Customer Reviews

Jimmy Stewart: Bomber Pilot

5 star:		(16)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

I was well aware of Jimmy Stewart's military record when I set out to read this book. I was, however, anxious to learn a bit more about Stewart's combat exploits during World War II. In that regard, this book was somewhat disappointing. Rather than let us get inside Stewart's heart and mind and sense what he experienced, it appears to chronicle Stewart's time in service, letting us know where, when, and in what capacities he served; what a great guy he was, how dedicated and successful he was, and when and to what ranks he was promoted; and, in general, what many of those who served with him thought of him, but it never gets down to the nitty-gritty of what he actually did at a personal level. The reader, it would seem, is always looking from the outside in.

I was also disappointed by the fact that much of the book isn't even about Jimmy Stewart. Stewart seems to be a thread running through a broader story about World War II in Europe and, more specifically, the air war as fought by our B-24 Liberator bomb groups. I say that because more often than not the author deviates from his presumed subject, Stewart, and goes off on a tangent (e.g., Eisenhower's appointment, George C. Marshall, one officer or another, the Louisiana Maneuvers of 1940, manufacturing B-24 bombers, the Wright crew, Churchill and Roosevelt at Casablanca, and various reminiscences of one person or another). Perhaps I'm being too critical, but I would estimate that only about 30% of the book actually deals directly with Jimmy Stewart while the remainder concerns other topics. And much of the 30% is a bit repetitive.

All that said, this is still an interesting history of the air war in Europe, much of it in the words of men who actually served with Jimmy Stewart. From that standpoint, it is well worth reading. After doing so, the reader will know where Stewart served, in what capacities, how many missions he flew, when he was promoted, what people thought of him, what medals and commendations he won, and where the Brigadier General James Maitland Stewart museum is located, but he or she probably won't have a real sense of the man, himself. But, maybe only Jimmy Stewart could have told that side of the story, and he was much too unpretentious a man to ever do so.

This book is almost a love letter to Jimmy Stewart. And it may well be that the love is justified in this case. The mild "aw shucks" demeanor of an honest, average middle class individual thrust into crisis seen so often on the screen is reported here over and over by people who knew him during WW II. It's clear that he was no dummy, graduate of Princeton.

This book though is on his wartime career. Entering the Army early in 1941 (and seeing his salary drop from $6,000 a month to $21) he was by the end of the war a seasoned bomber pilot with 20 missions behind him, including a visit to Berlin.

In part this book has to concentrate on the differences a movie star has to see (the Army didn't want him killed), but most of it is on the way Jimmy Stewart handled himself in the War. It's a view of the war seen in movies like 12 O'Clock high, but this one is a personal view as seen by one man. If even half of what the book says is true, Jimmy Stewart clearly deserved his decorations.

Smith does a nice job recounting the days the Jimmy Stewart spent in the military during WWII. I found it very detailed oriented and less filled with anecdotes than I would have thought all these years removed from WWII. I knew a bit about Stewart's involvement in the Army Air Corps, which became the Air Force, but this book really filled in the details of his time during the war. Guys like Jimmy Stewart are a far cry from the phonies like Alec Baldwin who threaten to go back to Canada but wind up sticking around the USA to sap of of our money with second rate films.

I think you will be amazed to find out all that Stewart had to do in order to become the hero he was. He was not drafted as a previous review claims, rather he inlisted against the will of the studio. He also had to endure undesired special treatment because no one wanted to put him in harms way. Eventually his desire to train for and see active duty prevailed and some forty odd years later this film star retired as Gen. Stewart, donating all of his retirement money back to the Air Force.

This is a great book about an American hero. Like many of his day, Glen Miller, Ronald Reagan. Stewart did not wait he willingly enlisted!

Jimmy Stewart was in the Air Force. I knew that; it's not a big secret. He was a general; again, I knew that, it's not a secret either. But he served in combat, at a time when he didn't have to, and was something of a hero. *That* was news to me, and frankly I'm somewhat surprised at how far into the warzone he got, and what he was able to do once he got there.

Stewart led 20 missions over Germany and occupied Europe during World War II, and flew one during the early days of the Viet Nam War, also (truly a surprise to me). He was apparently regarded by the other officers and men of the various outfits he served with as intelligent, brave, and very cool under fire, in addition to being more than a bit lucky. You'd think this last would make people jealous, but in a war, the reaction instead is to try and get next to the lucky guy, be on his plane or in his orbit: if he's lucky, if you're next to him maybe you will be too.

Unfortunately Starr Smith's book doesn't really measure up to Stewart's career. The author conducted a few interviews, but only a few, and sprinkled the story with his own recollections of Stewart. The two served together in England for a while: Stewart was Operations Officer of a Bomber Wing, and Smith was the Intellgence Officer. There is not much in the book about the actual missions he flew or anything like that: the mission to Berlin (probably his most dangerous) is described in perhaps a page. Since the author apparently realizes that this will leave readers thinking the book a bit thin, there's a lot of padding. One completely extraneous portion is a chapter on Dwight Eisenhower in Louisiana, which has almost nothing to do with the rest of the story. The last fifty or sixty pages of the book is a mishmash of recollections, appendices, short bios of people Stewart knew, and letters the author received about Stewart. Much of it repeats what's already in the text.

The book does have the virtue of having 64 photographs in it. I guess Stewart was shy, but couldn't prevent people from taking his photo. While the book overall does perform a useful service in informing people as to Jimmy Stewart's combat record during World War II, it also isn't that readable or interesting.

In reading the other reviews of this book, I found something very interesting: both the positive and negative are basically correct. This book is a near love letter to Stewart, but it also really fails to describe his military experiences. Stewart was the Pat Tillman of another era. He enlisted--enlisted--in the U.S. Army before--I repeat--before Pear Harbor. This after he was an Oscar winning movie star. The book is good at building up and describing Stewart's early career in Hollywood and his initial training. You get a good feel for his leadership ability. Then, the author fails to deliver. There is nothing about the missions Stewart flew. The book reads like a series of articles from unit alumni newsletters. It strikes me that Smith used this book as a post-retirment mechanism to renew old friendships from the war, and while everyone seems to agree that Stewart was an amazing man of integrity and character, they fail to provide any meaningful evidence to support their position.

The details of Jimmy Stewart's military career read like a movie script. you know, one of those sentimentalized 'biographies' that Hollywood used to grind out in the '40's. Actually, it probably would have been made into another one of those wartime films that dramatized the heroic deeds of numerous All-American boy heroes. The fact is, Stewart was a bona fide hero and this book does an excellent job of providing the details of Jimmy's remarkable accomplishments in the Army Air Force...starting as a private, drafted 9 months before Pearl Harbor (which like so many Hollywood types, he could have easily avoided), to leading his bomber group on more than 20 missions over Nazi Germany.
Written by a former Intelligence Officer at Jimmy's base in England, this easy to read narrative avoids unnecessary exaggeration and provides a quiet, detailed account of Jimmy Stewart's military career. As Jimmy always avoided discussing this aspect of his life, this book provides details that might have never become available about the life of a true American Hero, James Maitland Stewart

As a person, and as a great American and patriot, there is no equal to Jimmy Stewart, and he is truly one of my heroes, and by virtue of him leaving Hollywood to fight during WWII embodies him greatly in the history of this nation. Having said that, I found the book on my hero boring, devoid of any substance for his incredible service, and lacking any in-depth research into this extraordinary person. The entire book talks more about other people than it does about Jimmy Stewart. I bought the book thinking I was going to learn more about this man during WWII than about his Hollywood career, but the entire book falls short of any reading pleasure. I was sorely disappointed, and I would encourage no one to buy it. Save your money for Jimmy Stewart's biography. I'm sure it's much more impressive.

This book on the military life of Jimmy Stewart is long over due. Jimmy Stewart was one person on this earth that if you had ever met him you could never forget him. Stewart was the same in real life as he was in his movies. Stewart would never talk about his WWII years in the Air Force or allow Hollywood to exploit it. Stewart once said "How can I send an Airman into combat with out knowing it myself." That was Jimmy Stewart
Starr Smith in his unique way of writing has captured the real James Stewart. Jimmy Stewart Bomber Pilot is a must read. Stewart is a true Silent American Hero. Star Smith's Jimmy Stewart Bomber Pilot tells the story of Stewart's military career as it happened. If you want to know the real Jimmy Stewart this is the book you will want to read.
Stewart is one of the real down to earth G I's American Airman of WWII.
This is really a must read book.
Robbie
John Harold Robinson

Dispite its title you won't learn much about Jimmy Stewart here, the accounts are either very generic, or very superficial (e.g. "I met him and he seemed like a real nice guy, and he never mentioned Hollywood"). Nothing in here about how and why or what he was feeling. It's a fact that he served with distinction, that he didn't have to, and that he sucessfully separated the two aspects of his life, maybe thats why this is such a difficult book to write, and to read.

The first step towards writing a good book is to pick a good subject. Chances are, even if you are not that great of a writer or do not have something especially compelling to say, if you have picked a good subject then the book will float on its own. Jimmy Stewart is a good subject and Starr Smith's brief biography of him, focusing primarily on his service as a pilot in World War II, floats. Starr Smith served as an Intelligence Officer with the Eighth Air Force and became acquainted with Jimmy Stewart in London when they were stationed together. Stewart served in London as a Bomber pilot with the Eighth Air Force. It's a little known fact that service as a Bomber Pilot in World War II was more dangerous than service as an infantryman. For an Oscar-winning movie star to brave those risks was exceptional. For me, this was an uplifting and enjoyable book.

Jimmy Stewart was born in Pennsylvania in 1908 and grew up in Indiana. He became entranced with acting during his senior year of high school and continued to act when he went on to Princeton University. After graduation, Stewart worked as an actor in Massachusetts with a small acting company where he met another aspiring actor who would become his room-mate when they subsequently went to New York. That actor was Henry Fonda. The two actors shared a love of airplanes and flying and often spent evenings in their small New York apartment building model airplanes.

Stewart and Fonda both landed in Hollywood in 1935 and launched upon successful movie careers. Stewart had gotten wide acclaim for his role in "Mr Smith Goes to Washington" and later won an Academy Award for his role in the "Philadelphia Story" in 1939. But when war came, Stewart volunteered for service with the Army. He was initially turned away because he was too light but, undeterred, he gained the required weight and joined up, eventually earning an officer's commission as a pilot. Despite frequent attempts to get to combat duty in Europe, Stewart served as a flight instructor in the states until he finally got his wish and landed a combat assignment with the Eighth Air Force in London. The Eighth Air Force -- which is featured in the classic war film "Twelve O'Clock High" (a must own) -- had the mission of flying the precarious daylight bombing raids over Germany.

This brings us to the best part of the book: first-hand testimonials from Stewart's men on what type of officer and leader he was. Unsurprisingly, he was a very competent pilot and an active leader who was very involved in the details of his job. The below quote from one of Stewart's men says a lot about his leadership style:

"Jimmy Stewart walked all through the airplane, checking us all out, and returned to the flight deck. On the intercom he asked each crew position questions about our routine. He asked me, "What are you doing now, Sergeant Robinson? What do you see out the waist window? Can you see the supercharger position? Are the exhausts smoking? What color is the engine exhaust? How much fuel do we have on board? Are you checking it? Are the fuel gauges off and drained?"

Stewart wanted to see every engineer on the flight deck. I went forward. Then more questions. "Robinson, can you fly as first engineer? Can you operate all turrets? Can you arm the bombs?" He had a question about everything. Stewart really knew this airplane. He wanted us to know it too."

After the war, Stewart married at the age of 41 and raised a family with twin daughters in Hollywood. He had a stepson killed in action in Vietnam while serving as a Marine officer. Stewart went on to become a Brigadier General in the Air Force reserve and remained most proud of his service during the war - much more so than his many acting accomplishments. In conclusion, this book leads us to believe that the camera captured Stewart's true essence in his most famous role as Frank Bailey in "It's a Wonderful Life." Like Bailey, Stewart lived a wonderful life; and it is this fact more than anything else that makes this book such an inspiring and enjoyable read.