To Kingdom Come (47 page)

The increasing frustration of General Arnold at the perceived failure of Ira Eaker to utilize all the assets Arnold was sending him is covered in significant detail by Mr. Parton. The account of Arnold’s tirade to Air Marshal Portal in Cairo over Eaker’s handling of the Eighth Air Force is recounted in both the above biographies.

Eaker’s humiliation at the way he was removed, and his subsequent anger at Arnold, was drawn from Miller’s
Masters of the Air: America’s Bomber Boys Who Fought the Air War Against Nazi Germany.

The cables between Eaker, Arnold, and Eisenhower after Arnold informed Eaker that he was being “promoted” to his new assignment in the Mediterranean were reviewed by the author at the National Archives and Records Administration in College Park, Maryland.

Desperate Journey

The account of Warren Laws’s first thwarted attempts to escape from France was provided to the author by Warren Laws, Jr., who interviewed two of the American escapees who were with Mr. Laws in Paris when their underground contact was arrested by the Gestapo. Mr. Laws, Jr., also interviewed Abbé Bonnard, the Catholic priest who related the account of Mr. Laws’s mission with the S.A.S. to resupply the local Maquis unit.

The narrative of Mr. Laws’s perilous journey over the Pyrenees in December 1943, including his efforts to save the life of his comrade who asked to be left behind in the mountains, was related to the author by Warren P. Laws, Jr., who had read the written account of his father. In 2009, Mr. Laws, Jr., retraced his father’s steps by making the same climb over the Pyrenees. The author chose to change the name of Mr. Laws’s fellow escapee to Henry Krueger to avoid any embarrassment to his family.

The account of Mr. Laws’s time in the Spanish prison at Girona, as well as his subsequent release to an American military attaché, was drawn from interviews with Mr. Laws, Jr., and Elizabeth Laws.

The Telegram

The copies of the telegrams Braxton Wilken received from the War Department, along with the other letters excerpted in this chapter, were provided to the author by the recipient. The section related to her actions in the wake of the devastating news was related in interviews.

On the Run

The narrative of Mr. Armstrong’s remarkable adventures as an escapee in France, including the many occasions when his plans were thwarted by bad luck, unreliable contacts, inclement weather, German collaborators, a failed rendezvous, snowdrifts in the Pyrenees, and German foot patrols, culminating in a harrowing voyage by boat to England in the middle of a vicious storm, was related to the author in his interviews with Mr. Armstrong. Additional details were supplied by Mr. Armstrong in his book,
Escape!

After the war, Mr. Armstrong also interviewed many of the French people who assisted him, and their own accounts are included in his book.

Against All Odds

The author’s observations on the diminished fighting strength of Luftwaffe fighter command in March 1944, as well as the relative training experience of the American and German pilots after attrition cost the Luftwaffe many of its more experienced pilots, were drawn from
The Luftwaffe Over Germany
and Weal’s
Jagdgeschwader 2 “Richthofen.”

The details of Egon Mayer’s final combat mission were based on
Jagdgeschwader 2 “Richthofen,”
Kacha’s Luftwaffe Page, the Eighth Air Force Fighter Command Report on Active Operations for that day, and Norman Fortier’s book,
An Ace of the Eighth: An American Fighter Pilot’s Air War in Europe
, in which Mr. Fortier, himself a decorated fighter pilot, states that based on gun camera footage, it was Lieutenant Walter Gresham who shot down Egon Mayer.

Cloak and Dagger

The final episode in Andy Andrews’s wartime career in Europe was related to the author in interviews. The narrative of his months in the temporary holding camp in the Jura Mountains, which details his efforts to raise the men’s morale by teaching several academic courses, and his own demoralization after his crew’s transfer to the former ski resort at Adelboden, Switzerland, were also drawn from interviews, as well as the account researched and written by the American Swiss Foundation. Additional material about Mr. Andrews’s time at Adelboden can be found in the excellent book
Refuge from the Reich: American Airmen and Switzerland During World War II,
by Stephen Tanner.

The story of the recruitment of Andy Andrews by OSS Station Chief Allen Dulles to become a courier of top secret intelligence information was provided to the author by Mr. Andrews in their interviews. Mr. Andrews also described his experiences with Mr. Dulles in an account he wrote after the war. This subject is also covered in the American Swiss Foundation account, as well as by Stephen Tanner in
Refuge from the Reich.
The details of Mr. Andrews’s trip across wartime Germany, and his subsequent debriefing at OSS Headquarters in Virginia, were recounted to the author in interviews.

The End of a Tour

In summing up the outstanding combat career of General Robert F. Travis, the author relied principally on official documents, as well as the letters written by General Travis. A complete list of his combat decorations was found in the National Archives and Records Administration in College Park, Maryland.

The general’s evident pride in his awards is evident in the letters he wrote to his father during his wartime service with the Eighth Air Force. After he was reprimanded by General Eaker for security breaches, General Travis was careful in his letters to avoid censorship concerns. Many of his letters to his father are archived in the Manuscript, Archives, & Rare Book Library (MARBL) at Emory University, Atlanta, Georgia.

In writing about General Travis’s role in the Eighth Air Force’s mission to Oschersleben, Germany, on January 11, 1944, the author relied on the mission report of the 303rd Bomb Group (303rd BG [H] Combat Mission No. 98), which is archived at their Web site. The nearly five-thousand-word letter written by General Travis to the widow of copilot William Fisher after the battle is also published on the same Web site. This letter never mentions the recall order issued by General Jimmy Doolittle that General Travis said afterward he never received.

The details of General Travis’s mission to Berlin, Germany, on April 29, 1944, during which he was wounded, was related to the author by pilot Don Stoulil, who was with General Travis in the cockpit at the time.

In describing General Travis’s last mission to the marshaling yards at Mainz, Germany, on September 21, 1944, the author relied on his interview with Captain William Eisenhart, who was the lead pilot of the entire Eighth Air Force that day, and flew with the general. The account of the incident in which Mr. Eisenhart’s urine accidentally sprayed the general’s face, leading to a dressing-down of him by General Travis after the mission was over, was also related to the author by Mr. Eisenhart, who added that following the mission, his navigator and bombardier were each awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross for leading the successful mission. Mr. Eisenhart, the lead pilot, said that he received no award at all.

Reb

In chronicling Olen Grant’s many months of captivity at Stalag 17 in Krems, Austria, the author relied on his interviews with Mr. Grant, in which Mr. Grant recalled the deprivations of life faced by every Allied POW in a German prisoner-of-war camp. Mr. Grant also supplied the author with copies of the letters he wrote home while he was a prisoner.

The sources for the narrative of Mr. Grant’s extended recuperation period in the German military hospital in Paris, followed by his arrival by train at Frankfurt, which had been bombed shortly before his arrival, his escape from a German mob intent on killing him, and his time in solitary confinement before being transferred to Stalag 17 were provided in interviews with Mr. Grant, although some additional material was drawn from Mr. Grant’s unpublished reminiscence,
For You the War Is Over
.

The account of Mr. Grant’s subsequent exchange for a wounded German soldier in Marseille, France, followed by his voyage home aboard the ocean liner
Gripsholm
, was drawn from interviews, as well as the story of his whirlwind courtship and marriage to Priscilla Hutchinson that appeared in the
New York Daily News
six days after his return to the United States.

Epilogue

In describing the air bases from which the men in this story took off for Stuttgart in 1943, the author relied on the memories of his own visits to them. Donald Miller’s
Masters of the Air
was the source for the casualty figures.

The narrative on the subsequent life of Martin “Andy” Andrews after the war came from author interviews, as well as letters Mr. Andrews wrote detailing his participation in the production of the newsreels about President Truman and the Hungarian Revolution.

The Armstrong segment was drawn from interviews.

Part of the account of General Arnold’s final years was derived from official sources, but most of the factual material was presented by Thomas Coffey in his biography
HAP
.

The Eaker segment came from official sources, as well as
Air Force Spoken Here
, the biography of General Eaker written by his former aide, James Parton.

The two segments on Reb Grant and Demetrios Karnezis were drawn from interviews. The narrative related to Bud Klint also came from interviews, along with material in Brian D. O’Neill’s
Half a Wing, Three Engines and a Prayer: B-17s Over Germany.

The material on Warren Laws came from interviews with his widow and son.

The narrative on Ted Wilken’s widow and daughter came from author interviews.

The section related to General Travis’s possible demotion, and the steps he took to avoid it, are documented in nine letters archived in the Manuscript, Archives, & Rare Book Library (MARBL) at Emory University, Atlanta, Georgia.

The account of Mr. Schwartzkopf’s life after the war was drawn from an interview with his daughter, Lori Sarnese.

The account of General Travis’s death came from the official Air Force Accident Summary. The description of the dedication ceremony at Travis Air Force Base, as well as the ensuing mutilation of his painting, can be found at the Arlington National Cemetery Web site (
www.arlingtoncemetery.net/rftravis.htm
).

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Books

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————.
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————.
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————
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————.
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————.
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