Frank Murphy served in the Eighth Air Force as a B-17 navigator during the Second World War. In October 1943, during “Black Week”—when the Mighty Eighth lost many aircrews during attacks on Germany—Murphy’s plane was shot down and he was taken prisoner. German soldiers took him to Stalag Luft III where he stayed until January 1945, when he was forced to march to a different prisoner of war camp. He remained at Stalag Luft VII-A until the camp was freed by American troops near the end of the war.

Murphy’s descriptions of his time with his crew aboard Bastard’s Bungalow (their B-17), their experiences in battle, being shot down, and his time as a prisoner of war were well-crafted. I learned a lot from these portions of the book, but I wish the rest of the book followed this same formula.

I really wanted to give this book more than three stars. Unfortunately, I just couldn’t. This is a reprint of the memoir Murphy published in 2001. Instead of reprinting the book exactly the way it was in 2001 (simply adding a new foreword), this book would have benefited from some editing. It would have made it a better read and could have made some of Murphy’s meanderings more concise. For example, Murphy begins his memoir with a history of airpower—an entire chapter that could have been edited down to a few pages (most of it was completely unnecessary information for the reader). I don’t think we would have lost Murphy’s voice if some of his original writing was carefully edited; in fact, it would have made for a stronger finished product.