Non-fiction audiobooks: 2 from WWII

Today I'm doing mini-reviews of two audiobooks I listened to on my recent vacation (it involved a LOT of driving). Both deal with the contributions of women in the US military during WWII. The Women with Silver Wings is about the Women's Air Service Pilots, while Valiant Women covers women in all branches of the US military during the war. The common theme, apart from women, is that their service was initially rejected, and the military (and everyone else) did everything they could to forget about it as soon as the war ended.

 

 

Title: The Women With Silver Wings: The Inspiring True Story of the Women Airforce Service Pilots of World War II
Author: Katerine Sharp Landdeck. Read by Gabra Zackman
Publication Info: Random House Audio, 2020, 11 hours. Original hardback by Crown Publishing Group, 2020, 448 pages.
Source: Library

Publisher's Blurb (Goodreads):

The thrilling, as-yet-untold history of the Women Air Force Service Pilots, the daring female aviators who helped the United States win World War II.

When Japanese planes executed a sneak attack on Pearl Harbor in December 1941, Cornelia Fort was already in the air. At twenty-two, Fort was a failed debutante hoping for a fresh start as a flight instructor in Hawaii. She and her student had just taken off when the bombs began to fall, and they barely made it back to ground that morning. Still, when the US Army put out a call for women pilots to aid the war effort, Fort was one of the first to respond. She became one of 1,900 women from across the nation - chosen from an application pool of more than 25,000 - to converge on Sweetwater, Texas, to train for the U.S. Army Air Force in the hope of earning their silver wings.

In 'THE WOMEN WITH SILVER WINGS', historian Kate Landdeck introduces us to these young women as they meet even-tempered, methodical Nancy Love and formidable, demanding visionary Jacqueline Cochran, the women who first envisioned sending American women into the air, and whose rivalry would define the WASP. For women like Cornelia, it was a chance to serve her country - and to prove that women aviators are just as skilled and able as men.

While not authorized to serve in combat, the WASP helped train male pilots for service abroad and risked their lives to ferry bombers across the Atlantic. Cornelia herself would not survive the war. But even taking into account these tragic losses, Love and Cochran's social experiment seemed to be a resounding success - until, in 1943, with the tides of the war turning and fewer male pilots needed in Europe, Congress pulled out the rug from under the WASP. The program was disbanded, the women sent home. But the bonds they'd made during their time together never failed, and over the next few decades, they banded together to fight for recognition as the military veterans they were - and for their place in history.

Beautifully written and painstakingly researched, 'THE WOMEN WITH SILVER WINGS' is an unforgettable portrait of these fearless, groundbreaking women and their long fight for justice. 

 

My (brief) Review:
This is a thorough and engaging account of the formation, actions and disbandment of the WASP, as well as the many-decades-long struggle to get recognition and fair treatment for the pilots. The author doesn't gloss over some of the less ideal aspects of the history, including the long-standing rivalry between Nancy Love and Jackie Cochran, the former having convinced the military to use women pilots in the ferrying service, and the latter setting up the training units and eventually getting them all folded into the WASP. Ironically, though she regretted it later, Cochran helped to keep the women out of the official military, in part because that seemed the best road to acceptance, but also, the author makes clear, because she wanted to maintain control of the group.

As usual with histories of women's contributions, it's easy to get hot under the collar at the way they were treated. It's also sometimes hard to stomach the ways in which they passed that ill-treatment on to the women of color who were never allowed an equal place. But there's no denying that these women not only made a significant contribution to the war effort, but broke the ice for women serving in the Air Force in more recent times. 

 

 

Title: Valiant Women: The Extraordinary American Servicewomen Who Helped Win World War II
Author: Lena Andrews. Read by Courtney Patterson
Publication Info: Harper Collins2023. 9 hours. Original hardcover by Mariner Books, 2023, 351 pages.
Source: Library

Publisher's Blurb (Goodreads):
A history of the role of American servicewomen in WWII, illuminating their forgotten yet essential contributions to the Allies' victory.

Valiant Women is the story of the 350,000 American women who served in uniform during World War II. These women served in every service branch, in every combat theater, and in nearly two-thirds of the available military occupations at the time. They were pilots, codebreakers, ordnance experts, gunnery instructors, metalsmiths, chemists, translators, parachute riggers, truck drivers, radarmen, pigeon trainers, and much more. They were directly involved in some of the most important moments of the war, from the D-Day landings to the peace negotiations in Paris. These women--who hailed from every race, creed, and walk of life--died for their country and received the nation's highest honors. Their work, both individually and in total, was at the heart of the Allied strategy that won World War II. Yet, until now, their stories have been relegated to the dusty shelves of military archives or a passing mention in the local paper. Often the women themselves kept their stories private, even from their own families. Now, military analyst Lena Andrews corrects the record with the definitive and comprehensive historical account of American servicewomen during World War II, based on new archival research, firsthand interviews with surviving veterans, and a deep professional understanding of military history and strategy.

My Review:
Despite the blurb's reference to this as definitive and comprehensive, it covers women's roles in all the services in less time than the previous book spends on just the air service, or than And If I Perish (see review) does on the nurses. Still, it is a great overview, and like the other books, provides something special in that the author has preserved interviews with many of the women who were there, just in time as they are dying out.

The book does a great deal in a short time, and as an audio book I found myself sometimes lost with all the characters and branches of the military. For all that, it was an engaging listen, and (yet again) reminds us not only of the contributions of women during the war, but also of how little they were respected and appreciated at the time and especially in the form of compensation and perks.

My Recommendation:
I'm happy to recommend both of these books, though in both cases I think for the best results you should read the paper books (yes, paper, not just ebooks--pictures and maps are never very good in ebooks, in my experiencence). The narrators both did good work--it's just that it's a lot to take in just by listening (YMMV--I am a more visual learner, despite my penchant for listening to non-fiction while exercising or driving). In a time when there is an organized effort being made to stuff women back into pre-war roles and restrictions, it's good to be reminded what women can do and have done.

 

FTC Disclosure: I checked these audiobooks out of my library, and received nothing from the writer or publisher for my honest review.  The opinions expressed are my own and those of no one else.  I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission's 16 CFR, Part 255: "Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising."  

 

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 ©Rebecca M. Douglass, 2026 

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