Carter Bennett is a test pilot and air combat instructor on his way to the Philippines flying on the China Clipper. It is late November 1941 and the American government is anticipating war against the Japanese in the next few months. Bennett has experience flying the American P-40 Warhawk fighter plane in air combat against the Japanese in China. Bennett's assignment is to teach pilots in the American Far East Air Force the best way to fly the P-40 Warhawk fighter in air combat against the Japanese. On the flight Bennett meets the Murdoch family who are on their way to Manila for a vacation. Once Molly Murdoch and her eighteen-year-old daughter Maddie learn that Bennett likes to read poetry, they often pass the time on the long flight with Bennett reading to them. As time passes a romance develops between Bennett and Maddie culminating in a nighttime tryst on the beach on Guam. Falling in love with one another, Bennett and Maddie get married on the China Clipper. Once in Manila Bennett and the Murdochs go their separate ways. The Murdochs start their vacation while Bennett goes to the Far East Air Force base at Clark Field to train P-40 pilots. The Japanese attack on December 8, 1941 interrupts the Murdoch's vacation and Bennett's training of the P-40 pilots. It then becomes a struggle to escape the Philippines harassed by the Japanese. Traveling separately Bennett and the Murdochs land on the Philippine island of Mindoro where Bennett wages war against the Japanese until they can be rescued.
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