Source of some 'apocryphal' 8th AF stories..

[drgondog]

Nick - the quote and incident of signing was real Re "Who's afraid of the Fock Wulf"

Tex McCrary wrote about it in First of the Many published in 1944. He didn't name the group because of wartime censorship but he spent a lot of time around the 91st, 94th, the 305th and 100th BG so the probabbility is high(er) that he picked it up in one of those groups.. it preceeded Caiden by a looooooong time.

If you have not read this one - I HIGHLY recommend it as a penetrating insight/human interest stories about the 8th in the early to late 1943 timeframe

Regards,

Bill

[vzlion]

Interesting! If really true, I wonder who created the ad?
Walt

[NickM]

Originally Posted by drgondog

Nick - the quote and incident of signing was real Re "Who's afraid of the Fock Wulf"

Tex McCrary wrote about it in First of the Many published in 1944. He didn't name the group because of wartime censorship but he spent a lot of time around the 91st, 94th, the 305th and 100th BG so the probabbility is high(er) that he picked it up in one of those groups.. it preceeded Caiden by a looooooong time.

If you have not read this one - I HIGHLY recommend it as a penetrating insight/human interest stories about the 8th in the early to late 1943 timeframe

Regards,

Bill

For sure...normally though, I don't read stuff written during the war (I've done so in past & have a hard time wading through the wartime propaganda of the time---)but still the immediacy & emotions are important to the overall 'picture' of the war; I'll try to find this

NickM

[drgondog]

Nick - there is always a little bit of 'that' but I thought McCrary did a great job of cpaturing the grit, the sense of loss when a popular crew went down, the 'race' between Hell's Angels, the Memphis Belle and Knockout Dropper to be the first 25, then later the first to reach 50.

Another one is Target;Germany. One of the major pieces contained here is a collage of nose art (B/W) of the more colorful B-17's and B-24's in 8th AF inside front and back cover.

I'm not sure I have read any books better at capturing the conditions, the drabness of winter/fall weather, the tension and the stories of USAAF ops in 1943 - dominantly B-17 and B-24 crews, London, some fighters... but you will find the 'apocryphal 8th AF' stories - leaves no question it was a tough war for 8th AF.

Regards,

Bill