97th Bombardment Group, 12 O'Clock High, etc

[Herb Kugel]

Hi,
Geoffrey Perret in his book Winged Victory, The Army Air Forces in World War II, states on page 245:

"In June 1942 the half-trained, under strength 97th deployed...[to] England. What little discipline it possessed fell apart. The group commander and his deputy were taken up by the Rothschilds, who had an estate nearby. The group desparately needed training but didn't get it... The wayward beginnings of the 97th, and its eventual redemption under an able, hard driving commander, were turned into the best novel and the best movie about the wartime air force, Twelve O'Clock High. The new group commander was Eaker's executive officer, Col. Frank A. Armstrong, Jr. As the 12 B-17s headed toward Rouen [8th Air Force's first raid, Aughust 16, 1942]...Armstrong Sat in the copilot's seat next to Tibbets..."

[Col. Paul Tibbets, Jr., who flew the B-29 Enola Gay that dropped the atomic bomb on Hiroshima on August 6, 1945.]

My question is simply this: Yes, it is documented, but is it conceiveable that the 97th could have been turned around in so short a time? Is there anything else about this raid anybody might want to share?

BTW, both the book and film were written by Beirne Lay, Jr., one of Eaker's officers. He got much of his material from his article I Saw Regensburg Destroyed, which appeared in the Saturday Evening Post, November 6, 1943. There are still copies of that SatEvePost around, I saw one for sale recently, when I was doing my digging. It sold for $70.

Or you can spend about $20 buying Reporting World War II, American Journalism, 1938-1946, Preface by Stephen E. Ambrose, Introduction by Samuel Hynes, The Libary of America, New York [ISBN I-931082-05-07], which is a fine book with much wonderful writing in it.

Herb