Tuesday, July 31, 2007

Wings of Morning. Thomas Childers. 03

Significant sentences from Wings of Morning by Thomas Childers, the story of the last American bomber shot down over Germany in WWII, and a vivid re-creation of participation in the war.

"Gone for a Soldier," cont.
"The trip to Massachusetts from Colorado meant another tedious cross-country train trip, long, mind-numbing days in the stuffy coaches, sleeping upright in the threadbare seats, drinking coffee in the dusty stations between trains...." p. 15.

"Like so many men who flew combat in the war, neither Farrington nor Regan had set foot in a plane before entering the service." p. 21.

"Including training casualties, which were stunningly high, almost 40% of all who entered pilot training failed to complete it." p. 21.

"The B-24 was not built for comfort." p. 21.

"It was almost as difficult after a ten-hour flight to crawl back out." p. 22.

"The B-24 was not pressurized and the crews had to wear clammy, ill-fitting rubber oxygen masks for hours at a time." p. 24.

"They were learning a lot about each other, about their roles on the aircraft, learning to master their jobs and to trust in the skill and judgment of each man in the crew." p. 25.

Somewhere in England


"...endless army processing, the hurry up and wait...." p. 36.

"...even the dull presentiment of dread, like the first hint of a toothache--with which the day began, was utterly stifled, deadened by drab army routine." p. 36.

Britain: "On a small, crowded island where forty-five million people live, each man learns to guard his privacy carefully--and is equally careful not to invade another man's privacy." p. 41.

"Someone once said that the British and Americans are two people separated by a common language." p. 42.

"The whole of Great Britain--that is, England and Scotland and Wales together--is hardly bigger than Minnesota." p. 43.

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