Wings of morning : the story of the last American bomber shot down over Germany in World War II /

After their son died when flak destroyed his plane on April 21, 1945, the parents of Howard Goodner endured the frustrating process of finding out from the War Department exactly what happened. They never did find out. In 1992, Goodner's mother died, having kept through the years a cache of letters her son had written home. They inspired Childers, nephew to the long-dead airman and a professional historian of Nazi electoral politics, to reconstruct his uncle Howard's and his crewmates' wartime experiences. This result, a searching and emotional exploration, powerfully evokes the tension and relaxation cycle of flying combat missions, and as Childers builds toward the fateful day, he deeply and deftly involves readers to the extent that Goodner and comrades seem to be their own relatives and their own inconsolable losses. Quite a literary feat. As Childers stands on the spot from which his uncle departed on the last (and unnecessary) mission, as he presses toward the truth through witnesses to the crash and the relative documents, it must be a stony heart that doesn't share his sorrow and tears. Imaginative and emotive, and factually unerring, this outstanding remembrance is possibly the most original title among this year's anniversary works. --Gilbert Taylor

Childers, a history professor at the University of Pennsylvania, recounts the haunting story of one 12-man U.S. bomber crew during WWII. On a bombing run over Regensburg, on the eve of the German surrender, their B-24 Liberator was downed so swiftly by flak that only two crewmen could parachute to safety. One of those who perished was the author's uncle, Howard Goodner. This account is the product of his family's curiosity about Sgt. Goodner's tour of duty. Childers's detective work and reconstruction is impressive, covering training in the States, life on and off the base in England and the bombing missions over enemy territory. The narrative has extra depth and dimension from the focus on worried families of the airmen and the different ways each coped with the loss of its son. The book reads like a novel. One of the more interesting ``subplots'' concerns the demoralization of one crewman, as Childers evokes this man's dread between flights. Childers visited the crash site and interviewed German villagers, who provided details about the bomber's destruction and the disposition of the crewmens' bodies. (May) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved

Childers, a nephew of one of the 12-member crew of the Black Cat, the last American bomber shot down in World War II, tells the painful story of the two survivors and the ten (including his uncle) who never returned. Childers (history, Univ. of Pennsylvania) pieces together the bewildering puzzle by way of letters and interviews, including those with German villagers near the crash site. Some of the evidence is painful to read. The bomber was directed off course into unnecessary ground flak. Two men may or may not have been tortured by the German civilians. A parachute opened too close to the ground. An airman could have been trapped inside the plane as it crashed. Childers knows his subject well, having written three other books about German politics, culture, and resistance. This work, a poignant tale of the airmen who almost made it home and those who waited for and loved them, is a heartfelt story. Although it has been done before, it captures the intense feelings of wartime and, as such, deserves to be read.‘Ralph DeLucia, Willoughby Wallace Lib., Branford, Ct. (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

A poignant story of a B-24 crew from the selection and training of its members through their spine-tingling combat raids over Germany in WW II. Childers (History/Univ. of Pennsylvania), a nephew of crew member Howard Goodner, has sifted through hundreds of wartime letters between the 12 men and their loved ones. In addition, he has persevered in meticulously researching Air Corps and other government records, wresting spare information from an indifferent bureaucracy, visiting family members of the crew, and doing research in Germany. Narrating mainly from the standpoint of his uncle (who did not survive the bomber's final mission), Childers tells the story of the Black Cat, an inauspiciously named plane in America's Eighth Air Force that, in the last few months of the war in Europe, was engaged in supporting ground troops in the final offensive against Nazi Germany. The Black Cat had 22 successful missions, sustaining only minor damage. On the stormy day of April 21, 1945, shortly before the German surrender, the crew departed on a mission to bomb a bridge, no more than ten feet wide, near Salzburg, Austria. Sending the plane up in weather so bad that the pilot could not locate the target was only one of the erroneous command decisions made that day. After the mission was canceled, the commander disregarded the warnings of the navigator and directed the bomber to return over Regensburg, a town covered by heavy German anti-aircraft fire. The bomber was shot down, and all but two of the crew perished. Childers tells his true and tragic story with both the narrative flow of fiction and a you-are-there immediacy. A fitting memorial to the crew of the Black Cat.