Page 20 - Boca Club News - April '24

Page 20, Boca Club News

The Arts

Book Review…“I Will Tell No War Stories:

What Our Fathers Left Unsaid About World War II”

By Nils A. Shapiro “The big problem was realization that their job was to kill over and over again,
As we near the century mark the obvious one: aiming we begin to understand in these pages why so many World
since the end of World War II only the gun…the gunner, War II veterans could never speak about their wartime
two decades from now, we have all cold and on oxygen after experiences to anyone but each other for the rest of their
seen many movies and read books hours of inactivity had lives.
about what our military forces to exercise split-second Here is one more brief excerpt that provides a glimpse
experienced during those years in judgment…1) Recognize of what it was like in the skies of World War II:
combat overseas. the airplane (enemy vs. “Sometimes the planes would blow up, the bombs
But what has been strangely friendly fighter)—at six aboard exploding, or the fuel in the tanks, or both…The
missing is an explanation, and understanding, of why our hundred yards it would aircraft splits into pieces of metal…You might see bodies…
veterans—those who survived to return home when so many appear no bigger than a Men, pinned to the walls and floor by the centrifugal force
did not—locked their wartime memories within themselves, dime held at arm’s length, of a spinning plane had little time to escape before the
refusing to discuss such experiences with family or friends edgewise; 2) Estimate its bomber hit the ground…The crews in other bombers could
for the rest of their lives. distance (The gun sight only watch as men fell five miles down through bombers
One of today’s finest historians and most skillful made planes look smaller and fighters in battle, fell without a parachute or with a
researchers, Howard Mansfield, grew up in that kind of than they were.) The plane’s vibration also made accurate parachute on fire, or were machine gunned to death as
home. aiming difficult…3) Estimate the difference in the speeds they hung from a parachute.”
His father, Pincus Mansfield, had joined the Army Air of his bomber and the enemy aircraft…4) ‘Compute the But Howard Mansfield’s book is not all a history of
Force in 1943 at the age of 19. Although the truth was not Lead’ – how far in front of the attacker to fire…5) And tragedy. His Dad made it home, and the last two chapters
known by the general American public at the time, training then fire…all within three to six seconds.” describe the life he returned to–a touching and emotional
for wartime air combat was woefully inadequate. The On September 8th, 1944, a few days before his 20th reminder of why these men kept the demons of memory
result was that only one of every four bomber crews—each birthday, Pincus Mansfield’s last note about his crew’s to themselves, refusing to share them with loved ones.
consisting of a pilot and co-pilot, a bombardier, navigator mission over Karlsruhe read: “Temp. -38 C. (-34.6 F) “My father, like most of the men of his generation, chose
and gunners—completed its full tour of 25 missions. The Froze two fingers.” Parts of his left hand were damaged silence…By his silence he said, I give you peace. Take
rest were shot down, killed in action, missing in action because of the below-freezing cold; surgeons wanted to it. Take the yawning days of summer boredom, the hours
or taken as prisoners. As United Press reporter Harrison cut off parts but he refused. As a waist gunner he stood at on the floor watching TV shows with a talking horse or a
Salisbury said, “To fly in the Eighth Air Force then was to a large gun port open to the winds. He had frostbite but wily coyote, the hours lost with a coloring book on a rainy
hold a ticket to a funeral. Your own.” it didn’t stop him from flying; he was back in action the day…take the school days and proms…touch football in
Like most men of his generation, Pincus refused to talk next day. The author notes, “My father’s frostbite, three the street…Take it all. I give you peace. Take it and don’t
about the war throughout his lifetime, even to his family. weeks shy of his twentieth birthday, would bother him for ask me questions. I will tell no war stories.”
He said a few things about his time in England but nothing the rest of his life. It was on his bad left hand. Into his To all of you who are veterans of any war, or who now
ever about combat. nineties, he was seeing doctors to have parts cut off. When or in the past have had veterans in your lives, those words
It was not until many years later, after his father’s passing I asked him why he was seeing a doctor for his hand, he alone are all you need to know about Howard Mansfield,
and while cleaning out the old family home, that Howard said only, ‘It’s nothing. An inconvenience.’” and why I recommend this as just the first of this wonderful
Mansfield found in a small drawer with his dad’s cufflinks Between what was for some a terror that was so historian’s books you will want to read.
and tie clips some small, unlined, pocket-sized notebook intense it would last a lifetime, for others a guilt at the
pages, folded over and tossed aside, sitting as they had for
almost 65 years. It was an account of each bomber mission
Pincus had been on when he was 19 and 20 years old!
Eventually serving as a belly gunner on B-24 Liberator
bombers for many missions over Germany, the young man
had kept a handwritten diary describing after each mission
what he and the crew of his plane had just gone through—an
extraordinary document that reveals a view of aerial warfare
so intimate and detailed that to read its pages is as close as
one can ever get to living the experience.
That was the inspiration and motivation for a new book
by his son, Howard, who—starting with those faded old
pages and a series of private tape recordings made by his
father 75 years after the war and discovered along with the
diary—takes it from there and uses his own brilliant research
skills to add a wealth of information gleaned from sources
that fill a reference section of six full pages at the end of
this book. “I Will Tell No War Stories,” is officially being
published this month.
After training in Colorado, Pincus Mansfield was sent
overseas to Old Buckenham military air base in East Anglia,
England, and assigned as a waist gunner on the crew of the
B-24 Liberator, Mary Harriet, in the 453rd BG (Bomber
Group). He was one of nearly 3,000 men stationed there
as either crew or ground support for flying missions over
Germany in the years to come.
Try to picture in your mind, on a single mission, the
staggering sight of as many as 1,400 B-24 bombers filling
the skies (plus hundreds of roving escort fighter planes),
in a carefully organized formation, often with fewer than
100 feet between wing tips, and—for fear of crashing into
their own very close bombers—being unable to move out
of position despite being attacked by enemy fighter planes
and flak from ground-based anti-aircraft cannons.
Equally tense was the situation for the onboard gunners
whose job was to protect themselves and their crews from
the attacks of enemy fighter planes. Some of the following
text has been deleted for lack of space here and been
replaced by ellipses (…):