As a child, I was blessed with many uncles and cousins who fought the Second World War. At family gatherings, as the evenings would wind on, the adult beverages loosened tongues a bit, and the stories would begin to emerge. I would sit in the center of them all and listen.
There were the usual inter-service rivalry jabs, and good natured kidding, and then slowly, with some reluctance, the stories of the trials and tribulations of meeting the enemy in combat would begin to leak out. They were watered down of course, and mostly told in a general sense without going into great detail.
Uncle Sy would speak of flying and bombing over the Reich, of how beautiful it looked from five miles up. He loved to fly, and if the serenity of flying weren't interrupted by periods of sheer terror, as Flak bursts and, "Those damned 190's" tore other B-17's from the sky around him, He would have loved to have flown there all day. Uncle Blair spoke of Normandy, of shaking Gen Eisenhower's hand before Jumping into to the void as the great crusade to liberate western Europe got under way.
Uncle Pete and Uncle Warren spoke of far off islands in the Pacific; Guadalcanal, Tarawa, The Gilberts, Saipan, Iwo Jima and Okinawa to name but a few.
These are the things that sparked my interest in history, of learning all that I could, and that reading anything I could get my hands on was the way to do it!
Harry Crosby's "A Wing and a Prayer" is a phenomenal book about the Eighth Army Air Force and B-17 ops of the 100th BG. Uncle Sy knew Harry and was friends with him until Crosby rotated home. Other titles like "Fortress Without a Roof", "Five Miles High" and "Bombing 'Round the Clock" were other great books.
Robert Cressman's, "A Glorious Day in Our History" told the story of Midway, like I've never read it before. John Lundstrom's, "The First Team" books about early carrier warfare in the Pacific, "Miracle at Midway" and finally "Shattered Sword".
There are so many more books in my library, but the list is way to long to post. Check your local library or online hobby shop, hobby show, book seller or, wherever else you find reading material. Nothing like turning a real page, in a real book and enjoying a good read!
