Friday, March 27, 2009
Untold Valor: Forgotten Stories of American Bomber Crews over Europe in World War II
Untold Valor: Forgotten Stories of American Bomber Crews over Europe in World War II
For the men of the Army Air Corps in early World War II, the chance of surviving the obligatory twenty-five missions without death, injury, or imprisonment was one in three. In this groundbreaking book, Rob Morris has sought out remarkable but little-known stories of the air war from the men who lived and fought it.Based on hundreds of interviews with American veterans and their families, Untold Valor illuminates the courage of airmen whose exploits have until now remained untold. Read about Jewish aviators’ experiences as POWs in German camps. Learn about American airmen who were imprisoned, even killed, by the neutral Swiss and about two Air Corps enlisted men who changed U.S. policy toward liberated concentration camp survivors. Also discover the unusual story of Luftwaffe commander Herman Goering’s nephew, who flew B-17 missions against Germany. While some of the stories cover major events, most are about incidents and individuals misrepresented or overlooked by history books. Yet their efforts were vital, their lives forever changed.
Detailed and moving, Untold Valor is certain to interest the serious air historian and the casual reader alike. With a foreword by the editor of B–17s Over Berlin. Review From the Publisher About the Author thanks A Great Book by a Great Guy Important stories, poorly writtenProduct Details
Editorial Reviews
"This strong collection of tales of heroism is long overdue, for it salutes airmen who conducted Medal of Honor-worthy acts of courage, but whose stories were never told. Rob Morris does a terrific job of bringing these stories to life, and the variety of his subject matter is both intriguing and entrancing." --Walter J. Boyne, former director of the Smithsonian's National Air and Space Museum and author of BEYOND THE WILD BLUE: A HISTORY OF THE U.S. AIR FORCE
Provides a fascinating collection of eyewitness histories from Eight and Fifteenth Air Force veterans
Rob Morris is a high school history and English teacher with a lifelong interest in the World War II air war. This book is his sixth. He lives near Idaho Falls, Idaho.Customer Reviews
Great service -- well satisfied with all the books we have ordered and received. thanks
Reading this book has been a very special experience for me. My beloved grandfather, who was a ball-turret gunner on B-17s during WWII, passed away in 2007. Along with this loss, came the realization that I had not learned enough about his experience in the ball-turret, or enough about the history about the seemingly super-humanly brave men who manned the various aircraft of WWII. Their bravery and their losses in WWII were staggering, as was the often lifetime suffering for those wounded physically or psychologically. These are extraordinarily special men with special stories. They are a breed apart.
I found this book while searching for the phrase "ball-turret". In my search, I discovered this was the only book with a chapter dedicated to the subject. Like the ball-turret chapter, what you will find here are well-written, extremely important, soul-wrenching stories that might have been lost to history had the author not intervened to tell them.
After finishing the book, I decided to email the author to thank him for writing a chapter about the ball-turret and let him know how much I enjoyed and appreciated his book. Much to my pleasure and surprise, I received a warm response. We have been emailing back and forth ever since, along with a couple of the airmen written about and mentioned in the book that Rob to which Rob put me in contact with.
What is special about Untold Valor is the painstaking research Rob went through to make sure the stories were accurate as possible. In many cases, Rob developed close personal friendships with the airmen he writes about and was often a guest at their house for days at a time during his research. Also in many cases, sadly, such as with Leonard Herman and Gus Mencow, Rob has had to endure the loss of the friends he has come to know so well - those who he loves and admires infinitely. In the case of Leonard Herman, Rob was even recently asked to Eulogize Leonard at his funeral service. Each of these men gave their stamp of approval to Rob, which he went above and beyond to earn. In that regard, this book is the last living link to some of the most brave and heroic men in American History.
So, I recommend Rob's book "Untold Valor", the extended book about Leonard Herman, written by Leonard & Rob: "Combat Bombardier" and his blog untoldvalor.blogspot.com for learning about one of the most important, but infrequently discussed subjects of American History - the brave Airmen of WWII. After you do, I recommend sending Rob an email and let him know what you think! Rob is, himself, an example of Untold Valor in a literary, historical, educational and friendship sense. 
These are great stories, some of which have never been told before, and indeed some of the stories only developed fully in the last few years. The author deserves high praise for digging them out and bringing them to print. It is a difficult book to read, however, because the writing is amateurish, clumsy, and redundant. It was poorly edited, and at times appears that it was not edited at all. (How long would it take to verify the spelling of Strayer College?) The stories seem to be in random sequence and to have been developed independently of one another, which adds to the redundancy. Some facts about survival rates are repeated more than a dozen times in the course of the book.
Well worth reading, despite all this. Not enough has been said about Switzerland and the war, the strategic bombing decisions, the Allied treatment of displaced persons after the war, Jewish airmen, and other topics.
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