Customer Reviews

Glen Edwards: The Diary of a Bomber Pilot

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This book is nothing short of captivating. The author provides brief explanatory narratives to connect entries from Edwards' diaries, beginning with flight training, then combat in North Africa, and the early post-war years in America.

Just ferrying his airplane from the States to North Africa was a big adventure, considering the rather primitive nature of navigation aids and weather forecasts in that era.

Combat in Africa and Italy is described in detail, some of it surprising. For example, a military advance had a down side. Moving forward to a newly captured air field meant that the American aviators were subjected to more ground attacks by German aircraft.

The second half of the book covers the early post-war years, when American factories were building new airplanes almost faster than the Air Force could flight test them. Many exotic, one-of-a-kind vehicles are described here.

To some extent, the reader has a sense of foreboding at this point, knowing that this story is destined to end as unhappily as the maiden voyage of the Titanic. Yet this knowledge serves to accentuate the daily events described here.

There are many memorable tidbits in this book, such as tales of a man who actually intimidated Chuck Yeager!

Glen Edwards is portrayed in these pages as so heroic, embodying so many virtues, yet so modest and unassuming. This is someone you would want to know and to spend time with. Through this book, you can.

"The amount of reseach Ford wove into Glen Edwards: The Diary of a Bomber Pilot" is remarkable. The result is a wonderfully readable tale of one man's contribution to freedom and flight. Nice to 'know" such a man as Edwards and to have Ford, a historian/author who brought him back to life."

A superb book about Glen Edwards. I thoroughly enjoyed and empathized with his career. The pace was like reading a literary version of Ravel's "Bolero" with the crescendo building to the final flight. The description of the crash was wrenching, superb.

A pilot's read! Bravo Zulu!

Paul M. (USN Ret.)

I can't put this book on Glen Edwards down! God, I hope he makes it thru North Africa because I think I've fallen in love with him. What a can-do kinda guy. So positive -- capturing the essence of each place so well.

This book makes him live again.

im an eigth grader at a school named after glen edwards and after reading this book i feel truly honored to go to a school that honors him. he was a true hero and i cant wait to go back to school and show off all my information. hopefully i wont get beat up for being a total nerd.

Glen Edwards: The Diary of a Bomber Pilot is also available as an e-book for the Kindle reader. Click on the hotlink for more information. Blue skies! -- Dan Ford

Glen Edwards's story is a great one. Born in Canada, he hit the road with his family during the Great Depression, settling in the promised land of California, where he grew to manhood at the onset of World War II. He learned to fly in a tube-and-fabric biplane, went to war in an A-20 that was a cross between a fighter and a bomber, and with peace became a test pilot in the brand-new United States Air Force. Among the planes he flew was the fantastic "Flying Wing" from Northrop--intended as a trans-ocean bomber that could have struck Berlin from bases in the U.S. During the Cold War, with jet engines, it was a promising stealth weapon, but it was fatally unstable. Glen Edwards crashed to his death near Muroc Air Base, which would later be named in his memory. In time, the flawed Northrop B-49 would become the excellent B-2 Stealth bomber, similar in many respects to the plane Glen flew, but made stable by onboard computers. Blue skies! -- Dan Ford