The Long Way Home

If you are interested in historical events during the World War II era, or if you are a fan of the Boeing B-314, or the Pan Am Clippers in general, you will enjoy this book. It is obvious that Mr. Dover has done a great deal of research (including interviews with actual participants) in order to present an accurate, detailed account. What this book lacks in sparkling dialogue, it more than makes up for with interesting details. As a former Pan Am B-314 crew member, Mr. Dover is in a unique position to relate this tale with historical accuracy. I am glad he took on this project, and invested the time and effort necessary to research and record this account for future generations.

I was glad to receive this, and found it to be very interesting.
I have long been a fan of the Boeing B314 Clipper, and had heard about the long ordeal the crew sustained in their supposedly "routine" flight to Hawaii - but it just happened to coincide with the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. In fact, they were actually on their way to Hawaii when it happened, and they were flying right into the thick of it, and had to make some emergency plans, so as not to let that valuable plane fall into enemy hands.
Without any maps of the areas they would have to fly over, entailing thousands of miles, and keeping total radio silence, and without any guarantee that they would even be able to find aviation fuel as they attempted to accomplish this Herculean feat, they just bobbed and weaved and made it work out, to fly virtually around the world to get back home. To say nothing of the fact that it was a seaplane - with no ability to land on anything but water, and they were faced with thousands of miles over very hostile territory, over dry land, they were between the proverbial rock and a hard place!
As if they didn't have problems enough already, they had to remove all identifying insignia from the plane, to attempt to foil being identified as American, and either shot down or forced down by enemy planes, should they encounter any. And, the Japanese were actively hunting them, because that plane would have been a supreme prize of war, to have captured it.
A tribute to their perseverance, determination, and sheer guts, to have pulled it off.
Highly recommended.

Some pretty amazing flying machines were produced in the 1930's that, except for aviation historians, have been largely forgotten. The Pan Am flying boats are one example of this. I didn't know that Boeing had produced a 4 engine behemoth flying boat prior to reading this book.

This story describes how the crew of one of these flying boats had to return to the United States from the other side of the world when the war with Japan broke out. They could not fly the standard return over the Pacific ocean, because of the threat of attack by the Japanese. So they flew westbound from New Zealand, via Australia, India, the Middle East, Africa and South America in order to finally reach New York. Very little of this route had been charted for commercial air travel, so it was up to the captain and the crew to do all the planning and navigation, sometimes using ordinary maps or nautical charts intended for sea going vessels.

Besides giving a good description of the flight and the problems that were encountered and resolved, it also gives a very good description of the Boeing B-314 flying boat, with many interesting photographs of its interior and exterior features, including the flight deck where the pilots, navigators, engineers, and radio operators performed their duties.

The author, Ed Dover, had flown as a crew member on other Pan Am B-314 flying boats, so he has an excellent understanding of the situation that was faced by the crew in this extraordinary war time flight back to safety. I think this enabled him to translate his research and personal interviews with members of the crew, particularly Capt. Ford, into a realistic sounding crew dialog as the events unfolded. He could have just documented what happened, but by acting like a fly in the cockpit, his "imagined" dialog makes the story more riveting.

I can recommend this book to anyone with an interest in aviation history, particularly the grand era of the 1930's and 1940's.

Very interesting, little known piece of history. Trials and tribulations of an aircrew at the outbreak of WWII. The story line is worthy of a movie but the dialogue, admittedly created by the author,is elementary at best. That fault detracts from the enjoyment one should get from reading such a wonderful slice of aviation history.

I found this book to be very engrossing and well-done in capturing the flavor of the life and times of the early 1940s. I had the opportunity to communicate with the author by e-mail and found him to be very personable and enthusiastic on the subject of aviation. He impressed me with his period knowledge of flying and airplanes.

This book is a well researched, well documented, and well written account of an aerial achievement that but for its occurring in the opening days of WW2 might have ranked up close to Charles Lindbergh's epic flight in the public's eyes. It will thrill any pilot, but especially anyone who has flown off of water and those who have flown long haul over water. A word of warning: Be sure you have free time to spend when you start reading it because it is VERY hard to put down!

Excellent book. Thanks for writing it. I keep reading it over and over again as it plays like a great movie from the past in my head. Wish someone would turn it into one.

Interesting story. Amazing feat of navigation before the days of GPS.

Shared this book with a lot of friends....Fascinating story. Helps you appreciate GPS, but, these days, what would they do if it failed ? Very enjoyable book.

A little known saga at the beginning of WW2. A Clipper, a flying boat airliner, was deep in the Pacific when Pearl Harbor was attacked. With the way to California blocked by the war zone, the plane flew west. India, Africa, the whole works. Not a combat story but still of great interest. I heard about this book a few years ago and wanted ever since. Not long but a good read.