During World War II, there were many ways that a B-29er could be killed: a ruthless enemy, the savage weather, an unforgiving ocean that stretched for thousands of miles, or the faulty engines of their own airplanes. But they all volunteered for it, and they continued flying--and dying--until they brought the war to an early end and saved hundreds of thousands of American lives. They were The Heroes We Needed. The Heroes We Needed is an epic saga about the courageous American airmen who brought the Japanese Empire to its knees and ended World War II with the greatest bombers the world had ever seen, the Boeing B-29 Superfortress, and one man's fight 70 years later to save their stories from being forgotten. As Adolf Hitler's forces were sweeping across Europe, a radically new bomber plane that only existed in blueprints and a few handmade parts was suddenly ordered into mass production 'off the drawing board' by the U.S. Army Air Corps. The first prototype had not even been built yet,