Rhapsody in Junk: A Daughter's Return To Germany To Finish Her Father's Story [Paperback]

Marilyn Jeffers Walton (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Review

A remarkable and singularly touching glimpse of human endurance and bravery. Marilyn Walton helps you discover a group of genuine heroes of WWII, the prisoners of war of Stalag Luft III. Be prepared to shed a tear or two as you accompany the Waltons on their search for what happened to her father and the crew of "Rhapsody in Junk." This is a great read. -- Mr. John Dolibois

A tremendous read. In addition to writing an important family narrative, the author has produced a significant document to be added to the prisoner of war literature. It will certainly be a welcomed addition at the Air Force Academy. The book is an important contribution that offers an objective awareness of the human condition which is so often lacking in "there I was" accounts of the experience. -- Mr. Duane Reed, Former Archivist, United States Air Force Academy

Marilyn Walton is an extraordinary woman whose quest to retrace her father's World War II footsteps, and those of his bomber crew, bridges a gap of over sixty years. Her indefatigable enthusiasm laced with quick-witted humor, attention to detail and endless compassion enabled her to not only bridge the time gap, but also create new cultural and personal bridges with all those individuals uniquely involved in her project.

Marilyn takes the reader from the United States and Mexico to Great Britain, Germany and Poland during the retracing of these footsteps from the beginning of the B24 crew training to the fateful day of Rhapsody's demise over Germany in June 1944. The ensuing capture of the crew and the mysterious death of Sgt. Harold Flaugher are meticulously retold along with harrowing tales of forced winter marches which culminate in the jubilant release of all the POWs by Patton's forces in April, 1945.

Marilyn's life has undoubtedly changed dramatically through this endeavor as has the lives of all those she touched during the course of her travels and the research she undertook in compiling this interesting story. -- Mr. Hanns-Claudius Scharff

Marilyn Walton is one of very few people to my knowledge who has immersed themselves in the POW experience to the point where they can write about it as if they had lived the experience themselves. Marilyn's father was a POW himself, and his daughter has told the story of his life as a member of the "World War Two" generation with love, pride and sensitivity. Her research has been thorough and has brought her new friends who sixty years ago were under her father's bombs.

I have had the privilege of watching Marilyn's book grow as she uncovered aspects of her father's experiences as a B-24 bombardier and built them into a rich document that will assist people to better understand our generation's Great War for generations to come. -- A.P. Clark, Lt. General, USAF (Ret.)

From the Author

One of the most rewarding parts of writing this book was to receive the endorsements of four very special men. Lt. Gen. A.P. Clark, former Superintendent of the Air Force Academy, was a prisoner of war with my father. He is the author of the fascinating "33 Months as a POW in Stalag Luft III." Mr. John Dolibois is the former U.S. Ambassador to Luxembourg and was a prosecutor at the Nuremberg War Crimes Trials. His personal story is beautifully told in his book, "Pattern of Circles." Mr. Hanns-Claudius Scharff is the son of the Master Interrogator of Dulag Luft in Germany where my father was interrogated in 1944. He has provided me with excellent editing and warm friendship. I was humbled by the kind words of Mr. Duane Reed, former archivist of the Air Force Academy--a man so knowledgeable about Stalag Luft III and prisoner of war issues. I wish to express my gratitude to these fine gentlemen who in their own ways helped me pay tribute to my late father. They all help us to remember those who heroically served.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 508 pages
• Publisher: AuthorHouse (May 4, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1425974864
• ISBN-13: 978-1425974862
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 5.8 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,719,313 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A must read for history lovers..., June 23, 2007

By 

E. Woods (Cincinnati, Ohio United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Rhapsody in Junk: A Daughter's Return To Germany To Finish Her Father's Story (Paperback)

Rhapsody is an impassioned journey by a dedicated daughter to tell the story of her father and his fellow crewmembers, their penetration into the hellish flak over Germany, being shot down and interned as POWs. Marilyn Walton is also able to show the effects on the other side of the exploding bombs through her personal quest to find the spot where her father's B-24 went down, the details of one crewmember who didn't make it, and the crew's journey through a hostile country and into prisoner of war camps.

The book's historical and technical accuracy rivals Miller's Masters of the Air, and the personal sensitivities of Kershaw's Bedford Boys.

Rhapsody in Junk is a must read for anyone wanting a sensitive and in-depth look into the lives of the brave young men who laid it all on the line to save the world from tyranny.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Daughter's Determined Journey to Honor Her Father and His Crew, July 1, 2007

By 

R. Morris "Rob & Matt Morris" (Idaho Falls, ID USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Rhapsody in Junk: A Daughter's Return To Germany To Finish Her Father's Story (Paperback)

This book is both great history and a wonderful personal narrative.

Thomas Jeffers is an aging bombardier suffering the debilitating effects of a series of strokes. His daughter, Marilyn Walton, becomes determined to find out all she can about her father's World War II experiences as a B-24 Liberator bombardier and prisoner of war. Her quest, through the miracle of the internet, phone calls, and snail mail, takes her to his long-lost crewmen, to an understanding of his wartime experiences, even to the spot where her father's plane crashed in a German wood sixty years ago.

During her journey, she learns much about her father, the nature of courage and suffering, an incredible array of Air Corps history, and about herself.

Jeffers and his crew mates on the B-24 Rhapsody in Junk were shot down over Germany and forced to parachute at low altitude. Their plane crashed into a wood near a small German village. Jeffers endured interrogation and imprisonment in one of the German Luftwaffe's Stalag Lufts, the same camp where the Great Escape took place. Near the war's end, as the Russian Army threatened to recapture the camp, the men of Stalag Luft I were force-marched great distances in one of the coldest winters of the twentieth century.

Like most of the men of the Greatest Generation, Jeffers returned from the war and put it behind him, raising a family and living an exemplary life. As strokes began to rob him of his memories, Walton became determined to re-discover them before it was too late. She educated herself in the maze of official paperwork recounting her dad's training, missions, and the demise of Rhapsody in Junk. She studied the MACR for clues about where the plane came down, and where the men were captured and moved. She tracked down surviving members of her father's crew. And with the help of a young German high school student, she made two trips to the German village where the plane crashed, even finding pieces of the plane that had been salvaged by villagers and turned into everyday objects.

Her journey also brought home the point that the war had brought great suffering to civilians on both sides, and she shares stories of the German people she met and befriended on her visits.

In the end, Walton successfully pieces together, from beginning to end, the story of her father's war experiences, using primary documents, interviews, and good old-fashioned heavy reading. It is a book which will appeal to anyone who has had a father in the Air Corps in World War Two, especially one who was a Prisoner of War.

What makes the book truly special is that Walton is a born storyteller, and she mixes personal observations about her relationship with her father both in the past and in his final days with her war story. It thus becomes a book not only about one man, one air crew, and the war they fought, but an intensly personal book about a daughter's love for her father and her need to preserve his story for future generations.

Highly recommended. Five stars.

Rob Morris, Author, Untold Valor: Forgotten Stories of American Bomber Crewmen Over Europe in World War Two (Potomac Books, 2006)

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Masterful!, February 19, 2010

By 

B. Schoen (Washington, DC) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Rhapsody in Junk: A Daughter's Return To Germany To Finish Her Father's Story (Paperback)

Marilyn Walton's biography "Rhapsody in Junk" is a masterful work telling the story of her father and his B-24 crew during WW II. Marilyn is a reincarnation of Sherlock Holmes -- an expert at digging up long lost clues and details. She knits the story together into a wonderful narrative that I found to be enlightening and spellbinding. If you're interested in WW II Aviation history or life of the POWs in Stalag Luft III this is a must read addition to your library.