The book, The War Of The Cottontails: Memoirs Of A WWII Bomber Pilot, tells the story of bomber pilot First Lieutenant William R. Cubbins who flew during World War II as part of the 420th Bombardment Group under the fifteenth Air Force from Italy.  This bombardment group was known as the “Cottontails” because of their distinctive white tails on the unit’s aircraft.  This B-24 Liberator commander and crew flew numerous missions over the Balkans including operations against the hotly defended Ploesti oil installations in Romania.  “The War Of The Cottontails: Memoirs Of A WWII Bomber Pilot” vividly describes the many emotions of his aircrew during their daylight bombing missions.  These emotions included the apprehension, excitement, heroism and at times pure terror as they conducted their strategic bombing operations in the skies over the Balkans.  On July 3, 1944, while flying a strategic bombing mission over Giurgia, Romania, Cubbin’s B-24 nicknamed the “Swashbuckler”, was shot down.  The aircraft commander and crew parachuted out of the stricken aircraft and almost as soon as they landed, they were captured by Romanian peasants.  Fortunately, the “Swashbuckler’s” crew only spent a little less than 2 months in a POW prison camp before the Romanian government was toppled and the country withdrew from the Axis forces then fighting the advancing Russian troops.  Once Romania formally joined the Allies, Cubbins and his fellow crew were released from prison and for a short time enjoyed the “hospitality” of Bucharest.  It soon became clear that the Allied POWs needed to be moved away from the city and the bedlam they were causing into the nearby Popesti Airdrome.  Within days this airfield was teaming with over 1,000 former Allied POWs.  Eventually, the senior American officer, a Colonel James A. Gunn III and a Romanian Air Force pilot named Prince Constantin Cantacuzene hatched a plan to paint American flags on the on the latter’s Messerschmitt Me-109, fly it to an Allied base in Italy and secure rescue flights for the former POWs at the Popesti Airdrome.  In short order B-17 Flying Fortresses were dispatched to Romanian to pick-up the stranded Allied aviators and return them to the safety of Allied occupied Italy.  All and all, “The War Of The Cottontails: Memoirs Of A WWII Bomber Pilot” represents a fascinating, insightful account of what it was like to be both an American bomber pilot and POW in an Axis prisoner of war camp during World War II.  “The War Of The Cottontails: Memoirs Of A WWII Bomber Pilot” begins with sections titled Illustrations, Author’s Note and Introduction all followed by 22 well-written chapters.  “The War Of The Cottontails: Memoirs Of A WWII Bomber Pilot” includes the following features: 1) 32 black and white photographs an 2) 9 black and white illustrations.  This book is 267 pages, is signed by the author and is in excellent condition.  The author is William R. Cubbins Lt. USAF (retired).  Edition published in 1989.