Unsung Eagles - True Stories of America's Citizen Airmen in the Skies of World War II, Lt. Col (Ret) Jay A. Scout

Unsung Eagles - True Stories of America's Citizen Airmen in the Skies of World War II, Lt. Col (Ret) Jay A. Scout

During the Second World War the United States trained two million airmen, a massive expansion of Army, Navy and Marine airpower that meant that the vast majority of front-line airmen were fairly recent recruits when they first entered combat. This massive force of citizen airmen played a huge part in the defeat of Germany and Japan, fighting in almost every theatre of the war. This book tells the stories of twenty two of those airmen, fighting in China, Europe, the Pacific and North Africa as well as at home in the United States, and flying in fighters, bombers, reconnaissance aircraft, ground attack aircraft and torpedo bombers (the sharp eyed will notice there are only twenty-one chapters, but one includes the memories of two crewmen from the same aircraft).

It is worth remembering that a similar tag of civilians in uniform can be applied to most other combatant nations during the Second World War, simply because of the massive expansion in numbers brought on by wartime conditions. The position in Britain was very similar, the only other major combatant without peacetime conscription - the majority of RAF airmen was in the same position as their American allies, other than having a two-year head start having entered the war earlier.

Each of the stories is told largely in the veteran's own words, with some background explanation from the author. In most cases we trace their introduction to flying, their entry into their branch of the service and into combat. The author also adds a brief paragraph on their post-war lives.

This project took some time to complete, and in the intervening time some of the veterans have written their own memoirs, making them a little less unsung than before, but the true value of this book is the wide range of experiences that are presented, giving us a clearer image of the massive and varied aerial effort made by the United States. This is a very worthwhile project, and the result is an excellent and very readable collection of the individual stories that made up American air power during the war.

Chapters
1 - Americans Under Other Flags: John A Campbell
2 - Tigers in the Fray: Ken Jernstedt
3 - Dive Bombers at Guadalcanal: Jesse Barker
4 - Army Fighters Over Guadalcanal: Julius Jacobson
5 - North Africa and the Pacific: Hamilton McWhorter
6 - The Early Fight: John 'Jack' Walker
7 - Heroes at Home: Mort Blumenfeld
8 - Civilians in Uniform: Rudolph W. Matz
9 - Americans Over China: Walt Kaestner
10 - Crushing the Reich: Howard 'Jack' Dentz
11 - Photo Reconnaissance: Willard Caddell
12 - Attack and Medium Bombers Over Northern Europe: Harry 'Bob' Popency
13 - Low Level Fury: Roman Ohnemus
14 - Second Battle of the Philippine Sea: Ray Crandall and Richard Deitchman
15 - Downed in Yugoslavia: Howard O.Wilson
16 - Breakout Across Europe: Robert Macdonald
17 - Night Armed Reconnaissance: Alvin E. 'Bud' Anderson
18 - The Sharecropper's Son Bombs Hitler: George M. Kesselring
19 - Cold and Deadly Sea: Donald Whitright
20 - Escorts Over Europe: Herman Schonenberg
21 - A Can of Peaches: Emilius Roger Ciampa

Author: Jay A. Scout
Edition: Hardcover
Pages: 320
Publisher: Casemate
Year: 2013


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