Significant sentences from Wings of Morning by Thomas Childers, the story of the last American bomber shot down over Germany in WW II, and a vivid re-creation of participation in the war.
Some thoughts by the author, Thomas Childers:
"More than two hundred letters written by Howard Goodner between the fall of 1942 and the spring of 1945 and approximately three hundred letters written by Robert Peterson to his wife Marie during the same period form the documentary core of the book." p. 271.
"Both men wrote almost daily, and, together, their letters offer a remarkable guide to an American air crew's day-to-day experience in training and combat." p. 271.
"In researching the book, I employed methods normally used by professional historians, but in telling the story I have turned to narrative techniques usually associated with fiction." p. 272.
"But ultimately this book belongs to my father, Tom Childers, who inspired it and who did not live to see it completed, and to my late grandparents, Ernest and Callie Goodner, who preserved Howard's letters and his memory and who always believed, as the old wartime song went, that they would meet again." P. 273.
RayS.'s Note: I think this book is one of my most memorable reading experiences. I felt as if I were there with Howard Goodner and the crew of the Black Cat. The ironies of war, so clearly represented in Tolstoy's War and Peace, were reinforced and brought up to date vividly in this book. I thought of JFK's comment (my paraphrase) that life is unfair, that some men die in the war, some are injured and some never leave the country. Life is unfair.
I think, for anyone who wants to understand the experience of WWII, no film, fictional or documentary, can convey the thoughts of the men engaged in combat the way this book can. A remarkable and unforgettable book.
Monday, August 13, 2007
Friday, August 10, 2007
Wings of Morning. Sighificant Sentences 10. Conclusion.
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. Conclusion.
"Every flak battery that shot down an Allied plane was required to submit a report...type of plane hit...the fate of the crew." p. 248.
In the town where the Black Cat had been shot down: "...past a cluster of home and garden centers, furniture discount houses and shopping plazas that seemed more appropriate to the Philadelphia suburbs than Bavaria." p. 250.
"Typical of German farm villages, the neat stucco houses, their windowsills accented with potted geraniums...." p. 250.
"...never asking leading questions or giving anything away." p. 250.
"...a simple cross made of birch." p. 269.
"The marker is dedicated to all the casualties of the war, but at its base a small bronze plaque lists the names of the men who died there on April 21, 1945, a reminder to all who pass that even in triumph there is heartbreak." p. 269.
"I thought of each of them--Frarrington, Regan, Wieser, Barrett, Noe, Murphy, Peterson, and Perella--men whom I had never met but whom I would never forget." p. 269.
"Tractors moved across the rolling swells of the rich, dark earth, and in their wake, as happens each April, shattered bits of plexiglas and twisted metal--mute reminders of the Black Cat and the men who died here--were rising in the furrows." p. 269.
"Every flak battery that shot down an Allied plane was required to submit a report...type of plane hit...the fate of the crew." p. 248.
In the town where the Black Cat had been shot down: "...past a cluster of home and garden centers, furniture discount houses and shopping plazas that seemed more appropriate to the Philadelphia suburbs than Bavaria." p. 250.
"Typical of German farm villages, the neat stucco houses, their windowsills accented with potted geraniums...." p. 250.
"...never asking leading questions or giving anything away." p. 250.
"...a simple cross made of birch." p. 269.
"The marker is dedicated to all the casualties of the war, but at its base a small bronze plaque lists the names of the men who died there on April 21, 1945, a reminder to all who pass that even in triumph there is heartbreak." p. 269.
"I thought of each of them--Frarrington, Regan, Wieser, Barrett, Noe, Murphy, Peterson, and Perella--men whom I had never met but whom I would never forget." p. 269.
"Tractors moved across the rolling swells of the rich, dark earth, and in their wake, as happens each April, shattered bits of plexiglas and twisted metal--mute reminders of the Black Cat and the men who died here--were rising in the furrows." p. 269.
Thursday, August 9, 2007
Wings of Morning. Significant Sentences. 09
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.
"Howard came home on December 10, 1948." p. 231.
"...a bored young clerk produced a folder marked TSGT Goodner, Howard G. from a bank of filing cabinets behind him." p. 233.
"But I could follow the trail of the Richard Farrington crew to discover what I could about an uncle I had never known, but whose presence had hovered over me from my earliest memories, and I would find answers to the questions that had haunted my family and others since the spring of 1945." p. 235.
"Each mission folder contained a copy of the briefing notes, maps of the routes in and out, strike photos, and a final summary of the mission. p. 235.
"Studying the thin mimeographed sheets of the 466th's operations diary, I was staggered by the cruel ironies of the mission." p. 236.
"...looking at him, the survivor [he had parachuted from the plane], and wondering, he always thought, why he had come back and their son or brother or husband had not." p. 240.
"But above all they remembered with deep bitterness that a decision by the command pilot--against the pleas of his own navigator and mickey man and others throughout the formation--took them directly over Regensburg." p. 242.
"Everywhere I saw reflected back at me the same tableau of love and pain that I had known in my own family--the same snapshots from the last visit home, the scrapbooks full of yellowing newspaper clippings and curling photographs, the boxes of V-mails, the same heartbreaking telegrams, kept neatly in their torn envelopes." p. 246.
"And as we talked and wrote and visited in the months that followed, the crew came alive again, one by one, borne on the wings of memory, and we found ourselves bound together in a chain of love and loss that passed beyond the generations." p. 246.
"Howard came home on December 10, 1948." p. 231.
"...a bored young clerk produced a folder marked TSGT Goodner, Howard G. from a bank of filing cabinets behind him." p. 233.
"But I could follow the trail of the Richard Farrington crew to discover what I could about an uncle I had never known, but whose presence had hovered over me from my earliest memories, and I would find answers to the questions that had haunted my family and others since the spring of 1945." p. 235.
"Each mission folder contained a copy of the briefing notes, maps of the routes in and out, strike photos, and a final summary of the mission. p. 235.
"Studying the thin mimeographed sheets of the 466th's operations diary, I was staggered by the cruel ironies of the mission." p. 236.
"...looking at him, the survivor [he had parachuted from the plane], and wondering, he always thought, why he had come back and their son or brother or husband had not." p. 240.
"But above all they remembered with deep bitterness that a decision by the command pilot--against the pleas of his own navigator and mickey man and others throughout the formation--took them directly over Regensburg." p. 242.
"Everywhere I saw reflected back at me the same tableau of love and pain that I had known in my own family--the same snapshots from the last visit home, the scrapbooks full of yellowing newspaper clippings and curling photographs, the boxes of V-mails, the same heartbreaking telegrams, kept neatly in their torn envelopes." p. 246.
"And as we talked and wrote and visited in the months that followed, the crew came alive again, one by one, borne on the wings of memory, and we found ourselves bound together in a chain of love and loss that passed beyond the generations." p. 246.
Wednesday, August 8, 2007
Wings of Morning. Significant Sentences 08.
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.
"Their plane was shot down, the only one in the thirty-seven." p. 224.
"...if they had been flying their regular position of main lead plane this would not have occurred, but instead they were in about the center of the group, and if they used their chutes when first struck may have been saved, but instead they stayed with the plane until they had piloted it out of formation." [Otherwise, the disabled plane possibly might have caused several others also to crash.] p. 224.
"I believe I am broad-minded enough to accept in good grace most of the adverse things that happen to us in life...but the loss of Jack [Regan] I can never accept, because in my opinion it was caused by the stupidity of some one individual or group of individuals in charge of this particular mission." p. 225. [You must read the book to understand the truth of this statement.]
"Also, to top matters off, all flying was stopped four days later." p. 225.
"Why such a thing happened and in such a way, I will never be able to comprehend." p. 225.
"It was the last mission the 787th flew." p. 226.
"...it doesn't seem fair when it was so near the end."
"We thought Christmas was bad last year, not having Jack with us, but this year was worse, knowing he would never be with us again." p. 228.
"A report has been received which discloses that the remains of Captain Wiser are interred in Grave 258, Row 11, Plot B, in the United States Military Cemetery, Nuremberg, Germany." p. 229.
"When the Boys Are Home Again" (cont.)
"...we know what it actually means not ever to be able to see our own again, in whom we have centered our thoughts, hopes and plans; it just does not seem right or fair, yet it is a definite fact over which we have no control." p. 224."Their plane was shot down, the only one in the thirty-seven." p. 224.
"...if they had been flying their regular position of main lead plane this would not have occurred, but instead they were in about the center of the group, and if they used their chutes when first struck may have been saved, but instead they stayed with the plane until they had piloted it out of formation." [Otherwise, the disabled plane possibly might have caused several others also to crash.] p. 224.
"I believe I am broad-minded enough to accept in good grace most of the adverse things that happen to us in life...but the loss of Jack [Regan] I can never accept, because in my opinion it was caused by the stupidity of some one individual or group of individuals in charge of this particular mission." p. 225. [You must read the book to understand the truth of this statement.]
"Also, to top matters off, all flying was stopped four days later." p. 225.
"Why such a thing happened and in such a way, I will never be able to comprehend." p. 225.
"It was the last mission the 787th flew." p. 226.
"...it doesn't seem fair when it was so near the end."
"We thought Christmas was bad last year, not having Jack with us, but this year was worse, knowing he would never be with us again." p. 228.
"A report has been received which discloses that the remains of Captain Wiser are interred in Grave 258, Row 11, Plot B, in the United States Military Cemetery, Nuremberg, Germany." p. 229.
Tuesday, August 7, 2007
Wings of Morning. Significant Sentences 07.
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.
"Luck Is a Lady"
"All around the ship flak bursts erupted, like a sea of black umbrellas popping suddenly open on a crowded London Street." p. 170.
"...like any change in the routine, it was unsettling." p. 177.
"The Black Cat"
"They were not supposed to fly." [Opening sentence of the chapter] p. 185.
"When the Boys Are Home Again"
"So the tiny community of families, bound together in their anxiety, fear, and hope, continued to cling to the possibility that others had bailed out of the aircraft or that it had crash landed successfully and the crew would still show up." p. 212.
"With no information coming fro the War Department they turned to one another." p. 214.
"Poor exchange, all these meaningless medals in place of my husband." p. 218.
"Staggered with grief and yet unwilling, unable, to accept the War Department's terse communication as unequivocal, unalterable fact, the Goodners, like the Brennans, the Petersons, and the other families of the crew, found in the very vagueness of these grim messages enough to nourish a slim residue of hope." p. 221.
"The news flashed through the beleaguered families from Philadelphia to New York to St. Louis to Tennessee to Chicago." p. 223.
"Surrounded everywhere by returning service men and scenes of joyous reunion, it all seemed too much to comprehend, too much to bear." p. 224.
"I see Bob in every khaki uniform...." p. 224.
Monday, August 6, 2007
Wings of Morning. Thomas Childers. Significant Sentences 06.
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 participating in the war.
"...the whole formation seemed to hang suspended over the invisible target." p. 89.
" 'Bombs Away,' Manners barked at last, and the plane heaved suddenly upward as its deadly cargo tumbled out, vanishing into the clouds below." p. 89.
"...the bouts of depression, combat fatigue verging on catatonia, self-destructive behavior that endangered a man and his crew." p. 135.
"The first five missions were typically the worst in a combat tour, when men saw flak and fighters and the tight formations for the first time, when they came to understand the brutal fragility of their existence." p. 135.
"They concentrated on the details of their jobs, hunkering down into the routine and realized that they could cope with the stress and survive." p. 135.
"People were dying by the hundreds of thousands from Manchuria to Shanghai, by the millions across the plains of Russia, but for Howard and Nancy and their friends the autumn of 1941 meant only that the team had gone undefeated...." p. 139.
"...the war whose end had seemed so near would grind on and on and on." p. 141.
"The Wings of Morning" (cont.)
"Gripping the wheel tightly, Farrington made a discovery that countless others had made before him--that it was possible to sweat at thirty below zero." p. 89."...the whole formation seemed to hang suspended over the invisible target." p. 89.
" 'Bombs Away,' Manners barked at last, and the plane heaved suddenly upward as its deadly cargo tumbled out, vanishing into the clouds below." p. 89.
"I'll Get By"
"...the group's formation diagram revealed that Farrington was slated to fly the tail-end Charlie slot in the low-left squadron...the most difficult and dangerous position in the whole formation...the coffin corner." p. 96."If Only in My Dreams"
" 'Two pounds!' Jerry said with mock indignation; 'we came to save your ass, honey, not to buy it.' "p. 131."...the bouts of depression, combat fatigue verging on catatonia, self-destructive behavior that endangered a man and his crew." p. 135.
"The first five missions were typically the worst in a combat tour, when men saw flak and fighters and the tight formations for the first time, when they came to understand the brutal fragility of their existence." p. 135.
"They concentrated on the details of their jobs, hunkering down into the routine and realized that they could cope with the stress and survive." p. 135.
"People were dying by the hundreds of thousands from Manchuria to Shanghai, by the millions across the plains of Russia, but for Howard and Nancy and their friends the autumn of 1941 meant only that the team had gone undefeated...." p. 139.
"...the war whose end had seemed so near would grind on and on and on." p. 141.
Thursday, August 2, 2007
Wings of Morning. Thomas Childers. Signficant Sentences. 05.
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.
The electrically heated F-3 flying suit: "Small, well-insulated wires, which would be plugged into the electrical system at his station in the aircraft, ran like veins throughout the dark brown jacket and overall pants." p. 77.
"Slowly the planes, ghostly silhouettes in the dingy mist, nosed ponderously out of their hardstands and began their lumbering procession." p. 81.
"Farrington was flying the artificial horizon, flying blind, ignoring his instincts, his senses, and relying instead on his instruments." p. 83.
"Planes from as many as forty air fields would be surging through the thick clouds into the packed air space over East Anglia at approximately the same time." p. 84.
"In the thin, bone-numbing air of northern Europe at twenty-three thousand feet the temperature inside the plane plunged to thirty below zero." p. 85.
"If the rheostat failed now, if the electric suit shorted out, he would freeze." p. 85.
"The Eighth Air Force, their instructor warned them, lost more men to frostbite than to enemy action." p. 85.
Arming the bombs: "The slippery, frozen catwalk was too narrow for him to wear his parachute, so as he leaned out in the frigid bomb bay, holding with one gloved hand to the vertical stanchions...a false step, he realized, would send him plunging through the doors to his death five miles below." p. 86.
"Mary, Mother of God, get me out of this." p. 88.
"The Wings of Morning" (cont.)
"At twenty thousand feet the frigid crystalline air would howl through the unpressurized aircraft like a gale and the temperatures would plunge to minus thirty or forty degrees Fahrenheit." p. 77.The electrically heated F-3 flying suit: "Small, well-insulated wires, which would be plugged into the electrical system at his station in the aircraft, ran like veins throughout the dark brown jacket and overall pants." p. 77.
"Slowly the planes, ghostly silhouettes in the dingy mist, nosed ponderously out of their hardstands and began their lumbering procession." p. 81.
"Farrington was flying the artificial horizon, flying blind, ignoring his instincts, his senses, and relying instead on his instruments." p. 83.
"Planes from as many as forty air fields would be surging through the thick clouds into the packed air space over East Anglia at approximately the same time." p. 84.
"In the thin, bone-numbing air of northern Europe at twenty-three thousand feet the temperature inside the plane plunged to thirty below zero." p. 85.
"If the rheostat failed now, if the electric suit shorted out, he would freeze." p. 85.
"The Eighth Air Force, their instructor warned them, lost more men to frostbite than to enemy action." p. 85.
Arming the bombs: "The slippery, frozen catwalk was too narrow for him to wear his parachute, so as he leaned out in the frigid bomb bay, holding with one gloved hand to the vertical stanchions...a false step, he realized, would send him plunging through the doors to his death five miles below." p. 86.
"Mary, Mother of God, get me out of this." p. 88.
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