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MWSA Review
Author, Rainy Horvath, presents tales of her father's account as a pilot flying "The Hump" during WW II in her book, The Able Queen. Stories told to her by her father, Robert Binzer, begin in his boyhood, with a first-person narration, where he expresses his constant desire to be a pilot. His account leads to his entering the Army Air Force just before WW II, but his goal gets sidetracked by an assignment to repair teletype machines instead. Eventually, with the war's outbreak, he gets his opportunity to fly and receive his coveted pilot's designation. Binzer then is assigned to fly in the dangerous China/Burma theater where, by war's end, 1,400 airmen died, with 400 more missing, flying over the Himalayas. Initially, he pilots the light single-engine Stinson L-5 Sentinel ferrying people and cargo throughout western China while avoiding enemy aircraft always at the edges of battle. Next, he upgrades to flying the twin-engine Douglas C-47 Skytrain, bringing war supplies to China over the Hump, "the most dangerous air routes in the world." The deadly hazards of flying the Himalayas come to focus for Binzer in one final account when unpredictable weather creates a situation where he and his crew parachute from their cargo plane and then face surviving in the frozen mountains. This book is Robert Binzer's tale as his daughter Rainey Horvath faithfully records it.
Review by Tom Beard (January 2023)
Author's Synopsis
Flying “The Hump,” the route over the Himalayas between India and China, was some of the most dangerous flying in the world during World War II. Thirty-thousand-foot peaks, unpredictable winds, and Japanese fighters were just some of the perils that awaited flyers. Yet, they persevered in spite of all dangers.
Robert Dean Binzer was one of these young men, and this is his story of adventure in the service of his country. A young boy from Indiana who dreamed of flying he enlisted as soon as he was old enough to pursue his dream. In his rare first-person account, he tells the story of his experiences in China and the cockpit where he, too, faced the daily perils of the Himalayas and answered the deadly call of the Aluminum Trail.
Young and well-trained, but not for what awaited him in the skies over the Hump, follow him in his own words from training, across the ocean to India, rescuing downed pilots, dropping much-needed supplies behind enemy lines, and finally stepping out the door of his failing C-47, the “Able Queen,” to become one of those in need of rescue.
This is a story that needs to be told. It could be the story of hundreds of young Americans who sought the adventure of flying and found it while serving their country in the far-off China-Burma-India Theater of World War II, but it is the true story of 1st Lt. Robert Binzer, Hump Pilot.
Format(s) for review: Paper and Kindle
Review Genre: Nonfiction—Memoir/Biography
Number of Pages: 142
Word Count: 27,237