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REVIEW BY COLIN POMEROY
Luck of the Draw, which has just been adapted by Steven Spielberg and Tom Hanks into the new television series Masters of the Air, is in effect the autobiography of the late Frank Murphy.
It tells the story of Murphy’s entire life, but particularly his career flying with the 100th Bomber Group of the United States Army Air Force (USAAF) during the Second World War. Murphy took part in exciting and intense daylight bombing raids over Europe, but was shot down on his twenty-first mission and spent many subsequent years as a prisoner of war.
Written in first-person, matter- of-fact style that makes little unnecessary drama out of the events recounted, it’s a very readable book. And despite Murphy’s often grim wartime experiences, there are some laughs. For instance, I had to chuckle when reading his thoughts on the contrast between the USAAF and the RAF: the British swinging of the arms to shoulder height when marching seemed to amuse their American cousins.
Murphy’s poor eyesight took away from him his first choice of flying career, that of navigator (where his love of mathematics would have been a great asset). Instead, he joined his first operational B-17 Flying Fortress crew, captained by Lieutenant Charles Cruikshank. ‘Crew 31’, known unofficially as ‘Crankshaft’s Crew’, was based at RAF Thorpe Abbotts in East Anglia’s ‘Bomber Country’.
Murphy vividly recounts the many daylight raids over occupied France and Germany, in which the agile fighters of the Luftwaffe were a constant threat. He describes in detail the infamous raids on Schweinfurt and Regensberg in August 1943, from which more than 600 USAAF aircrew and 60 aircraft failed to return. Crew 31 made it out, after dropping its bomb load on their target of Regensberg’s Messerschmitt factory, but only avoided enemy fire by landing as far away as North Africa.
Crew 31’s days aloft came to an end, however, on 10 October that same year, during a raid on the railway hub at Münster. This was intended to be a major attack to avenge the high casualties of Regensberg and Schweinfurt, but Murphy’s group aircraft numbers were down to just 13 B-17s, making them vulnerable to enemy fire. When their aircraft was inevitably struck, the crew ‘hit the silk’, with Murphy, despite a shoulder wound, exiting after the co-pilot through the forward crew door. The description of his parachute descent is so vivid that the reader can fully imagine being in the same situation.
Murphy was treated well by the Germans he encountered on landing, although they did still hand him over to the authorities. After periods in various interrogation centres, he was moved to a prisoner-of-war camp to become a ‘kriegie’ (a POW). The traumatic journey, mostly in uncleaned cattle trucks, took him to Stalag Luft III – best known for the legendary ‘Great Escape’ that was later dramatised by Hollywood.
Murphy was on hand to view the aftermath of this breakout, and witnessed the atrocious cruelty meted out by the Gestapo on those who had been recaptured.
Behind the wire
Daily life in the camp is described in detail. As an accomplished saxophone and clarinet player, Murphy kept up morale by performing in concerts for the imprisoned troops, highlights in an otherwise slow and depressing existence behind the wire.
After Operation Overlord and the Allied breakout from Normandy in the West (along with the Soviet advance in the East), rations were reduced, and discipline tightened. Prisoners were prepared to be marched to the West to avoid being liberated by the Russians. But despite every effort to dress properly for the biting cold and snow, many men suffered terribly. ‘These were the most miserable nights of my entire life,’ Murphy recalls, as he describes elderly and unfit guards struggling with the marches as much as the kriegies. One prisoner offered to carry an elderly German soldier’s rifle for him.
Luck of the Draw concludes by examining the post-war lives of Murphy’s fellow crew members, and also reflects on the philosophy of the bomber airmen and their views on the war with which they had been so intimately involved. Copiously illustrated throughout, the book ends with a series of appendices, going into great detail on aircraft and crew allocations, operational losses, and the like.
This stuff is manna from heaven for the researcher or even general enthusiast of the American bomber effort in Europe from the summer of 1943 until the end of hostilities. Perhaps the most poignant details are in fact hidden in this section. For instance, a personal report to HQ 100th Bombardment Group by Lieutenant-Colonel Beirne Lay Jr illustrates the terrible losses sustained during the Regensberg bombing and the bravery of the crews involved. Rarely are appendices so moving to read.
This is an excellent book and there is no mystery in why Spielberg and Hanks have snapped up the rights to adapt it into a mini-series. It’s an essential read for lovers of aviation history.
Luck of the Draw: My story of the air war in Europe Frank Murphy Elliott & Thompson, hbk (£25) ISBN 978-1783967353
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