Goodbye, Liberty Belle: A Son's Search for His Father's War [Hardcover]

J. I. Merritt (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 14, 2002

Goodbye, Liberty Belle is the intertwining of two stories—that of World War II bomber pilot Jim Merritt, and the story of his son J. I. Merritt, a man seeking to better understand his father and know what he endured during the war. In 1944, Jim Merritt's B-24 bomber Liberty Belle was shot down over Yugoslavia. The entire crew survived the parachute trip to the ground, but once there they discovered that their survival was far from assured. With the help of Yugoslav partisans, the crew made it to safety in Italy, after some harrowing scrapes. In 1986, J. I. Merritt journeyed with his father back to Yugoslavia, to meet the men who helped the crew survive and retrace the steps the men took in their escape to Allied territory. The story that Merritt tells combines his father's wartime memories with his own discoveries of his heritage.

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

Merritt's father, a B-24 pilot in World War II, was hit by antiaircraft over Vienna and successfully flew the Liberty Belle as far as Yugoslavia, where the crew bailed out and the plane crashed. Partisans helped free the crew despite the prevalence of Fascist patrols. Merritt tells the story of accompanying his father when he returned to Yugoslavia in 1986 to revisit the scene of the crash and meet the people who had helped the crew to escape. The first half of the book details the Partisan ordeal in leading the crew to safety. The second part is the return, with all its partial reminiscences and uncertain recollections. The book might have been more effective if told from the viewpoint of the father, whose feelings of restlessness and anxiety form the crux of the story. However, there are few books about Yugoslavia in World War II, and this could help place this engrossing tale in many libraries.
- Ralph DeLucia, Willoughby Wallace Lib., Branford, Ct.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Review

A moving account of the human side of World War II and a welcome reminder of heroes and the many forms of heroism. (George Schultz )

Goodbye, Liberty Belle draws moving portraits of young men on both sides of the battlefield caught up in the tragedy of World War II. (People )

Goodbye, Liberty Belle draws moving portraits of young men on both sides of the battlefield caught up in the tragedy of World War II. (People )

[Goodbye, Liberty Belle] involves a network of themes that usually occur in novels; the nurture of old memories, the grasp of long-forgotten friendships, the damning of understanding between father and son…. This grandly complex tale is handled expertly by Merritt the younger. Goodbye, Liberty Belle is a war story, sort of. But it has enough facets to gleam brightly whichever way you look at it." (Smithsonian )

[Goodbye, Liberty Belle] involves a network of themes that usually occur in novels; the nurture of old memories, the grasp of long-forgotten friendships, the damning of understanding between father and son…. This grandly complex tale is handled expertly by Merritt the younger. Goodbye, Liberty Belle is a war story, sort of. But it has enough facets to gleam brightly whichever way you look at it." (Smithsonian )

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 240 pages
• Publisher: Cooper Square Press; 1 edition (August 14, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0815412312
• ISBN-13: 978-0815412311
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6.2 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,794,121 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #95 in Books > History > Europe > Croatia

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A lean yet emotional piece of writing on War, Time and Love., March 27, 2001

By 

Rob Morris (Idaho Falls, ID United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Goodbye, Liberty Belle: A Son's Search for His Father's War (Hardcover)

I was absolutely amazed that this book had never been reviewed in the seven years since it came out. This is truly a magical book, one that would appeal to a broad audience. It is first and foremost a story of the author's father and the father's 15th Air Force B-24 crew, particularly of the fateful mission during which their plane, the Liberty Belle, is shot down in present-day Yugoslavia. It recounts the adventures of the Merritt crew after their rescue by Partisans, some frightening, some comical, laced with the uncertainty of the tenuous alliances formed by the different ethnic groups and their relationships with the Allies or the Axis, both, or neither. But it is much more than a story of a bomber crew that bails out in unfamiliar territory in wartime. It is also a detective story. J. Merritt decides to seek out the old members of his father's crew, using old telephone directories and contacts, and also to find out more about his father's experiences after being shot down. To do this, he tracks down people in Yugoslavia who in turn help him track down men and women who helped the young airmen after they fell out of the sky that fateful day. He writes of the searches, the meetings, and of his decision to return to the site of his father's adventures of forty-plus years ago. And this brings up the third story in this intricately-woven book. It is the story of a son's attempt to get to know his father. Together the two decide to make the trip to Yugoslavia together, and it is a journey which, one feels, will bring the two men closer. Like many fathers and sons, the relationship has been frought with reticence on both sides. The generational divide has kept the two men, who obviously love and respect each other, from forming the deeper bond of solid friendship. So 'Goodbye Liberty Belle' is much more than an aviation war story. It is a story of a search for and reconnection with the past, of tracking down young men grown old and breaking bread with them. And it is a story about a son and a father sharing an adventure that one hopes will bring them closer together. Merritt's trade is as a writer of magazine articles, and his prose has the polished, spare utility of a man comfortable with expressing himself in few words and gifted enough to chose those words well. Sections of the book are woven together cleanly--a section on the fateful day of the crash flows seamlessly into a modern-day interview with the tail gunner long assumed dead, followed by a section on the trip to Yugoslavia the father and son take in 1986. This is a triumphal piece of writing. It is all at once a great war story, a detective story, and a story of a father and son. Merritt keeps the reader wanting to know how each of the stories play out, and he does it with grace. You will love this book.

5.0 out of 5 stars Moving and inspirational story, October 4, 2011

By 

W. Wright - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Goodbye, Liberty Belle: A Son's Search for His Father's War (Hardcover)

This book is a moving and inspirational story of 6 American service men who were shot down during World War and their month long journey to walk back to safety.