Coming in 2011: New Book about the 95th Bomb Group

The new 95th Bomb Group history 'Into the Wild Blue Yonder and Beyond' is in its final publication stages with Potomac Books and will be released in 2011. The book tells the story of the Bomb Group and its subsequent Foundation from its inception through the current day. Included are chapters on wives, POWs, ground crews, entertainment and London, the British, and much more. The book is arranged, for the most part, chronologically, except for specialty chapters such as wives or Entertainment.

Book Review: 'Last Roll Call: The Adventures of a B-17 Tailgunner, 15th Air Force, 97th Bomb Group, Amendola Italy"

I had the good fortune recently to read a book by B-17 tailgunner Kenneth S. Tucker, who flew with the 97th Bomb Group in the 15th Air Force in World War Two. I also had the pleasure of communicating with his daughter, Wanda Tucker Goodwin, who helped her dad write the book. Though I've read literally hundreds of books about the air was in Europe, I was surprised at how much interesting information was in Mr. Tucker's book that I did not know about.

Most memoirs of the European air war are about the Eighth Air Force, which during and after the war garnered the lion's share of the publicity. A large part of this was simple proximity to those who reported the war. London was teeming with reporters looking for a good story, and the Eighth's bomber boys were only a few miles away. On the other hand, there were very few reporters willing or able to go to Amendola, Italy, and live in the alternately muddy and dusty tent cities there, surrounded by the crushing poverty of the Italian natives.

Mr Tucker covers his life from his early days as a son of a fisherman in Florida, though his training, and into combat in the flak-filled skies over Europe. His writing is clear, unembellished, and honest. He develops the personalities of the various members of the crew as he recounts the missions, so that one feels like one knows the young men on the crew. He also tells of his visits to various places of interest on his time off, such as Pompeii and the Isle of Capri.

Many readers of WWII memoirs are on the lookout for signed memoirs. Here is your chance to pick one up. Follow the link below to Ken's website, and put in an order for a copy of this book. He'll personalize it and autograph it. 186 pages. Soft cover trade paperback. Illustrated with black and white photographs.

Click link below or phone 850-624-8081.

http://lastrollcall.net/

Three Good Books: Reviews to Follow

Books I've read in the last two weeks. All very highly recommended. Reviews to follow in short order.

1. Bleeding Sky: The Story of Captain Fletcher E. Adams and the 357th Fighter Group, by Joey Maddox.

2. Courtesies of the Heart, by Kenneth Breaux.

3. The Road to Big Week, by Eric Hammel.

Rite of Passage Book Review

Recently finished a great book about WWII bomber crews entitled Rite of Passage: A Teenager's Chronicle of Combat and Captivity in Nazi Germany, and highly recommend it to readers with an interest in WWII bomber crews and the Prisoner of War experience. Click on the hyperlinked book title for more information. Readers can get a signed copy for the same price as a traditional trade paperback in a bookstore. Would make a great birthday, Christmas or Chanukah gift for the WWII aviation buff on your list. My review follows:

"Many books have been written about bomber crew experiences in the skies over Europe in World War Two. And many have been written about the Prisoner of War experiences of those crewmen who were shot from the skies. What makes Ray Matheny's book stand out is the meticulous attention to detail and his eye for description. Matheny's book was originally popular in Germany in translation, and only recently has it become available to the American reading public. Matheny was a top turret gunner/flight engineer aboard the B-17 'Deacon's Sinners' of the Eighth Air Force's 384th Bomb Group. Graced with dollops of mechanical and technical aptitude, he is so trusted by his pilot and copilot that he becomes, in essence, a third pilot on the crew, flying the plane for hours while the pilots catch up on their sleep. He describes the interpersonal dynamics of his crew in great detail, and I found this to be fascinating. The pilot, a frustrated fighter pilot wannabe, who takes unnecessary risks with the airplane. The copilot, perhaps justly feeling that he is more qualified and at times resenting Matheny's flying time. Each man on the crew is fleshed out so that the reader can identify with him. This becomes a double-edged sword when the crew is shot down, killing most of the men. And that is where Matheny's adventure takes on a completely new twist, as a prisoner of war in Nazi Germany. Matheny gives the reader an intimate glimpse of POW life, and of the long march near the end of the war that the emaciated POWs make to stay ahead of the advancing Russian Army.

The book, filled with three-dimensional, carefully drawn characters and situations, stands out in the many books I've read over the years in this genre. I cannot recommend it highly enough. A major addition to military aviation history"

Link: Ray Matheny's Wikipedia Biography

New Header Photo on Blog

(Photo credit, Co de Swart)

In May, 12 members of the 95th Bomb Group returned to their base "somewhere in England"--the B-17 Flying Fortress base at Horham, Suffolk, near the North Sea.
My new header photo, taken by Co de Swart, shows some of the 95th's bomber boys with reenactors outfitted in World War Two Air Corps fight gear.
The 95th flew 321 combat missions from May 13, 1943 to April 20,1945. In addition, it flew 7 'Chowhound' missions, dropping 465 tons of food to the starving people of Holland in 1945 and four 'Revival' missions to pick up POW's and Displaced Persons.
156 B-17s were lost in combat; 36 in other operations. Over 1,000 received battle damage.
599 95th Bomb Group airmen paid the ultimate price and were killed in action, with seven missing and presumed dead. An additional 851 men became POWs, internees, evaders, and 171 were wounded in action.
The 95th was the first American bomb group to bomb Berlin, on March 4, 1944.
I am currently writing the unit history of the 95th Bomb Group, and the book on this prestigious and tight-knit outfit will be out next year, I'm thinking.
I visited Horham last year while researching the book, and made many new friends "on the other side of the pond". Hope to return someday.

Military Writer Eric Hammel Opens New Website

This book is due out this fall. Wish I had it now to use while working on my own 95th BG book!

Eric Hammel is one of my favorite military authors. I've been enjoying his books for years before I 'met' Eric via the internet. Eric has opened a new website that is visually stunning and is packed with interesting and useful information about military history books and military history in general. Drop by and take a look. You'll be glad you did.

Here's the link: www.erichammelbooks.com

Jack Scoltock's 'The Meltin' Pot' tells the Story of a B-17 and Its Crew

Today in the mail I got a copy of "The Meltin' Pot: From Wreck to Rescue to Recovery" by my friend in Ireland, Jack Scoltock. Jack spent many years researching this book, and it was well worth it. The book tells of the fate of the B-17 Flying Fortress 'The Meltin' Pot' that crashed off the coast of Ireland during WWII. One of the crewmen on that plane was Lee Kessler, and the crew went on to fly missions on a different plane over Europe. Lee was later shot down and became a POW, and this book covers the fate of the crew as well as the plane.

Jack is a diver and chronicles the search for and discovery of the Meltin' Pot, undertaken by divers over the past few years. A documentary is in the works.

When I visited Lee Kessler back in 2003, he was very excited about the work of the Irish divers, and was looking forward to going to Ireland to see the wreck of his old plane for himself. Lee spent several freezing hours in the sea awaiting rescue after the Meltin' Pot went down. Unforunately, Lee passed away in the fall of 2003, without ever realizing his hopes of seeing his old plane again. However, the pilot of the plane, William C. Melton, did have a chance to go to Ireland and see artifacts from his plane before Melton himself passed away June 13, 2008.

I highly recommend this book to anyone with an interest in WWII, the 8th Air Force, the lives of B-17 crews, or deep sea diving. You can order the book here from Amazon.com in the United Kingdom: http://www.amazon.com/Meltin-Pot-Wreck-Rescue-Recovery/dp/0752447254/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1228006425&sr=8-1

I give this book my highest recommendation. Buy it, read it, treasure it.

95th Bomb Group Book

The last B-17 lost in WWII was from the 95th Bomb Group, and went down during a Manna/Chowhound Mission to drop food to the starving people of Holland in May, 1945.

When I signed on to write the unit history of the 95th Bombardment Group (Heavy), one of the premier B-17 Flying Fortress groups of World War Two, I knew that in order to get a rough draft done by the end of 2008 I would have to work pretty much non-stop all summer. I spend most of the day either reading material, mostly primary source stuff, or writing. Breaks for lunch and for my late afternoon run keep me fresh.

When school starts in mid-August, I will be in a new school with a new assignment, which means extra work for the first year or two. There won't be a lot of time to write then. As Elvis used to say, "It's now or never."

The 95th BG Memorial in Horham, England.


There's no shortage of material. It's likely I'll end up with a thousand pages of rough. Luckily, I have a 95th BG pilot, John Walter, vetting things for me as I go, and my co-author, Ian Hawkins, will also bring his fine-tuned writer's eye to the project, so it will be pared down and much improved by the time we're done. In the meantime, I feel like I have stepped back in time and am living on the 95th Base at Horham, East Anglia in the early 1940's, surrounded by young American men half my age who go off to face near-certain death on a regular basis, or by the brilliant support crews on the ground who made it all possible. I've been along on more missions than I can shake a stick at, been shot down a dozen times, evaded a few times, including once by walking over the Pyrenees into Spain with Chuck Yeager, and pretty much been absorbed into a different place and time. Having been to Horham and walked the runway and through the village, I can visualize the interactions between the villagers and the Yanks, especially after interviewing so many villagers this June. They had a special relationship that continues to this day.



In any case, the Square B B-17s of the 95th, the men who flew them, the men who kept 'em flying, and the Brits who lived near them, have populated my life this summer and seem as real as if it were only yesterday. We are well on our way to writing what I hope will be the best unit history ever written about an American bomber group.

Remembering D-Day: Frank Irgang's Etched in Purple

Omaha Beach, D-Day, June 6, 1944. The 29th goes ashore.
Omaha Beach today. France.

The following is the tentative final draft of a magazine article about my friend Frank Irgang and his experiences in World War Two as a medic and scout in the famed 29th Infantry Division. Story is copyrighted 2008 but please enjoy.

"When 23-year-old Frank Irgang returned from World War Two, he had the bone-tired, old-man look common to GIs who had seen heavy combat. His closest friends had been killed in action or were lying maimed in veterans’ hospitals. “An inventory of myself revealed a battered hulk, confused and restless,” he wrote. A 1945 photo of Frank as an MP in Berlin shows a war-weary man trying to smile.

He relived the war each night in his sleep, his nightmares filled with the ghosts of his comrades, of the maimed and dying he’d tended as a medic, of those he’d killed after becoming an infantry scout, and of the bodies of his comrades floating in the heaving sea off Omaha Beach on D-Day. Ensconced in a basement apartment on one of Idaho Falls’ numbered streets, Frank Irgang discovered that though he’d left the war, the war had not left him. Fortunately, his boss at Idaho Falls’ Daniger’s Furniture Store was a hardened World War One veteran who told of how he’d finally beaten his demons by writing his experiences down. He suggested Frank do the same. Each evening, Frank sat down with a lined tablet and let the words flow. It was, he says, “a catharsis”. The result is perhaps the finest infantryman memoir to come out of World War Two, Etched in Purple (Potomac Books, 2008. Reprint edition. Originally published by Caxton’s, Caldwell, Idaho in 1949).

When Etched in Purple came out in 1949, the Los Angeles Times called it “one of the most brutal war books published” and said that “Frank Irgang has succeeded in doing what at least a million others who served with the infantry during the war wished they could have accomplished.” The Cincinnati Enquirer called it “a taste of the brutal truth”. The small press run of 3,000 quickly sold out, and the book became a rare jewel that few Americans knew existed. In 2008, Etched in Purple was re-released by military publisher Potomac Books, available for the first time to a worldwide audience. This is the story of the man who wrote the book, and of the book itself, one of the greatest books ever to be written in Idaho Falls.

A native of Michigan, Frank Irgang was born in 1922 and raised during the Great Depression, a hardscrabble experience he credits with helping “the American soldier to beat the overwhelming odds he faced from time to time.” Before entering the Army, Irgang worked as a schoolteacher and a blast-furnace operator.

Drafted in 1942, Irgang received training as a medic, surgical technician, clerk-typist, psychologist, pontoon-builder, and finally as a heavy-bomber navigator. While in flight training at Santa Ana, California, he met his future wife, Virginia Daniger, at a USO dance. Virginia was from Idaho Falls, a 1943 graduate of Idaho Falls High School who had moved to California to attend Santa Ana Junior College. They were married before he shipped out. Santa Ana Army Air Base, California, during World War Two.

While in Santa Ana, “the order came through that we were preparing a full-scale invasion of Europe and that anyone with ground force training had to report,” Frank recalls. “They needed medics to support the invasion, so they gave me a seven-day furlough and then shipped me out to Camp Kilmer, New Jersey, where we got our shots and then headed for England.”

“We went over in April of ’44 in a convoy of ships as far as the eye could see. We ended up in a tent city at Bournemouth, England, somewhere in southern England, in big tents. All the roads, all the lanes, were loaded with half-tracks and tanks and equipment. You’d think the whole island of England was going to sink.”

“I was a replacement among thousands that had gathered for the invasion. I was assigned to the 175th Regiment of the 29th Division as a medic” The 29th had been rehearsing beach landings in England since fall of 1944. Before long, his new comrades were calling him ‘Doc’. Troops preparing to board ships on D-Day in Weymouth, England.

“On June 5, 1944, we boarded a troop ship at Weymouth, England. There were a couple thousand men on the ship. It took us across the channel until we were maybe 150 yards from the shore, then it lowered the nets. We scrambled down the nets into an LCI-Landing Craft Infantry—and then the landing craft circled until each unit was all on the water. All this time, we were being shot at.” An LSI similar to Frank's lands on a beach on D-Day.

“The 29th Division landed on Omaha Beach on D-Day. The 175th landed about noon. The others had come in at around five or six a.m., and many of these men were dead and floating in the water.” Etched in Purple’s opening scenes follow seasick men plunging with full packs and equipment into the water as machine gun fire rakes the beach. When the men hit the beaches on D-Day, tens of thousands of water-logged packs of Chelsea cigarettes bobbed in the angry surf. Each man had been given a carton before boarding the invasion ships.

By the time the 29th had all come ashore on D-Day, casualties ran at 390 men killed, 511 wounded, and 27 missing. Among these were 19 men from the small Virginia town of Bedford.
The French have not forgotten. Omaha Beach in foreground, American Cemetery in background. France.
The following weeks saw the 29th engaged in fierce hedgerow fighting and in street-to-street combat in French towns. Afforded some protection by the red cross on his helmet, Frank struggled to treat the overwhelming number of wounded and dying men, often treating them under fire where they fell. An Army medic administers plasma to a wounded soldier in Sicily.

Shot through the hand in October of 1944, he was evacuated for treatment, but soon found himself thrust back into the front lines at the Battle of the Bulge, this time as an infantry scout, whose average life span could be measured in days or weeks. With a license to kill, and a burning anger at what he had seen, Frank often became one of the first Americans to enter contested towns and cities.
Fighting in sub-zero conditions during the Battle of the Bulge.

As the fierce fighting raged across France, Belgium and Germany, Frank found himself faced with the moral and ethical grayness of warfare. Prisoners on both sides were sometimes shot, as were civilians. A moment of great cruelty could be instantly followed by a moment of kindness, forgiveness and redemption.

Certain sights were etched into Frank’s memory, only to reappear in his book. A German tank drives on top of an American foxhole, locks one tread, and grinds the unfortunate Americans into the ground. A new GI fastens the strap on his helmet, only to have his neck broken by the concussion from an artillery shell. A buzz bomb hits a village, killing everyone in a three-block radius. A German pilot refuses to surrender to anyone of lesser rank. He is shot and a ring cut from his finger. Mere luck determines whether a man lives or dies. Every man feels as if his time is up, or past. Some of the injured manage to hang on despite gaping wounds and missing limbs. Men draw achingly close in battle, depending on each other and bonding in hardship, only to be wrenched apart by sudden and violent death.

In eleven months of fierce fighting, the 29th took heavy losses. 3,720 men were killed, 15,403 were wounded, 462 were missing, and 526 were captured. The total battle casualties ran 20,111 men out of a unit of 15,000. 8,655 non-battle casualties brings the total up to 28,776—a staggering casualty rate of nearly 200%, made possible by the fact that as men died, other fresh faces were thrown in to replace them, many of whom met a similar fate.

Trained as an MP after recovering from his injuries, Irgang spent time in Berlin at the end of the war. A photo of him taken in Berlin shows a man aged beyond his years, his smile belied by sad and haunted eyes.

“I took some notes during combat, but didn’t start to seriously write until I got home to Idaho Falls,” remembers Frank. “Virginia had moved back to Idaho Falls during the war. Housing was at a premium at that time. We lived in a basement apartment on one of the numbered streets. The home was owned by Eugene Pratt, who at the time was the superintendent of schools for Idaho Falls.”

Virginia showed Pratt several pages of Frank’s writing. Pratt was impressed and told Frank to type it up. Frank got a Montgomery Wards typewriter and typed the manuscript. Pratt took it to Caldwell, Idaho, to Caxton’s Printers, and showed it to the publisher, Frank Gibson.

“Gibson wasn’t sure about the book,” says Frank. “But he looked it over and about six weeks later I got a letter that said that with editing, we could get the thing published. One condition Gibson had was there could be no swearing and no sex.”

“The book came out in 1949. It sold 3,000 copies in the first printing. The original price of the book was $3.50. Over time, the book became more and more rare. Eventually, copies would go for two hundred dollars or more.”

Original book and dust jacket, Etched in Purple, Caxton Printers, Idaho, 1949.

Sometime in the nineties, the author of this article was shopping at the Idaho Falls Deseret Industries, and came across a worn purple hardback book. I noted it was a war memoir and that it had been signed by the author, Frank Irgang. I paid my forty-nine cents and took the book home and began reading. With the turning of each page I was more and more certain that I was reading a masterpiece. I tracked down Frank Irgang, who now lived in San Diego. A more recent photo of Frank.

We began a correspondence. Many years later, after my own book had been published, I suggested to Potomac Books that they look into re-publishing Etched in Purple. I sent one of my prized copies to Don Jacobs at Potomac. He read it and was awe-stricken by it as I had been, immediately negotiating with Frank for publishing rights. The book was re-released by Potomac Books in May of 2008. The Re-discovered classic infantry memoir, Etched in Purple (Potomac, 2008)

“I wrote… of my experiences and the experiences of my comrades with the hope that our witness of war’s senselessness might be known and recognized,” Frank explained to his publisher nearly sixty years ago. In the book’s final paragraph, he writes: “I looked at the lights (of New York Harbor) and…tears came to my eyes. ‘Welcome home; thanks for a job well done’. Yes, we had helped do the job, but many were not here who had given more. To them we should all be forever grateful. As long as I lived, I would never forget my brothers-in-arms, who fell like leaves from the trees among which they fought. They memory of them would stay with me forever and a day—it had been etched in purple.”

Going to Tucson to Work on 95th Bomb Group History

The official heraldry of the 95th Bomb Group (H)

A shot of the city of Tucson, Arizona.

This Thursday, after taking the shuttle bus from Idaho Falls down to Salt Lake City, I'll be flying to Tucson, Arizona to do interviews and research for a new book on the 95th Bomb Group (H) that was commissioned earlier this year. This is a daunting task, and a mission that I do not take lightly. The 95th BG was one of the great bomb groups of WWII, flying 334 missions during the war out of bases in Alconbury, Framlingham, and finally Horham, East Anglia. The first mission was on May 13, 1943 to St. Omer, France and the last mission was on May 25, 1945. The group suffered heavy casualties, especially early in the war. 554 men were killed in action, 805 were Prisoners of War, 162 were Wounded in Action, and 64 were interned in neutral countries.

The group also won three Distinguished Unit Citations, more than any other bomb group. These DUCs were for the August 17, 1943 Regensburg Mission; the October 10, 1943 Munster Mission, and the historic March 4, 1944 Berlin Mission, where the 95th became the first daylight bomb group to bomb Berlin.

The story of this legendary group has been told in an outstanding oral history coordinated by 95th BG vets Leonard Herman and Ellis Scripture, and then finalized by Ian Hawkins, entitled 'B-17s Over Berlin' (Potomac), and also plays a major role, along with fellow 13th Wing groups the 390th and the 100th, in Ian's book 'Munster: The Way it Was', (sometimes called Munster: Before and After).

With so much good material already out there, it will be important to create a bomb group history that is unique and covers the entire 95th story from both an operational and personal standpoint.

I look foward to meeting many of the men I've corresponded with over the years at the Tucson reunion, and hearing their stories in person, trusty notepad at the ready, as well as getting to know as many other 95th vets as time allows. We also will have several interesting tours to places like the Davis-Monthan aircraft boneyard. I've had several excellent mentors who have taught me much about the history of the 95th, including Ian Hawkins and the late 95th BG Historian Ed Charles. Numerous contacts and friendships with members of the group have ensued over the past eight years.

In early June, I will continue my research for the 95th history in East Anglia, England, with a side trip to London, to get a feel for what life was like on the base, how the locals interacted with the young Americans who descended into their midst in 1943, and retrace the tracks the young men took while on their precious leaves in London. I'll also get the chance to collaborate with my friend historian Ian Hawkins, who will be sharing billing on the writing on this project.

I feel a close tie to the 95th and its men, and I will give nothing less than my best to make sure their story is told well, so that what they did can live forever in the pages of history.

Frank Irgang's Etched in Purple Released by Potomac

The Twenty-Ninth Infantry goes ashore on D-Day. Frank was there. He tells about it in his book.

One of my most prized possessions, a signed, First Edition of Etched in Purple, published back in 1949 by Caxton Printers, Caldwell, Idaho. Frank sent me the pristine dust jacket, over fifty years old.
The new edition of Etched in Purple. If I could write one book as good as this, I could die a happy man.

The book I consider to be the greatest memoir of World War Two was released yesterday by Potomac Books. Frank Irgang wrote Etched in Purple shortly after returning from his hellish tour of duty as a medic, and, after attrition killed many of his comrades, regular infantryman in the famed 29th Infantry Division. Frank landed on the Normandy beachhead on D-Day and fougth his way through Europe, through the Battle of the Bulge, before being wounded.

What makes Frank's book so special is that he pulls no punches in relating what happened, from D-Day onwards. One of the most disturbing scenes in the book involves a German woman pouring boiling water on a wounded American soldier, as Frank watches. What would you do?

Frank has become a good friend over the years. I have no qualms admitting that my friend is also one of my heroes and mentors. His book is better than anything I could ever attempt to write. It is, in my opinion and that of Potomac Books, a 're-discovered classic'.

Don't pass this book up. It will change you forever. Frank tells it like it was, and believe me, he also proves that, in the words of General Sherman, 'War is Hell'

Who were the 29th Division? Here are some facts from the net:

Some stats and history on the 29th Division

The 29th Division was reactivated on 3 February 1941 and departed for the United Kingdom on 5 October 1942 where it continued training in Scotland and England from October of 1942 up to June 1944 in preparation for the invasion of France.
Teamed with the U.S. 1st Infantry Division, the 116th Infantry Regiment of the 29th Division was in the first assault wave to hit the beaches at Normandy on D-Day, 6 June 1944. The division itself landed on Omaha Beach on the same day in the face of intense enemy fire but soon secured the bluff tops and went on to occupy Isigny on 9 June. The division cut across the Elle River and advanced slowly toward St. Lo, fighting bitterly in the Normandy bocage (hedge rows).
After taking St. Lo on 18 July, the division joined in the battle for Vire, capturing that strongly held city on 7 August. Turning west, the 29th took part in the assault on Brest from 25 August to 18 September.
After a short rest, the division moved to defensive positions along the Teveren-Geilenkirchen line in Germany and maintained those positions through October. (In mid-October the 116th Infantry took part in the fighting at the Aachen Gap.) On 16 November the division began its drive to the Ruhr, blasting its way through Siersdorf, Setterich, Duerboslar, and Bettendorf, reaching the Ruhr by the end of the month.
On 8 December, heavy fighting reduced Juelich Sportplatz and the Hasenfeld Gut. From 8 December 1944 to 23 February 1945, the division held defensive positions along the Ruhr and prepared for the offensive. The attack jumped off across the Ruhr on 23 February and carried the division through Juelich, Broich, Immerath, and Titz to Mönchengladbach on 1 March. The division was out of combat in March, however in early April the 116th Infantry helped mop up in the Ruhr area and on 19 April the division pushed to the Elbe River and held defensive positions until 4 May. Meanwhile, the 175th Infantry Regiment cleared the Kloetze Forest. After VE Day, the division was on military government duty in the Bremen enclave.
The 29th Infantry Division had spent 242 days in combat during campaigns in Normandy, Northern France, the Rhineland and Central Europe, earning four Distinguished Unit Citations in the process. Two soldiers of the division were awarded the Medal of Honor. Also awarded were 44 DSCs, one DSM, 854 Silver Stars, 17 Legion of Merit, 24 Soldier's Medal and 6,308 Bronze Stars.

The 29th in Popular Culture
In the 1962 film The Longest Day much of the action of the 29th on Omaha Beach on D-Day is depicted, with assistant division commander Brigadier General Norman Cota portrayed by Robert Mitchum.
Close Combat, part of a Microsoft Series of wargames during the 1990s also portrayed the actions of the 29th Division from Omaha Beach to the capture of St. Lo.

In the 1998 film "Saving Private Ryan", many of the soldiers seen in the Omaha Beach sequence are from the 29th, identified by their shoulder insignias. Corporal Timothy E.Upham, for instance, is portrayed as a soldier serving with the 29th Infantry Division. Upham was drafted to serve with a squad from the 2nd Rangers. The 29th, along with the 1st Infantry Division, were grouped with a few companies of the 2nd Ranger Battalion to storm Omaha Beach on June 6th, 1944.

Order the book from Potomac here: http://www.potomacbooksinc.com/Books/BookDetail.aspx?productID=180789

Order the book from Amazon here: http://www.amazon.com/Etched-Purple-One-Soldiers-Europe/dp/1597972045/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1205633371&sr=8-1

Irish Diver Finds Lee Kessler's B-17 'Meltin' Pot'

This writing job never ceases to surprise and fascinate me. A few months ago, I got an email from a fellow writer in Northern Ireland named Jack Scoltock. Jack is a well-known author of children's books in the UK and also a diver. He emailed me to let me know he was finishing up a book about his dives to a sunken B-17 bomber named 'The Meltin' Pot', which sank in the Lough Foyle on the way to England in 1942.

Seamus Carey researched and found the plane.

I was friends with one of the crewmen, a gentleman named Lee Kessler, whom I wrote about in my book Untold Valor. Lee had the dubious distinction of having survived four plane crashes in his Air Corps career. One was stateside during his training as an aerial gunner and it killed the pilot. The second was the dangerous ocean ditching of 'The Meltin' Pot' off the Irish Coast. All aboard survived but spent hours in the frigid waters. The third crash totaled the crew's replacement B-17 after a mission, and the fourth resulted in Lee becoming a POW in Germany. It was during his time as a POW that Lee survived the infamous forced winter march and witnessed a war crime that he turned into an internationally acclaimed piece of Holocaust art.

Jack is putting the finishing touches on a book about the underwater discovery of the Meltin' Pot. I for one am excited to read it. The book is due out in June.

When I visited Lee Kessler at this home in Canton, Ohio some years back, he told me that the plane had been discovered, and he was hoping to fly over to Ireland to meet with the divers who'd found it. Sadly, Lee passed away only a few months after we talked, and never got a chance to see the plane that had carried him and the rest of the crew safely across the Atlantic, only to ditch in the sea.

Jack wrote me: "Did you know that Charles Pappy Grimes, who was on Lee's original crew of Meltin' Pot, played saxophone or relief saxophone for Tommy Dorsey before he was called up. That's why there are 120 Tommy Dorsey records and a record player on board the Meltin' Pot. Yet to be salvaged."

The tentative cover of the book is shown here, and I'm also giving Jack's personal website in case anyone wants to order a book or has a question about the recovery of the aircraft.

Here is the weblink for Jack's writing website: http://www.jackscoltock.com/





The photo above, which I took in Lee's home, shows Lee holding the cover of his wartime scrapbook. If you look closely, you can see a painting of the ditching of the Meltin' Pot near the middle. The book's cover is decorated by paintings depicting Lee's many experiences in the war. It was held shut by a captured German belt and buckle. The belt is blue and white and runs across the bottom of the book, and the buckle is circular and silver at the right of the book.

Research Trip to England

Framlingham Castle, near one of the 95th's early bases, later to become home to the 390th.

New developments in my attempt to get school district approval for my research trip to England, mostly good.

Worst-case scenario is that I would put off the trip until school let out for the summer. The 95th Association has indicated this will not be a problem. Best-case scenario--the district decides to let me go and not forfeit my salary. We won't know until January 23.

The old 95th runway at Horham.

Aerial view of the city of Horham, near the 95th's base in East Anglia.

The trip to the 95th Reunion in Tucson will not be a problem at all.

Stained glass window in the church in Grafton Underwood.

My next order of business for England is to make contacts with the East Anglian towns where the 95th was based, and get an advert in the papers there asking for memories from townspeople who were alive at the time the 95th was there. That way I can line up interviews ahead of time.

95th Bomb Group & District 91

I met with the superintendent of schools today to ask for permission to miss roughly two weeks of school to conduct research for the 95th Bomb Group's new history. Instead of getting the go-ahead, I need to wait till January 23, after he and the school board make a decision.

It's possible I will have to take out a loan to pay my own salary while I am gone. This despite the fact that I have missed only a few days in my eighteen years with the district and accumulated 160 sick days never used.

The picture shows Idaho Falls, with the Snake River and the Mormon Temple.

Frank Irgang's 'Etched in Purple' now Available for Pre-Order

Okay, I know I talk about this book a lot. But there's a reason. It is, in my opinion, simply the best memoir to come out of World War Two in Europe. I noted today that Amazon.com is guaranteeing a pre-order price of only $12.21. The book comes out in early March.

To the right is the original dust jacket of the first pressing of this book back from 1949. I am the proud owner of two of this edition, both signed by the author. The story of how this book came to be re-published is an amazing one. Ten years or more ago, I was shopping in thrift store here in Idaho Falls and came across this book. I noticed it was a WWII memoir by a young infantryman published back in the late forties, and since I am a WWII buff, I bought it. The book absolutely blew me out of the water. Using my sleuthing skills, I tracked Frank down. He was teaching in San Diego. I asked Frank if I could send him the book to get signed. He said sure. When I got it back, he'd even included the original dust jacket. Some years later, I found a second copy at a reasonable price on Amazon. Normally, the first edition runs well over a hundred dollars.

Ever since, I have been plugging this book. It was my goal to see this classic book re-published because I felt that it was an absolute shame that it was out of print. A number of years later, after I'd published my first book, I had the opportunity to recommend the book to my publisher. They read it and agreed whole-heartedly that this book was a classic that needed to be re-published. And now, nearly 58 years after its initial publication, Frank's book is once again available, and at a price much lower than a hundred to two hundred dollars.

Buy it and read it. You will not be disappointed. I guarantee that. To the right is a photo of the cover of the new Potomac edition, due out in early March.

Order from Amazon here: http://www.amazon.com/Etched-Purple-One-Soldiers-Europe/dp/1597972045/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1199554654&sr=1-1

Or order from Potomac here: http://www.potomacbooksinc.com/Books/BookDetail.aspx?productID=180789

Also recommended, Frank's other books. Check them out at his website: http://www-rohan.sdsu.edu/faculty/firgang/index.html

2 Books of Note

I've picked up a couple of very interesting books in the past two weeks. The first, Down to Earth: A Fighter Pilot's Experiences of Surviving Dunkirk, The Battle of Britain, Dieppe and D-Day, is by Squadron Leader Kenneth Butterworth McGlashan, AFC, with Owen Zupp. I found out about this book during a history discussion on Amazon, and became acquainted with the co-author, Owen Zupp, an Australian pilot for Quantas Airlines who shares my passion for aviation and aviation history. Owen and I traded books by mail. The book was published by Grub Street Press, London in 2007. Owen conducted many interviews with the late Mr. McGlashan to write this outstanding account.

McGlashan started his RAF career in 1939 in a Hawker biplane, and ended it in the jet era of the 1950's. Shot down over the beaches of Dunkirk in heated aerial combat, McGlashan returns to England to fly again. He flies in support of the ill-fated invasion at Dieppe and takes on clandestine night operations before D-Day.

The book is illustrated with photographs spanning Mr. McGlashan's interesting career.

You can buy this book here: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Down-Earth-Fighter-Recounts-Experiences/dp/1904943845/ref=pd_bbs_sr_3?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1199121310&sr=8-3. This is from Amazon.uk. The book is not available on US Amazon at this time.

The second book I picked up at a used book store. It is entitled Flying Through the Fire: FIDO--The Fogbusters of World War Two: Freeing the RAF's Airfields from the Fog Menace by Geoffery Williams. This book, published in 1996 by Grange Books, London, chronicles the British attempt to control the fog and low clouds that caused many Allied aircraft to crash upon return to base. Early in the war, many British bombers returned from harrowing missions unable to find their bases, which were completely fog-bound. This took a savage toll on aircraft and aircrew. Winston Churchill prompted the government's Petroleum Warfare Department to develop a cure for this problem, and they came up with FIDO--Fog Investigation and Dispersal Operation. Lines of burners feulled by thousands of gallons of petrol were installed beside runways to literally burn off the fog, thereby allowing aircraft to take off and land safely. Over 100 photos accompany this fascinating book.

The book is available at a very reasonable price from Amazon.uk at http://www.amazon.co.uk/Flying-Through-Fire-Buster-Aviation/dp/0750908815/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1199121713&sr=1-3.

And on that note, Happy New Year to all readers. I look forward to many postings in 2008, and will be working on two books in the coming year. First, the 95th Bomb Group history, and second, a sequel to Untold Valor tentatively entitled Untold Valor: Forgotten Stories of Aerial Combat in the Pacific.

An Exercise in Humility

Another book signing last night, though I doubt John Grisham or J.K. Rowling have the same experiences. The manager of the book department at a large bookseller here in town asked me to do a signing about a month ago. I'm not a big fan of these, but they are part of the contract with the publisher and they are a good way to get the book out there, so I said yes.



The last two times I did signings, they were advertised on the store's marquee, which is on the busiest street in town. I noted this week that there was no advertising--not an auspicious start.



When I showed up last night, it dawned on me that they had entirely forgotten I was coming. There was no table, no chair, no pens. Luckily, they did have books on the shelf.



I was supposed to sign from five to eight, but packed up and went home at 7:30 after selling six books. Granted, those six people were happy to get them, but the lack of effort on the part of the store, coupled with the fact that Idaho Falls is not much of an aviation town, doomed my signing to failure.



In any case, this will keep me very humble.



Below is a photo of people lined up to get a signed copy of my book 'Untold Valor'. Pushing and shoving was not a problem this evening.

Book Review: HAP HALLORAN 'Hap's War'

I received Hap Halloran's 'Hap's War' today, along with the pictured card and two photos Hap annotated on the back. The top photo shows Hap getting inducted into the American Combat Airmen Hall of Fame in 2001. The bottom photo shows Hap with Enola Gay pilot Paul Tibbetts in Great Bend, Kansas, a few years back. Tibbetts passed away a little over a week ago.

Today in the mail I received my copy of Hap Halloran's 'Hap's War: The Incredible Survival Story of a POW Slated for Execution" by Ray 'Hap' Halloran with Chester Marshall. This book is a real piece of World War Two history. First of all, I cannot believe the incredible value of this large hardback book, which Hap sells himself out of his home in Menlo Park, California. The price, includiing shipping, must make this book the best buy in America, even if it were to come unsigned. However, Hap took the time to personally inscribe the book and also included two photographs of himself, one with Paul Tibbets, the Enola Gay pilot, and the other of himself after being inducted into the American Combat Hall of Fame in October of 2001. On top of that, he took the time to include a personalized card.

For those of you who have never heard of Hap Halloran, he is one of the most celebrated heroes of the Pacific War. He overcame incredible odds to survive as a Japanese prisoner of war after his B-29 Superfortress was shot down over Japan on January 27, 1945. His tale is one of torture, starvation, and ultimately, survival. It was Hap who was taken to the Tokyo Zoo and put on display in a cage as an example of what the terrible American invaders looked like. This was the low point of his life, according to him. What is more amazing is that this former POW has just returned from Japan, where he is an honored speaker about the effects of war and is an advocate for peaceful solutions to problems where possible.

Hap and Japanese survivors at the Peace Park in Japan.

I highly recommend that anyone with an interest in WWII buy this book from Hap. There is a hyperlink below in his biography from which to order.

The book is filled with Hap's story, his ordeals, and his ultimate triumph. It is also filled with rare photographs. The book is a large hardback and even came Priority Mail in a matter of days.

Hap's Prisoner of War Armband from his Japanese imprisonment. POWs in Japan were treated brutally.

Hap Halloran, you are one of a kind. Thanks again for the book, and even more, for your service to our country and the cause of freedom.

Below is Hap's biography, taken from his website at: http://www.haphalloran.com/

The Autobiography of Raymond "Hap" Halloran

Ray "HAP" Halloran, was born February 4, 1922 in Cincinnati, Ohio of parents, Paul and Gertrude Halloran; the second of 5 boys.

Shortly after Pearl Harbor (December 7, 1941) Hap volunteered for the Army Air Force at Wright-Patterson air base in Dayton, Ohio.

He completed training as Navigator (Hondo, Texas) and Bombardier (Roswell, New Mexico) Volunteered for training in new bomber (B-29). Trained at Smoky Hill Air Base in Salina, Kansas. Our crew of 11 was referred to as "Rover Boys Express". We were assigned to 878th Squadron, 499th Bomb Group VH, 73rd Wing, 20th Air Force.

After completion of operational training in Kansas we spent a short period of time in Lincoln, Nebraska; then Herington, Kansas where we received our brand new B-29 (flown to Herington from the production line at Boeing Wichita Plant). We then received orders to fly to Mather Field, California; then to John Rogers Field, Honolulu. We then flew to Kwajalein Atoll and our final leg was to Saipan in the Northern Marianas Islands. We traveled alone the entire trip.
Saipan was the base of operations for the 73rd Wing in that battle against targets on the Japanese mainland.

On our forth mission against Japanese targets we were shot down on a high altitude mission against target 357; Nakajima Aircraft plant in Musashino on the west edge of Tokyo.
A twin engine Japanese fighter plane (Nick) came in head on and critically damaged our plane (V Square 27). The comfortable temperature in our pressurized B-29 immediately assumed outside air temperature of -58 degrees. We lost two engines and our major controls within the plane. We were doomed; we fell behind the formation. We realized we must abandon our plane over enemy territory east of Tokyo.

Painting of our B-29 V Square 27 passing Mt. Fuji on bomb run against Target 357 1/27/45.
All crew members were alerted to necessity to parachute. (Tail Gunner Dead). I left the bomber thru the front bomb bay (nose wheel blocked normal front escape route).

I fell free for an estimated 24,000 feet before opening my chute at about 3,000 feet over Chiba Prefecture East of Tokyo. Japanese fighters closed in as I hung in my chute. One saluted me from in close. A rarity. Six of The Rover Boys crew did not survive that day.

As could be expected I was treated brutally by civilians before being taken on a truck to Kempei Tai torture prison in downtown Tokyo across from the moat at the north end of the Imperial Palace grounds. I was confined in solitary in a cold dark cage in a wooden stable near the Kempei Tai headquarters building. Food was a small ball of rice several times a day; no medical treatment. Silence was a firm rule except during interrogations. One desperately tried to survive.

Survived the massive low level March 10th, 1945 fire raid on Tokyo by fellow B-29 crews. The fire, heat, smoke and resultant firestorm was terrifying. Never expected to survive that night.
Shortly thereafter I was removed from my cage and taken to Ueno Zoo where I was put on a display naked in a tiger cage and civilians could walk in front of cage and view this hated B-29 prisoner. I had lost perhaps 80 or 90 pounds by then and my body was dirty and covered with running sores from bed bug, flea and lice infestation. Conditions were extreme. I cried (a form of relief) and prayed constantly.

Was moved early in April 1945 to Omori Prisoner of War facility on SW edge of Tokyo. Was with fellow B-29 prisoners and other Americans including Gregory "Pappy" Boyington and 8 survivors of the submarine Tang. What a wonderful thing to be out of solitary and being able to talk with fellow B-29ers. We each had a space 24 x 70 inches. We learned to live together under a demanding situation. Food was the dominant subject of all conversations. We were subject to bombings and strafings by our planes. Our facilities were not identified as a POW compound. Those were extremely difficult days as we tried to survive.

The war ended on August 15, 1945. We were liberated from Omori on August 29th by Marines in landing craft and taken aboard the Hospital ship Benevolence in Tokyo Bay. Spent two weeks in Benevolence (not physically fit to travel). Was on the Benevolence when the Peace Treaty was signed on the battleship Missouri in Tokyo Bay on September 2, 1945. Admiral Halsey visited me in my room on the Benevolence.

Eventually flown home. Spent months in Ashford government hospital in West Virginia. Adjustment to normal life came slowly. Experienced almost 40 years of nightmares; very disruptive to my family life. In the early years after the return from POW days I absolutely tried to wipe out all those bad memories of my time in Japan. I failed.
Finally in 1984 - after much preparation and help from the US ambassador, Mike Mansfield, I returned to Japan. I hoped I could void all my memories of "those long ago days" and view people and places as they are presently.

Positive results slowly became evident in my outlook, feelings and judgments.
Understanding and reconciliation became a reality.

I have subsequently returned to Japan seven more times and visited all the major cities and with much help able to meet Isamu Kashiide, the pilot of the Nick plane that shot us down in 1945; he died on June 3, 2003. Also visited with Kaneyuki Kobayashi a former good guard.
Eventually made many new friends including Saburo Sakai, WWII Zero ace. We golfed and did air shows together. He died of a heart attack in August of 2000 while guest at a luncheon with U.S. military officers. At his request I continued to mentor his daughter, Michiko. She graduated from Trinity College in San Antonio, Texas.

By invitation I speak to groups in museums, temples, Peace Parks and other assembly points throughout Japan. Among other places on my 2002 visit I spoke to groups in Peace Parks in both Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Many of those folks were there (or their families impacted) on August 6th and 9th in 1945. They also were seeking closure almost 58 years later. I was guest and keynote speaker at dedication of a new museum on Tokyo on March 9, 2002. 31 folks from Tokyo, Kyoto, Yokohama, Hiroshima, Osaki, Nagasaki and other cities visited my home in August of 2002.

I also exchanged emails on frequent basis with historian friends in Japan and tour with them on my return visits. My return visits to Japan generally include visits to Saipan, Tinian and Guam.
I left the military service in the latter part of 1946. The road to normalcy proceeded slowly. In 1958 I joined former Consolidated Freightways, an eventual 3 billion dollar motor carrier and was associated with them for 44 years. Attained position of Executive Vice President and member of the Board of Directors.

I have three children. Dan lives in Boca Raton, Florida. Tim is presently relocating to Brentwood, California. Peggy lives in Redwood City, California.

I live in Menlo Park, California and travel extensively (over 5 million commercial air miles). Have done things with ABC, CBS, NBC, FOX, History and Discovery Channels and participated in a Dan Rather NBC "Victory in the Pacific" two hour special in 1995; filmed in US, Pacific and Japan.

There isn't a day that goes by that my memories do not flash back and recall events of those long ago days. I remember Rover Boys who did not come home. I have visited their graves in Punch Bowl National Cemetery in Honolulu and in Portland, Oregon.

I appreciate and love Freedom. I appreciate even the simple things in life. I know how fortunate I was to survive and come home.

I refer to all the days as "Bonus Days." Now that I am in my golden years I refer to them as "Double Bonus Days!"

He has also written a book called "Hap's War" in 1998. You can order one through this web site. For more information, click here.

WWII D-Day Infantryman Memoir 'Etched in Purple' to be Re-Issued by Potomac Books in April 2008

It is with great excitement that I report that the best infantryman's memoir to come out of World War Two, 'Etched in Purple', by Frank Irgang, will be re-issued by Potomac Books in April of 2008.

If a reader ever wanted to live the life of an American infantryman in Europe, from the D-Day landing to the hedgerows of France to the wintry forests of Germany, this is the book to get. First published by Caxton Press in 1949, the book was the catharsis of a young vet who had seen some of the worst fighting in Europe and then had the guts and the sensitivity to write about it graphically and honestly. This book will change whoever reads it. It changed me.

I invite all my readers to be on the lookout for more information on 'Etched in Purple'. I think it may well be the next 'Band of Brothers', only better.

Book Recommendation--Harry Patch, WWI Vet

My friend Richard Havers of England recommended this book about one of the men profiled in my previous posting, Harry Patch, who is the last surviving soldier to fight in the trenches in World War One.

Mr Patch, whereever you are, thank you, and you are one amazing guy.

Buy the book here: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Last-Fighting-Tommy-Surviving-Trenches/dp/0747591156/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1/203-5431397-3872737?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1194639836&sr=8-