Down Behind Enemy Lines: B-17 waist gunner, Sergeant Peter Seniawesky was somewhere deep in Germany. Where he did not know. How many miles to the French border? He did not know. Even if he could miraculously reach France, what then? The entire country was occupied by Germans and French collaborators. He had no weapon and only a candy bar for food. He did not speak German or French and was dressed in an American aviator's uniform. Escape was too grand a word. Peter was trying to survive -- to evade capture. He spotted a lone tree on the other side of the stream. If he could reach that tree without being seen and if the farmer with the shotgun and the German soldiers did not search past the stream...if he was really lucky. He eased down the bank, crossed the stream, climbed the other bank and began slowly crawling toward the tree. Although he could not know it at the time, Peter was beginning on of the most amazing escape adventures of World War Two.
FIRST OF ALL .... LET ME INVITE YOU TO COME TO THE NATIONAL WORLD WAR II MUSEUM IN NEW ORLEANS, LOUISIANA ON JULY 13TH, 2010. 5PM-RECEPTION, 6PM-TALK AND Q AND A, FOLLOWED BY A PERSONALIZED SIGNING OF YOUR COPY OF THE BOMBER BOYS. WOULD LOVE TO MEET YOU...HOPE YOU'LL COME ON JULY 13TH. !
Travis L. Ayres was born in Shreveport, Louisiana and grew up in the Bayou
State (Go Tigers! Who Dat!) He is a Viet Nam veteran who served in the U.S. Navy as a Petty Officer 3rd Class / Fire Control Tech.
After the Navy, Ayres began a 33 year career as a radio broadcaster. Using the "radio-name" Marc Sommers, Ayres worked on the air at such legendary radio stations as WTIX and WNOE (New Orleans) and WABC and WCBS-FM in New York City. At CBS-FM he was a member of the airstaff that won two Marconi Awards and his radio program was used as the soundtrak for the Ace Award winning HBO documentary "Yours To Keep."
While still working in broadcasting he wrote and self-published his first book: Shiloh To Stones River - The True Story of John H Sullivan and the 16th Louisiana Infantry. While hosting the morning drive program at Hartford's WDRC-FM Ayres met WW II veteran airman Anthony Teta and was inspired to write The Bomber Boys - True Stories of B-17 Airmen (Author House - 2005). The book found a market on the internet.
In the summer of 2009 Penguin Books approached with an offer to publish a brand new "updated" edition and on Oct 6, 2009 The Bomber Boys - Heroes Who Flew The B-17s In WW II hit book stores nationwide. The History Book Club has selected The Bomber Boys for "Hardcover" publication. The Library Journal has given The Bomber Boys a "Star Review" and rated it as "Highly Recommended."
Ayres and his family now call Arkansas and New Jersey and (of course) Louisiana home. The author can be contacted at: Dixietales@aol.com.
