Page 7 - Palm City Spotlight - April '24

Palm City Spotlight, Page 7

Book Review

I Will Tell No War Stories: pages, folded over and tossed aside, sitting as they had for airplane (enemy vs. friendly

What Our Fathers Left Unsaid almost 65 years. It was an account of each bomber mission fighter)—at six hundred
yards it would appear no
Pincus had been on when he was 19 and 20 years old!
About World War II Eventually serving as a belly gunner on B-24 Liberator bigger than a dime held at
bombers for many missions over Germany, the young man arm’s length, edgewise; 2)
By Nils A. Shapiro had kept a handwritten diary describing after each mission Estimate its distance (The
As we near the century what he and the crew of his plane had just gone through— gunsight made planes look
mark since the end of World an extraordinary document that reveals a view of aerial smaller than they were.) The
War II only two decades from warfare so intimate and detailed that to read its pages is plane’s vibration also made
now, we have all seen many as close as one can ever get to living the experience. accurate aiming difficult …
movies and read books about That was the inspiration and motivation for a new book 3) Estimate the difference
what our military forces by his son, Howard, who—starting with those faded old in the speeds of his bomber
experienced during those pages and a series of private tape recordings made by his and the enemy aircraft … 4)
years in combat overseas. father 75 years after the war and discovered along with ‘Compute the Lead’ – how
But what has been the diary—takes it from there and uses his own brilliant far in front of the attacker to fire … 5) And then fire … all
strangely missing is research skills to add a wealth of information gleaned from within three to six seconds.”
an explanation, and sources that fill a reference section of six full pages at the On Sept. 8, 1944, a few days before his 20th birthday,
understanding, of why our veterans—those who survived end of this book. I Will Tell No War Stories is officially Pincus Mansfield’s last note about his crew’s mission
to return home when so many did not—locked their wartime being published this month. over Karlsruhe read: “Temp. -38 C. (-34.6 F) Froze two
memories within themselves, refusing to discuss such After training in Colorado, Pincus Mansfield was sent fingers.” He was later to lose two fingers of his left hand,
experiences with family or friends for the rest of their lives. overseas to Old Buckenham military air base in East amputated because of the below-freezing cold that gunners
One of today’s finest historians and most skillful Anglia, England, and assigned as a belly gunner on the were exposed to in the cramped, clear plexiglass “bubbles”
researchers, Howard Mansfield, grew up in that kind of home. crew of the B-24 Liberator, Mary Harriet, in the 453rd in which they were restricted during flight. He had frostbite
His father, Pincus Mansfield, had joined the Army Air BG (Bomber Group). He was one of nearly 3,000 men but it didn’t stop him from flying; he was back in action
Force in 1943 at the age of 19. Although the truth was not stationed there as either crew or ground support for flying the next day. The author notes, “My father’s frostbite,
known by the general American public at the time, training missions over Germany in the years to come. three weeks shy of his twentieth birthday, would bother
for wartime air combat was woefully inadequate. The Try to picture in your mind, on a single mission, the him for the rest of his life. It was on his bad left hand.
result was that only one of every four bomber crews—each staggering sight of as many as 1,400 B-24 bombers filling Into his nineties, he was seeing doctors to have parts cut
consisting of a pilot and copilot, a bombardier, navigator the skies (plus hundreds of roving escort fighter planes), off. When I asked him why he was seeing a doctor for his
and gunners—completed its full tour of 25 missions. The in a carefully organized formation, often with fewer than hand, he said only, ‘It’s nothing. An inconvenience.’”
rest were shot down, killed in action, missing in action 100 feet between wing tips, and—for fear of crashing into Between what was for some a terror that was so intense
or taken as prisoners. As United Press reporter Harrison their own very close bombers—being unable to move out it would last a lifetime, for others a guilt at the realization
Salisbury said, “To fly in the Eighth Air Force then was to of position despite being attacked by enemy fighter planes that their job was to kill over and over again, we begin
hold a ticket to a funeral. Your own.” and flak from ground-based anti-aircraft cannons. to understand in these pages why so many World War II
Like most men of his generation, Pincus refused to talk Equally tense was the situation for the onboard gunners veterans could never speak about their wartime experiences
about the war throughout his lifetime, even to his family. He whose job was to protect themselves and their crews from to anyone but each other for the rest of their lives.
said a few things about his time in England but nothing ever the attacks of enemy fighter planes. Some of the following Here is one more brief excerpt that provides a glimpse
about combat. text has been deleted for lack of space here and been of what it was like in the skies of World War II:
It was not until many years later, after his father’s passing replaced by ellipses (…). “Sometimes the planes would blow up, the bombs aboard
and while cleaning out the old family home, that Howard “The big problem was the obvious one: aiming the gun exploding, or the fuel in the tanks, or both … The aircraft

Mansfield found in a small drawer with his dad’s cufflinks … the gunner, cold and on oxygen after hours of inactivity
and tie clips some small, unlined, pocket-sized notebook had to exercise split-second judgment … 1) Recognize the Book Review on page 8

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