ORB: Operations Record Books. Squadron log books are located in the Public Record Office/National Archives (UK), Kew, Richmond, Surrey.
CHAPTER ONE: NONE OF AMERICA'S BUSINESS
1. Time, June 24, 1940.
2. James Goodson, Tumult in the Clouds (New York: St. Martin's, 1983), p. 29.
3. Herald Tribune article and Oath of Allegiance from Flight magazine, October 1940.
4. One of the six travelers to Canada was Chesley Peterson, who will be mentioned later.
5. There were actually three Neutrality Acts that were passed by Congress between 1935 and 1937. Among other things, they banned the export of weapons to any belligerent nation and the use of any American vessels to transport them, made it illegal for US citizens to travel on ships of any belligerent nation, and prohibited any loans or any form of credit to any belligerent nation. The United States was determined to stay out of any and all foreign wars. The act that banned the export of weapons and the use of American vessels to transport them was repealed in 1939.
6. James A. Goodson thought that some Americans who joined the RAF early in the war did lose their citizenship temporarily but soon had it restored for practical reasons. When the US entered the war, the Army Air Force desperately needed experienced pilots and air crews. American authorities did everything possible to expedite the transfer to the US forces of the pilots who had violated the Neutrality Acts, including restoring US citizenship if it had been lost.
7. Norman Longmate, The G.I.’s: The Americans in Britain, 1942–1945 (New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1975), p. 15.
8. The seven “official” Americans in RAF Fighter Command during the summer of 1940 were W. M. L. Fiske (609 Squadron, died August 17, 1940), Arthur Donahue (64 Squadron), J. K. Haviland (151 Squadron), Phil Leckrone (616 Squadron), and Andrew Mamedoff, Vernon Keough, and Eugene Tobin (609 Squadron).
9. Norman Gelb, Scramble! (Orlando, FL: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1985), p. 98.
10. Biographical information regarding Jimmy Davies is from his article in Air Log, June 1940.
11. John R. McCrary and David E. Scherman, First of the Many: A Journal of Action with the Men of the Eighth Air Force (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1944), p. 210.
12. Gelb, Scramble! p. 172.
13. Ibid.
14. Times (London), August 19, 1940. Note that this does not take into account Jimmy Davies of Bernardsville, New Jersey, who became the first American ace of the war. (F/Lt. Davies technically did not take part in the Battle of Britain. He was killed on June 25, 1940. The Air Ministry's “official” dates for the battle are July 10 to October 31, 1940, which means that Davies was shot down two weeks before the battle officially began.) No one can say for certain how many “Canadian” pilots who were killed in the battle were actually from the United States—I have tried to find out, but to no avail.
15. Arthur Donahue, Tally Ho! Yankee in a Spitfire (New York: Macmillan, 1941), p. 1.
16. Ibid., p. 57.
17. Information about Tobin, Mamedoff, and Keough is derived from many sources. The best is Eugene Tobin's article (with Robert Low), “Yankee Eagle over London,” Liberty, March–April 1941.
18. David Crook, Spitfire Pilot (London: Greenhill Books, 1988), p. 129.
19. Ibid., p. 130.
20. Francis Mason, Battle over Britain (London: McWhirter Twins, 1969), p. 176.
21. Information on Tobin's combat experience was taken from multiple sources, the best being Tobin and Low, “Yankee Eagle over London.”
22. Robert S. Raymond, A Yank in Bomber Command (Pacifica, CA: Pacifica Press, 1998), p. 8.
23. Damage to Andy Mamedoff's Spitfire as noted in 609 Squadron's ORB.
24. Red Tobin's story from Tobin and Low, “Yankee Eagle over London.”
25. Crook, Spitfire Pilot, p. 130.
26. Longmate, G.I.’s, p. 13.
CHAPTER TWO: HISTORICAL PREJUDICES
1. Statistics on Fighter Command losses in Derek Wood and Derek Dempster, The Narrow Margin (London: Hutchinson, 1961), p. 261.
2. Opinion poll findings in William Manchester, The Glory and the Dream (Boston: Little, Brown, 1973), p. 276.
3. Vern Haugland, The Eagle Squadrons (New York: Ziff Davis, 1979), p. 33.
4. Norman Gelb, Scramble! (Orlando, FL: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1985), p. 186.
5. Clive Barnes, editorial, Evening Standard (London), December 27, 1988.
6. Manchester, Glory and the Dream, p. 270.
7. Charles Sweeny, introduction to The Eagles Roar! by Byron Kennerly (New York: Harper & Brothers, 1942), p. viii.
8. Manchester, Glory and the Dream, p. 277.
9. The account of the early days of 71 (Eagle) Squadron was taken from many sources, especially 71 Squadron's ORB, but also including: Earl Boebert, “The Eagle Squadrons,” AAHS Journal (Spring 1964); James Saxon Childers, War Eagles (New York: D. Appleton-Century, 1943); Haugland, Eagle Squadrons; Kennerly, Eagles Roar!; and many, many magazine articles from 1940 and 1941.
10. 71 Squadron's ORB.
11. Haugland, Eagle Squadrons, p. 120.
12. Clifton F. Berry, “Battle of Britain 1940,” Air Force Magazine, September 1980.
13. Kennerly, Eagles Roar! p. 129.
14. News Chronicle, March 3, 1940.
CHAPTER THREE: A VERY ODD ASSORTMENT
1. Norman Longmate, The G.I.’s: The Americans in Britain, 1942–1945 (New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1975), p. 91.
2. J. E. Johnson, Wing Leader (New York: Ballantine, 1957), p. 51.
3. James Saxon Childers, War Eagles (New York: D. Appleton-Century, 1943), p. 111.
4. Ibid., p. 329.
5. 71 Squadron's ORB.
6. Vern Haugland, The Eagle Squadrons (New York: Ziff Davis, 1979), p. 36.
7. Ibid.
8. Childers, War Eagles, p. 330.
9. Earl Boebert, “The Eagle Squadrons,” AAHS Journal (Spring 1964).
10. Haugland, Eagle Squadrons, p. 39.
11. Leo Nomis, “Fighting under Three Flags,” Defence Update International, nos. 47 and 48.
12. Haugland, Eagle Squadrons, p. 16.
13. William R. Dunn's experiences with joining the RAF, including his early days with 71 Squadron, from William Dunn, Fighter Pilot (Lexington: University Press of Kentucky, 1982), p. 43.
14. Ibid., p. 48.
15. Boebert, “Eagle Squadrons.”
16. 71 Squadron's ORB.
17. The advice for fledgling fighter pilots is from “Tips from an Eagle Pilot,” Air Forces General Information Bulletin, bulletin no. 8 (Washington, DC: Intelligence Service, US Army Air Force, January 1943).
18. Dunn, Fighter Pilot, p. 110.
19. 71 Squadron's ORB.
CHAPTER FOUR: FAILURES TO COMMUNICATE
1. Wallace Stegner, “Who Are the Westerners?” American Heritage (December 1987).
2. Earl Boebert, “The Eagle Squadrons,” AAHS Journal (Spring 1964).
3. Ibid.
4. Ibid.
5. James Saxon Childers, War Eagles (New York: D. Appleton-Century, 1943), p. 30.
6. Boebert, “Eagle Squadrons.”
7. Flight, August 15, 1941.
8. Childers, War Eagles, p. 114.
9. Peter Townsend, Duel of Eagles (New York: Pocket Books, 1972), p. 340.
10. Boebert, “Eagle Squadrons.”
11. Norman W. Schur, British Self-Taught: With Comments in American (New York: Macmillan, 1973), p. xii.
12. Herald Tribune quote is from David Alan Johnson's “Divided by a Common Language,” Heritage, December 1989.
13. Byron Kennerly, The Eagles Roar! (New York: Harper & Brothers, 1942), p. 44.
14. Robert S. Raymond, A Yank in Bomber Command (Pacifica, CA: Pacifica Press, 1998), p. 12.
15. Clifton F. Berry, “Battle of Britain 1940,” Air Force Magazine, September 1980.
16. Norman Franks, The Greatest Air Battle (London: Grub Street, 1992), p. 140.
17. Berry, “Battle of Britain 1940.”
18. Arthur Donahue, Tally-Ho! Yankee in a Spitfire (New York: Macmillan, 1941), p. 21.
19. William Manchester, The Glory and the Dream (Boston: Little Brown, 1973), p. 244.
20. Ibid., pp. 278–79.
21. Ibid., p. 246.
22. Sir Archibald Sinclair remarks from Assistant Chief of Air Staff, “Origins of the Eighth Air Force: Plans Organization, Doctrines,” US Air Force Historical Study No. 102 (October 1944).
23. Norman Longmate, How We Lived Then (London: Hutchinson, 1971), p. 485.
CHAPTER FIVE: CONFLICTS AND RIVALRIES
1. Information on 121 Squadron's early days, including personnel, was taken from 121 Squadron's ORB and from Vern Haugland, The Eagle Squadrons (New York: Ziff Davis, 1979), pp. 43–55.
2. Clayton Knight statistics from Earl Boebert, “The Eagle Squadrons,” AAHS Journal (Spring 1964).
3. James Saxon Childers, War Eagles (New York: D. Appleton-Century, 1943), p. 238.
4. Ibid., p. 213.
5. Ibid., p. 238.
6. 121 Squadron's ORB.
7. News Chronicle (London), May 19, 1941.
8. 121 Squadron's ORB.
9. The St. Valentine's Day Massacre, as well as the doings of Al Capone and other gangsters of the 1920s, were reported in most London newspapers, including the Times. The British were (and are) more interested in American affairs than most Americans imagine.
10. George Orwell, “George Orwell's America,” American Heritage, February–March 1984.
11. Information on Bill Dunn's August 27, 1941, combat experience from his autobiography, Fighter Pilot (Lexington: University Press of Kentucky, 1982), pp. 77–88.
12. Information on S/L Taylor, as well as biographical details of his successors, from Boebert, “Eagle Squadrons,” and from Childers, War Eagles, pp. 59–67.
13. Details of 133 Squadron's early days from 133 Squadron's ORB, as well as from Boebert, “Eagle Squadrons,” and Haugland, Eagle Squadrons, pp. 55–57.
14. Haugland, Eagle Squadrons, p. 56.
15. Details of the Spitfire Mark V from J. E. Johnson, Wing Leader (New York: Ballantine, 1957), pp. 75–76.
16. Duke-Wooley's account of a Spitfire pilot's discomfort from Norman Franks, The Greatest Air Battle (London: Grub Street, 1992), p. 140.
CHAPTER SIX: COLORFUL CHARACTERS AND “OLD SCHOOL TIE BOYS”
1. Biographical information on Leo Nomis from his own article, “Fighting under Three Flags,” and from James Saxon Childers, War Eagles (New York: D. Appleton-Century, 1943), pp. 217–19. Biographical information on Sam Mauriello from Childers, War Eagles, pp. 149–50. Biographical information on Newton Anderson from Childers, War Eagles, pp. 212–14.
2. Information on the death of Red Tobin from 71 Squadron's ORB.
3. Richard Collier, Eagle Day (London: JM Dent, 1980), p. 145.
4. Information on the death of Andy Mamedoff from 133 Squadron's ORB.
5. David Crook's remarks regarding Keough, Mamedoff, and Tobin in Norman Gelb, Scramble! (Orlando, FL: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1985), p. 187.
6. Earl Boebert, “The Eagle Squadrons,” AAHS Journal (Spring 1964).
7. William Dunn, Fighter Pilot (Lexington: University Press of Kentucky, 1982), p. 65.
8. Boebert, “Eagle Squadrons.”
9. Michael J. F. Bowyer, Action Stations 1: Wartime Military Airfields of East Anglia 1939–1945 (Cambridge: PLS, 1979), p. 73.
10. 121 Squadron's ORB.
11. 71 Squadron's ORB.
12. Boebert, “Eagle Squadrons.”
13. Childers, War Eagles, p. 15.
14. Leo Nomis's comments are from his article “Fighting under Three Flags.”
15. Robert S. Raymond, A Yank in Bomber Command (Pacifica, CA: Pacifica Press, 1998), pp. 69–70.
16. George Orwell, “George Orwell's America,” American Heritage, February–March 1984.
17. Raymond, Yank in Bomber Command, p. 198.
18. Norman Longmate, The G.I.’s: The Americans in Britain, 1942–1945 (New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1975), p. 96.
19. Alistair Cooke, Alistair Cooke's America (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1977), p. 8.
20. Boebert, “Eagle Squadrons.”
21. Childers, War Eagles, p. 238.
CHAPTER SEVEN: NO MORE BLOODY YANKS!
1. Vern Haugland, The Eagle Squadrons (New York: Ziff Davis, 1979), p. 87.
2. Comments on Chesley Peterson from Earl Boebert's article, “The Eagle Squadrons,” AAHS Journal (Spring 1964).
3. James Saxon Childers, War Eagles (New York: D. Appleton-Century, 1943), p. 288.
4. 121 Squadron's ORB.
5. John R. McCrary and David E. Scherman, The First of the Many (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1944), p. 24.
6. Haugland, Eagle Squadrons, p. 108.
7. Editorial from Times (London), August 19, 1941.
8. Childers, War Eagles, pp. 239–40.
9. Norman Longmate, The G.I.’s: The Americans in Britain, 1942–1945 (New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1975), p. 271.
10. Ibid., p. 258.
11. William Dunn, Fighter Pilot (Lexington: University Press of Kentucky, 1982), p. 63.
12. Information on the Eagles’ losses from 121 and 133 Squadron's ORB.
CHAPTER EIGHT: BELLIGERENT ALLIES
1. Byron Kennerly, The Eagles Roar! (New York: Harper & Brothers, 1942), p. 35.
2. Information about the German propaganda scheme involving US POWs from declassified interviews with Eagle Squadron pilots, Public Records Office, Kew, Richmond, Surrey.
3. William Manchester, The Glory and the Dream (Boston: Little, Brown, 1973), p. 316.
4. Ibid., pp. 316–17.
5. Leo Nomis, “Fighting under Three Flags,” Defence Update International, nos. 47 and 48.
6. Ibid.
7. Vern Haugland, The Eagle Squadrons (New York: Ziff Davis, 1979), p. 92.
8. Information about John Lynch's and Leo Nomis's attack on a Ju 88 from 71 Squadron's ORB.
9. Observations on the conduct of fighter pilots are from Earl Boebert, “The Eagle Squadrons,” AAHS Journal (Spring 1964).
10. “Ten Commandments for Fighter Pilots” in William Dunn, Fighter Pilot (Lexington: University Press of Kentucky, 1982), p. 47.
11. Boebert, “Eagle Squadrons.”
12. Norman Longmate, The G.I.’s: The Americans in Britain, 1942–1945 (New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1975), pp. 86, 220.
13. Information regarding “Operation Thunderbolt,” the Channel dash by three German warships, from 71 and 121 Squadron's ORB.
14. 133 Squadron's ORB.
15. Ibid.
16. Ibid.
17. 121 Squadron's ORB.
CHAPTER NINE: YANKEE DOODLE GOES TO TOWN
1. Information regarding P/O Mahon's combat from 121 Squadron's ORB.
2. Information regarding 71 Squadron's April 27 attack from 71 Squadron's ORB.
3. Len Deighton, Fighter: The True Story of the Battle of Britain (New York: Ballantine Books, 1977), p. 249.
4. Information about the promotion of “Weak Eyes Anderson” from 71 Squadron's ORB.
5. Graham Wallace, RAF Biggin Hill (London: Putnam, 1957), p. 251.
6. Quotes regarding early June 1942 fighter sweep in 71 Squadron's ORB.
7. Wallace, RAF Biggin Hill, p. 252.
8. Grover Hall, 1,000 Destroyed (Fallbrook, CA: Aero Publishing, 1978), p. 75.
9. Information on the early days of the Eighth Air Force from Roger Freeman, The Mighty Eighth (Garden City, N Y: Doubleday, 1970), pp. 1–15.
10. Wallace, RAF Biggin Hill, p. 257.
11. Assistant Chief of Air Staff, “Origins of the Eighth Air Force: Plans Organization, Doctrines,” US Air Force Historical Study No. 102 (October 1944).
12. Information on the first combat sorties of Eighth Air Force from Freeman, Mighty Eighth, pp. 6–8.
13. Robert S. Raymond, A Yank in Bomber Command (Pacifica, CA: Pacifica Press, 1998), p. 79.
14. 121 Squadron's ORB.
15. Freeman, Mighty Eighth, p. 12.
CHAPTER TEN: LIKE A GREAT SUSTAINED ROAR
1. Norman Franks, The Greatest Air Battle (London: Grub Street, 1992), p. 14.
2. Operational data—take-off time, time of arrival over Dieppe—from the ORBs of all three Eagle Squadrons.
3. Information about Strickland's encounter with the Focke-Wulfs from Brian James, “I Gather It Was You Who Shot Me Down,” Times Saturday Review, July 14, 1990.
4. 121 Squadron's ORB.
5. Ibid.
6. 71 Squadron's ORB.
7. Franks, Greatest Air Battle, p. 172.
8. James Saxon Childers, War Eagles (New York: D. Appleton-Century, 1943), p. 162.
9. Information about Peterson's bail-out incident from Childers, War Eagles, pp. 176–77; Vern Haugland, The Eagle Squadrons (New York: Ziff Davis, 1979), p.153; and Franks, Greatest Air Battle, p. 127. All three accounts are substantially the same.
10. Information about McPharlin's encounter with a Ju 88 from Childers, War Eagles, pp. 177–81; and Franks, Greatest Air Battle, pp. 128, 187.
11. 133 Squadron's ORB.
12. Franks, Greatest Air Battle, p. 170.
13. Ibid., p. 173.
14. German claims on August 19 from ibid., p. 236.
15. Eagle Squadron losses and official claims and 31st FG losses from ibid., pp. 239–45.
16. Ibid., p. 181.
17. Ibid., p. 182.
CHAPTER ELEVEN: A MOST DEMOCRATIC ARMY
1. Results of enemy action on August 27 and “Now No. 334. Sq. USAAF” in 71 Squadron's ORB.
2. Comments on Flying Fortress gunners are from a declassified interview with Carroll McColpin in 1942.
3. Graham Wallace, RAF Biggin Hill (London: Putnam, 1957), p. 254.
4. 133 Squadron's ORB.
5. Remarks on the rivalry between the three Eagle Squadrons are from Earl Boebert's article, “The Eagle Squadrons,” AAHS Journal (Spring 1964).
6. Vern Haugland, The Eagle Squadrons (New York: Ziff Davis, 1979), p. 161.
7. James A. Goodson, Tumult in the Clouds (New York: St. Martin's Press, 1983), p. 66.
8. W. W. G. Duncan Smith, Spitfire into Battle (London: John Murray, 1981), p. 65.
9. Leo Nomis, “Fighting under Three Flags,” Defence Update International, nos. 47 and 48.
10. Robert Raymond's impressions of his first days in the US forces are from his memoirs, A Yank in Bomber Command (Pacifica, CA: Pacifica Press, 1998), pp. 209–13.
11. Bill Dunn's remarks on his transfer from the RAF to the US Army Air Force are from his memoirs, Fighter Pilot (Lexington: University Press of Kentucky, 1982), pp. 111–12.
12. Information on J. K. Haviland from “J. Kenneth Haviland Is Alive and Well…,” Air Force Magazine, December 1980. Several books and periodicals mention Lance C. Wade, John J. Lynch, James H. Little, and David C. Fairbanks, including Raymond Tolliver and Trevor Constable's Fighter Aces of the USA and E. C. Baker's Fighter Aces of the RAF. Information on Alger Jenkins of Montclair, New Jersey, and Alan Reed, who graduated from Princeton University in 1940, is from the author's interview with the late Jack Areson of Montclair, New Jersey, also a graduate of Princeton.
CHAPTER TWELVE: MORE ENGLISH THAN THE ENGLISH
1. D. A. Young's encounter with the Ju 88 in 121 Squadron's ORB.
2. Most details of the Morlaix raid are from 133 Squadron's ORB. Information about the raid itself, as well as the impact on 133 Squadron, also provided in Earl Boebert, “The Eagle Squadrons,” AAHS Journal (Spring 1964), and Vern Haugland, The Eagle Squadrons (New York: Ziff Davis, 1979).
3. Don Gentile's account of the Morlaix raid is from James A. Goodson, Tumult in the Clouds (New York: St. Martin's, 1983), p. 61.
4. Account of the Peterson press conference is in Grover C. Hall, 1,000 Destroyed (Fallbrook, CA: Aero Publishing, 1978), pp. 49–50.
5. Details of Goodson's and Alexander's fighter sweep from James Goodson, Tumult in the Clouds (New York: St. Martin's, 1983), pp. 67–68.
6. Roger Freeman, The Mighty Eighth (Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1970), p. 40.
7. Ibid., p. 236.
8. “Terrible Twins,” RAF Flying Review, August 1958.
9. Hall, 1,000 Destroyed, p. 24.
10. The 4th FG's total for March–April 1944 and final total from Freeman, Mighty Eighth, pp. 230–31.
11. Bierne Lay Jr., letter to the author.
12. Sholto Douglas's speech was found in several newspapers and magazines. Here, the quotes are from the Times (London), September 30, 1942.
13. 121 Squadron's ORB.
14. Ibid.
15. Norman Longmate, The G.I.’s: The Americans in Britain, 1942–1945 (New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1975), p. xiii.
16. Ibid., p. 14.
CHAPTER THIRTEEN: YOU'RE AN AMERICAN, I BELIEVE
1. Biographical information on John G. Magee Jr. from Hermann Hagedorn, Sunward I've Climbed (New York: Macmillan, 1942), and from Dr. A. H. Lankester, “A Tribute to John Magee, the Pilot Poet,” This England (Winter 1982). Text of “High Flight” also from Hagedorn, Sunward I've Climbed.
2. The account of the two Americans and their crossing into Canada from Red Tobin, “Yankee Eagle over London,” Liberty, March–April 1941.
3. John H. Stickell biographical information supplied by Marvin S. Bloomer of Maquon, Illinois.
4. Frank A. Roper, interview with the author.
5. Information from anonymous RAF volunteers via correspondence with the author.