The Flames of Deliverance

Scion of a wealthy New York family, Captain Hank Mitchell is a hot shot fighter pilot flying escort for American bombers as they penetrate Nazi-occupied Europe. His P-51 is hit over Germany and he bails out over the English Channel. Burned terribly, he is pulled from the freezing water of the English Channel to realize his life has forever changed. Angry and bitter, he meets Doctor Roger Hanson, an Army Air Corps flight surgeon, who knows that Hank’s best chance is to take...
More Description

Scion of a wealthy New York family, Captain Hank Mitchell is a hot shot fighter pilot flying escort for American bombers as they penetrate Nazi-occupied Europe. His P-51 is hit over Germany and he bails out over the English Channel. Burned terribly, he is pulled from the freezing water of the English Channel to realize his life has forever changed. Angry and bitter, he meets Doctor Roger Hanson, an Army Air Corps flight surgeon, who knows that Hank’s best chance is to take part in the RAF’s cutting edge burn treatment program. Choosing not to return to the States, Hank is sent to a small hospital in Kent. Roger Hanson and his British colleagues start Hank on the long road to recovery. Fighting through his own doubts and the pain of healing, Hank slowly regains use of his hand. He meets Kate Murray, an English nurse who lost her husband early in the war. They develop a friendship that blossoms into love. Completing his course of treatment, Hank is able to return to his old squadron, but he is not the man his comrades remember. Scarred for life, he must learn how to deal with the air war over the continent and his own bitterness. The support of his wingman Chris Christiansen and the love of Kate help him to deal with his scars, but he is consumed by hate and a desire to kill Germans at any cost. As his score mounts, he learns more about himself and realizes that even in war there have to be limits. He emerges from the challenge of combat and combating his own demons as a stronger man and better pilot. When Kate is diagnosed with cancer, Hank and Roger conspire to bring her to the states for treatment. Luck and his family connections allow them to get her into the first ever chemo-therapy treatments under the care of one of the best doctors in the field. With Kate under the care of Hank’s family, he returns to combat, flying P-51’s from Iwo Jima escorting B-29’s on long distance bombing missions against Japan. A different enemy, the fury of the Japanese fighter pilots is no different from the Luftwaffe and Hank finds himself in a life or death struggle again. Captured by the Japanese while on a photo-escort mission, he is imprisoned in Nagasaki. Hank’s life becomes a nightmare as Japanese interrogators torture him for information. Perhaps facing his greatest challenge, Hank Mitchell is now a man with an inner strength forged in the flames of battle.