Page 30 - Boca ViewPointe - April '24

Page 30, Viewpointe April 2024

Book Review

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

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