpoint in the book is that of twenty-five-year-old Missourian Mitch Flint, WWII veteran, new college graduate, idealist, and conflicted volunteer in Israel's war. Flint is Gandt's primary original source and through his eyes we will witness each dramatic turn of events during the furious nine-month war.

Amidst pulse-racing scenes of daring bombing runs and ferocious fighter combat, Gandt interweaves the pilots' narratives against the central arc of the story—Israel's desperate struggle for independence. Key figures play fascinating supporting roles, like politician David Ben-Gurion, Egyptian King Farouk and Jordanian King Abdullah, U. S. President Harry Truman and his anti-Israel Secretary of State George Marshall, American Mafioso Meyer Lansky and oil magnate Rudolf Sonneborn, and the gritty atmosphere of the post-war era is convincingly captured.

Robert Gandt, historian, novelist, screenwriter, aviation expert and the author of fifteen books, is superbly qualified to write this book. His account of the WWII battle for Okinawa, The Twilight Warriors (Broadway Books, 2011) was the winner of the prestigious Samuel Eliot Morison prize for naval literature. Other non-fiction works include Intrepid: The Epic Story of America's Most Legendary Warship (Broadway Books, 2008), Fly Low, Fly Fast (Viking, 1999),Bogeys And Bandits (Viking, 1997), which was adapted for the CBS television series, “Pensacola: Wings of Gold,” on which he worked as screenwriter and technical consultant, and Skygods: The Fall of Pan Am (Morrow, 1995). Gandt's seven novels, beginning with With Hostile Intent (Signet, 2001), established his reputation as a writer of fiction.