Subject: review: new magazine "Bomber Legends"
From: Bob McKellar
Date: 4/23/04 8:13 PM Pacific Daylight Time
Message-id:



ArtKramr wrote:

Subject: review: new magazine "Bomber Legends"
From: nt (Krztalizer)
Date: 4/23/04 4:58 PM Pacific Daylight Time
Message-id:


Havener is also the author of, "The Martin B-26 Marauder" the best book
on
B-26's ever, published by TAB Aero.. The 497th was one of the 4 squadrons
that
made up the 344th bomb group. They were the 494th, the 495, the 496th
and
the
497th. And Jack was a regular at most of our annual reunions. Never knew
he
made Lt. Colonel though. But thanks for the heads up. I don't know what
story
he has in the new mag, but I'll bet I've heard it a time or two.

His story in this issue concerns how the 8th and its 4-motor'd things
always
got the press, at the expense of everyone else. Its an engaging story
named
after a headline in Stars & Stripes: "8th AF Heavies Pound Germany. blah,
blah, blah.. fourth of fifth line down, ending the bold print was the
simple
mention, "Mediums were also out.", which apparently didn't sit well with
Havener and the Marauder boys, having just returned from a bar fight over
the
V-1 launch sites. You'd love it, Art. If you can't get a copy, let me
know
and I'll shoot this one over to you.

v/r
Gordon
====(A+C====
USN SAR

An LZ is a place you want to land, not stay.


Thanks. I'll try to get a copy. What Jack left out is that the 8th AF
recruited the best PR and ad men from Madison avenue. It was a Madison
avenue
copy writer who coined "The Mighty 8th" These writers and PR guys were
given
good rank and of course had strong connections in the press having worked
with
all of them for years so it is no wonder that the 8th got all the press.
After
the war these guys all went back to their ad agencies. I worked with many
of
them at J..Walter Thompson NY after the war.

Arthur Kramer
344th BG 494th BS
England, France, Belgium, Holland, Germany
Visit my WW II B-26 website at:
http://www.coastcomp.com/artkramer

They're still that way.

I live in the almost home town of the relatively new "Mighty Eighth" museum.
Unlike other museums I have been associated with ( such as the late lamented
Florence SC museum), these guys started at the top and worked down.

Instead of using volunteers and doing things "on the cheap" for years to
build up
an organization, they formed a corporation with a chrome star heavy board of
directors and immediately convinced the local county commission to come up
with 13
million dollars as a startup budget.

It's a nice museum, but I don't have a lot of affection for it.



Why doesn't that surprise me? But they really sold a bill of goods. Even on
this NG the talk is as though the 8th was the only AF flying in WW II.


Arthur Kramer
344th BG 494th BS
England, France, Belgium, Holland, Germany
Visit my WW II B-26 website at:
http://www.coastcomp.com/artkramer