Wild Blue: The Men and Boys Who Flew the B024s over Germany, The

Flight Journal, Oct 2002 by DeGroat, Robert S

The Men and Boys Who Flew the B-24s over Germany by Stephen E. Ambrose. Simon & Schuster, Rockefeller Center, 1230 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY 10020; 300 pages; 16 b&w photographs; $26.

The Consolidated B-24 Liberator was considered America's "other" bomber. Its stablemate, the Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress, got all the praise and did a great job wherever it was employed. However, it was also withdrawn from every theater except the European, where its range (compared with the longer-legged B-24) did not matter. Which one was better? The argument persists today.

At last, historian Stephen Ambrose has taken a detailed look at the men who flew and maintained the B-24 in his latest book, "The Wild Blue." Though it is the combat experiences of former U.S. Sen. George McGovern that are the focus of this history, it is placed against the larger canvas of a wartime training system that turned out enough B-24 crews for combat in several theaters at the same time. McGovern was only one of thousands put through this arrangement; he eventually flew B-24s out of Italy with the 15th

Air Force. That is a story in itself, since during the War, the 15th was never as famous as the Mighty 8th (based in England).

Those volunteers, like McGovern, could basically look forward to completing 35 missions before going home-a daunting task. There was no glamour at altitude; only the relative certainty that more than 50 percent of them would never complete the requirement.

This is another book about "the Greatest Generation" that Ambrose documents so well. That he has sought to bring the B-24 and its brave crews out of the shadows can only be applauded. It is certainly about time someone did so.

-Robert S. DeGroat