Harry A. Franck was a popular author of travel books during the 1910s, 1920s, and 1930s. He was commissioned by the Army Air Corps to write the story of tactical air power as illustrated by the exploits of the Ninth Air Force in the European Theatre of Operations. His orders from the highest command gave him unprecedented access to the members of the Ninth--from General Hoyt S. Vandenberg on down. His abililty to speak French, German, and other languages allowed him to communicatie with French citizens, German prisoners, etc., etc. The book is full of insights into the day-to-day lives of the members of the Ninth. Not satisfied with interviewing the pilots on the ground, Major Franck even went on a bomb-run to better describe the experience. Wounded by schrapnel during a ground skirmish, Major Franck brought home a Purple Heart. He interviewed and quoted over 200 airmen and ground crew. Because this book is about tactical air power and the resulting need for close cooperation between the Air Force and the Infantry, "Winter Journey" also includes Major Franck's interviews with Infantry officers, including Generals Hodges, Simpson, and Patton.
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About the Author
Harry A. Franck was one of the foremost travel writers of the first half of the twentieth century. His first book, published in 1910, was "A Vagabond Journey Around the World". Thirty-one more books followed, the last one (Rediscovering South America) was published in 1940.
Mr. Franck served in the American Expeditionary Forces in World War I as a second lieutenant. He was primarily attached to headquarters in Paris where he was Base Censor, among other duties. He also took part in the Italian campaign. After the war he went back to his writing career, married and had five children.
During World War II he was urged by many people to join the army "to teach geography to generals". He signed up on June 15th, 1942. When he put his birth date down on the application as June 29, 1881, the recruitment officer said "Oh, that just won't do" and changed the date Mr. Franck had put down to June 29, 1886.
Mr. Franck was sent to the AAFS school at the old Harrisburg Academy in Harrisburg, PA. On completion of the course he was made a Major in the Army Air Force. His first assignment was to Mitchell Field on Long Island. From September to December of 1942 he was at Westover Field in Massachusetts playing nursemaid to twenty some South American fliers who had been sent there for training. Many spoke only Spanish--one only Portuguese. (It didn't occur to the army that a Brazilian didn't speak Spanish. Luckily Major Franck spoke both languages.)
From December 1942 to November of 1944 Major Franck was assigned first to a field near Miami Beach, Florida, then to Amarillo Field, Texas, and finally to Lowry Field, Colorado. He was also Post Historical Officer at all three posts.
Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
But this morning the forty planes were warmed up and readied for the take-off--two boxes of eighteen each and four spares (which turn back if they are not needed). Bulldozers and gangs of Frenchmen had scraped some of the snow from the runways and truckloads of coarse salt had been strewn along them to combat the ice. I dropped in at the 669th Squadron operations shack, roasting with a too-big, almost red-hot stove, to pick up the flying equipment I lacked. Let's see; I had on: One union BVD, a suit of "long-handled" khaki-colored heavy woolen underwear, a wool shirt, two pairs of woolen trousers, a wool sweater, a leather flight jacket, a field jacket, a knitted wool cap, heavy gloves, three pairs of socks, two of them wool and one of them thick and high, infantry boots, a long heavy woolen overcoat (usual Army Officer's type), a web belt with a first aid kit, a canteen of water, a .45 automatic with two extra clips of cartridges. Oh, yes, and a very dirty coverall suit loaned me by some kind soul--before adding the special equipment required for going on a mission. This consisted of fleece-lined trousers and flier's jacket, a flak helmet, which is about the same as an ordinary "tin," except for hinged metal earflaps--and fleece-lined flier's boots. However, I could not get the largest available pair of these on over my oversize campaign boots, so I put them on instead and carried the leather boots with me. "Tie 'em to your waist when you bail out," someone said. It seems that flier's boots are often yanked off when the parachute opens and I would need something besides bare feet, or even socks, to walk back home in. Over all this went the parachute, chest strap buckled, but--here there was a difference of opinion--not the two leg straps. "Do that later," someone advised, "and you won't feel so much like a trussed elephant."
Another truck took us to the hardstand where I was to meet my pilot. Moving like a rheumatic octogenarian in so much equipment, I managed to climb up the toe-holed side of and into the A-26 flown by First Lieutenant Donald W. Sorrels, 24, of Seattle, an electrician before joining the Air Corps. Then, as if I were not ponderous enough already, once in the ship a flak suit was draped over me, in two parts, front and back, by the crew chief, standing on the slippery wing. Not a few pilots take along an extra flak suit to sit on--not a bad idea, since most flak comes up from below. The flak suit is a veritable armor, without appearing so--thus we go back to the Middle Ages.
This was Sorrels' twenty-first mission and of course our request to be sent with pilots who had always come back had been granted! Naturally, since the others were not there.
Porter and Scott were in other planes, also A-26s, and in other squadrons--not only did we want at least one of us to get back and finish our assignment but an A-26 can hardly carry more than one passenger, and even that one not very comfortably. I sat on a loose, rusty iron box like a strap-iron orange crate...and began at once to get colder and colder. Just about the time the motors were warmed up it occurred to me that I had neglected to buckle my leg straps. Try as I would I could not got them buckled in the plane, crowded and trussed up as I was. Sorrels asked me if I wanted to get out and scrub the mission as far as I was concerned, but naturally I could not show that much white feather. After another vain struggle I gave up and Sorrels said, "Oh well, you probably won't have to bail out anyway." It would have been nice if I could have blue-penciled that "probably."
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Belated History,
This review is from: Winter Journey Through the Ninth (Paperback)
This is a remarkable book; remarkable in content, remarkable in the fact that it has been published some 55 years after it was written and perhaps even more remarkable, written by a 63 year old AAF major that probable saw more actual combat than most of those in uniform during WW II. Author Harry Franck was a former World War I officer and a very successful author of travel books. After he "reinlisted" for WW II-way overage- he became a PR officer tapped to research and write the story of the 9th (Tactical) Air Force in Europe. The US 8th AF was getting all the publicity and apparently AF leaders decided the public ought to know about the 9th. From Nov. 1944 through VE-day, Franck interviewed generals, pilots and enlisted personnel. His ability to described what he sees and hears is testiment to his talent as an author of some thirty travel books that took him all over the globe. The weakness of the book is that Franck was not an historian and in fact accepted some details that might not have passed the test of a professional military historian. Although the 9th AF CG, MG Vandenburg approved of the Franck project and was interviewed twice, he balked at releasing the book until pressured by a US Senator. By then no publisher was interested until it was exhumed by his daughter and published this year. Well worth reading!
7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
The inside track,
By Brian Anthony (West Point, NY) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Winter Journey Through the Ninth (Paperback)
"Winter Journey Through The Ninth" provides an introspective and tantalizing glimpse into one of World War Two's most forgotten subjects: tactical aviation. Overshadowed by the controversies involving the strategic bombing campaigns, MAJ Harry Frank gives an inside track to what the OTHER air forces did to win the war. As a historian, I found Franck's work a gold mine. He interviewed the pilots who flew the missions, the soldiers these missions supported, and the prisoners who survived them. Readers gain a feeling and appreciation for the mission and the men of the Ninth Air Force. He also provides his own points of view of what wartime Europe was like. Any fan of World War Two, and especially the air war needs this book.
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
History and a good read this book has both !,
By M.Townsend (FAYETTEVILLE, NC United States) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Winter Journey Through the Ninth (Paperback)
I found this book while doing a research project on the Air Force with my children. After beginning to scour the pages for factual information names, dates, places etc. I found myself consumed and engrossed in the way the author creates not only a historical account of the subjct but a story interwoven within all the hard facts. I became as intereted (or more at times) in the storyline and the descriptions of conversations and the words of the people in the story as the facts that were revealed. This book is an excellent reference tool and would be the book to pack for vacation reading as well ! Anyone interested in the modern history, the history of the military or just wants a good read would find this story captivating. After discovering that the author had written over thirty books I will be looking for some of his other works with the hope to be as pleased as I have been with this one.
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