Publishers Weekly
- Publisher's Weekly
A genre of WWII writing stronger in the U.S. than anywhere elsethe "trunk memoir"grows stronger still with this contribution. These works are based on letters, diaries and similar personal papers stored in trunks by veterans who were "forbidden" by regulations to keep records of their missions. Stewart was a B-24 navigator with the 8th Air Force, flying his first mission (at age 19) on December 2, 1944, and his last on April 25, 1945. His story, based primarily on the contraband diary of the title, is a useful corrective to "big-picture" accounts that dismiss the strategic bomber campaign after D-Day as a series of milk runs. Even in decline the Luftwaffe was a dangerous opponent. Stewart and his crewmates particularly feared the new jets that could outfly the best piston-engined escorts. Stewart, who later became an aeronautical engineer, is also worth reading for his description of aerial navigation methods in a pre-electronics era, and for his useful insights into the institutional behavior of a newly mature military organization. Flexibility minimized the consequences of errors like a takeoff into fog that cost Stewart's group four aircraft before someone in his crew drained the gas from the auxiliary engine starter and bought enough time for the base commander to cancel the mission. The 8th Air Force never turned back from a strike, because it had men like John Stewartand because it learned how to sustain the best in those men. B&w photos and diagrams throughout. (June)
Library Journal
As a 19-year-old navigator with the Eighth Air Force, Stewart logged combat time in a B-24 Liberator named the Gremlin Manor. He navigated on 31 missions that dumped 8000 pounds of explosives on enemy targets over Europe. Keeping a journal was strictly against regulations, but Stewart secretly wrote about his exploits and those of his crew. His recollections describe in vivid detail everything about the harrowing life of the combat navigator, beginning with the training, and in an appendix he tells how he guided the Gremlin Manor over preplanned routes. He also introduces the reader to the all-important dead-reckoning procedures along with the instruments and devices. What makes Stewart's book unique amidst a flood of World War II memoirs is his detailed descriptions of how he navigated and the equipment he used, which gives his book a you-were-there feel. After seeing Memphis Belle a dozen times, here is the real thing. Recommended for World War II and aviation collections.Michael Coleman, Regional Lib. for Blind & Handicapped, Montgomery, AL
Booknews
The war memoir of a WWII B-24 navigator who broke regulations by keeping a detailed diary of missions and several maps and charts issued only to navigators. The author provides his recollections of 31 missions, his training, and information and statistics about the B-24. Also includes commentary from pilots, navigational diagrams and maps, and many b&w photographs. Annotation c. by Book News, Inc., Portland, Or.
Kirkus Reviews
An I-was-there authenticity buoys one manþs recollections of deadly combat with the famed US 8th Air Force in WWII Europe over 50 years ago. Luckily, first-time author Stewart kept a diary (against regulations) of his 31 missions over targets in France and Germany as a 19-year-old navigator in a B-24 Liberator bomber. His are blow-by-blow, stress-and-strain accounts of raids and of flying through unnerving anti-aircraft flak where the chances of survival were far less than 100 percent. Many airmen, he relates, entered denial merely in order to subdue their fears. When not flying, they kept busy with partying and military practice sessions to improve their professional expertise. Some of the religious simply withdrew emotionally. Stewart argues that the November 1940 German raid on the medieval town of Coventry had strategic purposeþmuch heavy industry was located there, despite British propaganda meant to arouse sympathy and indignation. He didn't find American bomber crews to be any more or less effective than the enemy. Regardless, a reader feels the brutality of war on both sides, even though the author stresses the heavy casualties suffered by Americans. Stewart believes that passing years have muddied our memories of the war, aided at times by intellectuals with preconceived ideas who were not present for it. He cites what he views as the often biased treatment of the atomic bombing of Japan, arguing that without the bomb to end the bloodletting, many more lives would have been sacrificed (in part as a result of likely Japanese atrocities). Stewart, who earned a Ph.D. in electrical engineering after the war and taught at the University of Arizona, includes a detaileddiscussion of military technology in his later chapters. His book ably charts the hard times of American WWII flyers. (100 illustrations)
