This is an amazing story. Subtitled The Complete Epic Story of the Ordeal and Rescue of Those Who Were With Eddie Rickenbacker on the Plane Lost in the Pacific, Whittaker's book was one of two written by survivors of the dramatic rescue in the Pacific during WWII; the other was Seven Came Through, written by Rickenbacker. Lieutenant Whittaker was in one of the three rafts set adrift in the Pacific after the plane carrying Rickenbacker on a special assignment for the War Department was forced to ditch in the Pacific after overshooting Canton Island. Rickenbacker, his aide, Colonel Hans Adamson, and a member of his flight crew were rescued at sea after 21 days adrift. Whittaker and the men in his raft were able to make landfall on the island of Nukufetau, where they were assisted by the natives and arrangements were made for their rescue.  This copy has been signed not long after the release of the book in 1943, dated October 6 1943. His ordeal would have still been extremely vivid at that point. This is a truly amazing story to come from the pacific war, battling sharks, eating seagulls and constantly desperate for fresh water it was amazing that only one man failed to make it home.
The book also includes a Remarqued original pencil drawing with white highlights on sepia recycled card of James Whittaker by Steve Teasdale. The book is in decent condition for a wartime dated book. We don’t believe they were ever produced with a dustjacket. The cover is slightly grubby with some sunning to the spine but generally very good. The pages are clean with no spotting and minimal browning.