Dead Engine Kids : World War II Diary of John J. Briol, B-17 Ball Turret Gunner, with Comments from Notes of Other Crew Members

Editor John F. Welch: "I was the original Copilot on Lauren Spleth's B-17 crew, on which John Briol was the Ball Turret Gunner. We trained as a crew in Florida and Virginia, then joined the Eighth Air Force's 457th Bomb Group, with whom we flew our 35 missions, beginning September 12, 1944. In violation of regulations, John kept a diary, which he brought home sewed in the lining of his Army field jacket. Some years after John's death, his son brought the diary to my attention. After reading it, I concluded it should be published. I added comments of other crew members and my own, and persuaded two ladies, residents of Berlin at the time of our last mission, to write about how it was to be bombed. I combined all these inputs into the diary, served as editor, and self published DEAD ENGINE KIDS in 1993. Our crew name, and the name of the book, came from our crew's record of failed and shot out engines. It took only one mission, our first one, to convert us from young kids to grown men. Even now, when Î open the book and begin to read, it's as if it all happened yesterday, and I'm scared all over again."