One example of how Caiden "sweetened" a story has been pointed out to me (by
two people, as a matter of fact):
In Fork-Tailed Devil, Caiden relates the death of William Sells. In the Caiden
account he says that "perhaps" only one scorched carbon sheet remains to tell
what happened to Sells, a paper Caiden found while working in Japan. However,
Sells career and death are fully documented in the usual routine way.
Caiden says the carbon he found is damaged so that the date of the episode and
Sells' unit are not known, although he suggests a possible fighter group. In
fact, Sells squadron, the individual plane he was flying, and the date of the
episode are fully documented.
The story Caiden then tells is fantasy. He says Sells took off alone on an
engine check only to discover dozens upon dozens of approaching Japanese
bombers and fighters bearing down on the field, none of which had been detected
by radar (how this could be is not explained). Sells gallantly attacks them
single-handedly and shoots down six (the shootdowns witnessed by those on the
ground) before running out of ammo. His plane riddled with bullets, an engine
on fire, himself bleeding profusing, he dives away and heads for a landing.
In fact, the Japanese did launch a very large raid that day. It was detected
by radar and several flights of fighters were sent up to intercept, including
one led by Sells. One of his four planes aborted, but three continued and Sells
led his wingmen (whose names are known) into an attack on a formation of Vals
escorted by Zeros. He ordered one of his wingmen to attack the Vals while he
and his wingman attacked the Zeros. Sells' wingman lost him in the attack on
the fighters and diverted to attack the Vals, damaging two before being chased
off by Zeros. The wingman who had been orderd to attack the Vals is bounced by
Zeros and has to break off his attack before inflicting any damage. He sees
Sells alone engaging 12 Zeros, goes to his assistance, attacks the Zeros and
shoots down one confirmed before having to dive out of the fight. No one sees
Sells shoot down any planes and he is not officially credited with having shot
any down.
In Caiden's account, Sells heads for the nearest field but P-40s are scrambling
from it and Sells is ordered to go around and his plane crashes while he is
attempting to do so.
Unit records say Sells was making an emergency landing on one engine at RAAF
Gurney when he was cut off on short final (gear down, full flaps) by a landing
P-40. In avoiding a collision Sells' plane ran out of flying speed and
crashed, killing him.
The real story of Sells' death is fully interesting enough. But apparently
Caiden felt the need to "massage" it.
Apparently, he didn't do this because he was a knucklehead, but because he had
discovered that the largest audience for mass-market paperbacks about WW2
aviation were junior high school and early high school boys, so he adjusted his
writing to make it as appealing as possible to this target audience.



Chris Mark