The Navigator's Letter | An Afternoon with Jan Cress Dondi

The Navigator's Letter | An Afternoon with Jan Cress Dondi

Join us for an unforgettable afternoon with Jan Cress Dondi as she discusses her riveting book, r. On August 1, 1943, a daring U.S. air raid over Ploesti, Romania—Hitler’s main oil supply—became the costliest mission of World War II. The Navigator’s Letter tells the true story of two friends from the same Illinois town, both B-24 navigators shot down over Ploesti and linked by fate—and by the same woman. Woven through Operation Tidal Wave and Operation Reunion, it’s a powerful story of courage, coincidence, and survival against impossible odds.

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One of the riskiest air raids of World War II occurred on August 1, 1943, over the oil fields at Ploesti, Romania—Nazi Germany’s primary fuel source. The Allies believed that the destruction of Hitler’s oil refineries would shorten the war. Using an untested strategy, it was worth the gamble, but the mission did not go according to plan—with 53 aircraft and 532 crewmen lost, it was the costliest US air raid of the war.
A true story, The Navigator’s Letter is a tale of uncanny coincidences: two friends from the same small Illinois town; both joined the Air Corps; both became navigators; both were assigned to B-24 Liberators; both flew missions over Europe; both of their planes were forced down over Ploesti; and both went missing-in-action.
Intertwined with events of WWII, the story follows the two B-24 navigators coursing through wartime, both with ties to the same woman. Their lives unfurl with the Air Force’s darkest day, Operation Tidal Wave, the first-ever zero-altitude air raid, which lead to Operation Reunion, the largest evacuation by air in history repatriating 1,162 POWs from Romania back to American air bases in Italy.

JAN CRESS DONDI was born in Hillsboro, Illinois, where the inspiration for The Navigator’s Letter took root. Raised in Atlanta, Georgia, she graduated from the University of Georgia, lived for six years in Anchorage, Alaska, pursued post-graduate studies at the University of Alaska, and built a career as a litigation paralegal. With thirty years of experience in legal writing and research, she learned to trace facts with precision, drawing on hundreds of personal letters along with official records to tell the story of two World War II airmen—John B., her uncle, and Bob, her father—and their remarkable courage during one of the war’s riskiest missions. She has spoken about her father’s POW experience at the US Embassy in Bucharest, recounted her uncle’s final mission to the 93rd Bombardment Group in Washington, DC, and flown in one of the only two B-24 Liberators still operating. The mother of two daughters and grandmother of four, Jan has been married for nearly forty years to an aviation enthusiast and pilot whose projects include building a 72-percent scale all-carbon replica of a P-51 Mustang, the WWII fighter aircraft that significantly impacted the air war. She lives in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.

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