If you are a military history buff, your are no stranger to the exploits of either side of the air wars over Britain or Germany during WWII. Plenty has been written from many different perspectives. When it comes to the B-17 Flying Fortress, it's exploits are legion. The toll it took to fly and fight over the skies of Germany are the stuff of novels and movies. Even if you not a fan of history books everyone else has read Joseph Heller's "Catch-22" and laughed at the insanity of it all. Perhaps more have read Kurt Vonnegut's "Slaughterhouse-Five" and know that war is no laughing matter.
Yet, what happened to our planet, the generation of humanity it affected, from the Holocaust, to the start of the Cold War, to the formation of the world we know today comes on the heels of the generation that fought that war. We know about the missions, deep into the heart of Germany to stamp out their industrial capability and change the will of the Germany people. We know the of cost thousands upon thousands of lives lost, both in the air and the victims of bombing on the ground. We know about the machines of war, the bombers, the fighters, the missiles, fadio to radar and of course we know about the secret Norden Bomb-sight that made it all possible. What we know comes from the hardware and the documents thousands of historians have picked through over the decades. What we don't have is enough documentation of the first hand accounts of the brave men who peered through the Norden. Those who were there, witnessed and participated, and then returned home to raise families and grow businesses in the aftermath.
But here we have "The Bomber Boys: Heroes Who Flew the B-17s in World War II" by Travis Ayres, to give us but a glimpse of these stories, first hand. I read most of this book flying back and forth across our Country staring at the clouds below wondering what it would be like to have the clouds of black flak from anti aircraft guns rounds busting all around me. I wondered what it would be like landing the aircraft with engines failing either ditching into the ground or into the water. I wandered what it would be like, exposed to the freezing atmosphere while fighter aircraft strafed by, trying to kill me while I fired 50 mm guns, trying to kill them, while locked in the cramped and crystal clear ball turret hanging from the belly of the plane. And I wondered what it would be like, having the Fortress around me, disintegrate in an exploding ball of flame, then plummet to earth only to have my parachute retard the fall and deliver me into the hands the enemy. In one case, to not have my parachute open at all, and survive a fall from 15,000 feet onto the snowy peak of a mountain. These are but a few of the first hand accounts you will fine in the pages of the Bomber Boys. And so much more. The stories include their fear, their faith that saw them through, and their letters home to the ones they love, always hoping to return and be returned.
These real men, heroes one and all, were boys when they left for war. When they returned they built the American dream, and lived it, having survived yet another epoch of war we humans have not yet figured out how to avoid. These stories must not be forgotten. Having lived most of my life in and around the Air Force and the generations of airmen who came after, I know first hand that not enough of these stories have been preserved. Ayers has saved five of their stories ...that's not enough...in their 90's now there are are but few eye witnesses who remain.
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