What Are You Reading?

Now I started Masters of the Air by Donald Miller. I don’t read fast, I stopped for a bit now. Donald Miller has written a very good book. He tells it like it really was up there for the 8th Air Force, physically and mentally. I probably won’t watch it on Apple TV. Doesn’t really matter, but I’m sure it’s good, even though I’m not a big fan of computer generated aircraft war scenes. If I’m not wrong, I think that’s what I saw on the preview. But that is the only way. I’m really enjoying the book however, Some men parachute out of the crippled aircraft and are captured and some don’t have time or they can’t get out of their turret because the mechanism is jammed and they go down with the plane. Or, in one instance, the landing gear is jammed and the plane has to land and the guy in the belly turret can’t get out of his jammed turret and he is crushed to death between the runway and the bottom of the fuselage. And I have a lot to read yet. A lot of famous generals and a lot of brave men. 25 missions and they could stop the bombing personally and off the flight line. They were finally going to a safer place. But so very many never made it. The British bombed Germany at night. The Americans bombed Germany in the daylight. At first they didn’t have the P-51 Mustang for support into German targets. So much death over Germany. Flack and German fighters. Some said the hardest part was after breakfast at 4:00 am and taking that Jeep ride to the B-17. Then they huddled up at the aircraft and talked about the mission and their hope lay with the pilot, and he tried to give them hope as best he could. And some couldn’t take it anymore and had to see the flight surgeon and get medication for their nerves. Some it helped and they went back on mission. But some were beyond help and could no longer fly.

 

Yep, that’s it.

 

Boy, it’s slow again

 

Oh now she speeded up

 

A Thousand Places Left Behind by Peter & E. R. Lutken. P. Lutken was part of Britain's V Force and later the OSS Detachment 101.

 

As I said above, Masters of the Air. David McCullough said that Donald L. Miller had contributed “A stunning achievement” when he wrote his book in 2006. 521 pages not counting the notes in the back. I’m about three quarters of the way through now and I agree, there is not a dull page in the book so far. I doubt I will find any. One of the best books that I have read on World War II. It ranks right up there with The Longest Day and Band Of Brothers. But this is mostly the Eight Air Force in World War II. But some is devoted also to the RAF and their Lancasters. A lot of good reading here and you don’t have to be a big fan of the air war over Germany. I know where Donald L. Miller is/was a history professor at Lafayette College in Easton, Pennsylvania. I lived close by for 51 years. Most of us know much about that part of the War, and the D Day landings and how the bombings of Germany pretty much cleared the skies of the German fighters on that day so that was one less obstacle that the Allies had to overcome, but there is so much more to this, before and after D Day. And yes, Jimmy Stewart and Clark Gable are in there too. They were there.
When I got out of the Navy in August of 1969, my new wife and I moved into a little house on Livingston Street in Allentown, Pennsylvania. I was 24 and she was 19. There was a very nice old couple who was our next door neighbors by the name of Haas. We talked a lot. One day Edgar and I were talking about the War and somehow the subject of the air war came up and he told me of his only son who was a bombardier on a B17. But he said he died when the aircraft crashed while landing in Europe. I understand more now.

 

Arnhem Spearhead by James Sims. British para account of serving under Col. Frost and his Stalag stay.

 

I just finished Masters of the Air yesterday and now I just started on FIRE and fortitude, the U.S.Army in the Pacific War, 1941-1943, by John C. McManus. He begins with the attack on Pearl Harbor. I have never read any of his books but this one is very good so far. It is the first of his trilogy.

 

Interesting

 

I remember The Haunted Tank historical documentaries. Years later I read how a M-5 Stuart disabled a Tiger I with a shot that peened the turret to the hull. The repair guys could easily fix that but the crew bailed out when they couldn't rotate the turret anymore. Then I learned of a British 75 mm armed Sherman that used numerous HE to disable a Tiger I. The squadron commander's theory was since the 75 mm AP wouldn't stop a Tiger, they could break the viewing glass/optics. They did and when the driver couldn't see, the crew bailed out.

These past few days I read:

James Sims' Arnhem Spearhead. Sims was a para serving in Col. Frost's battalion at Arnhem.
Winfried Sonnenthaal's Memories of the Waffen SS.
Albert Schwenn's Memoires of the Waffen SS

Presently I'm read Ed Eaton's Mekong Mud Dogs.

 

Rock Force.

 

Saga of the All American. More like a yearbook but I want to see what's in the text.

Rock Force was about the 503 that jumped onto Corregidor to recapture it. Never thought about how a paratrooper jumped with a BAR. The 03 with grenade launcher was tough enough.

Jim at WW2 Talk found the video showing a BAR man. Horizontal in front of the reserve chute. It had to be rotated to near vertical to exit the aircraft and then rotated to back to horizontal after jumping.

 

Fort Drum was not covered. From maps there's even another battery between Drum and Corregidor. The author relied on interviews of veterans who fought at Corregidor. He concentrated on the experience of the paratroopers of the 503 and only mentions the 34th Infantry Regiment in passing.

I wish Rock Force had better maps of Corregidor but the publisher may not have wanted to spend the money on getting maps. There's one and its all on one page so I found myself flipping from text to the map.

Found a documentary video on Caballo and Fort Drum. "Come out, come out or we'll burn you out!"