Customer Reviews

Winter Journey Through the Ninth

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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!

"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.

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.

The strategic bombers and fighters of the Mighty Eighth Air Force have received the lion's share of the historians' interest. So Franck's history of the Ninth Air Force Tactical Command and its accomplishments is an important acknowledgment of the contributions made by these airmen in the air war in Europe. Franck, who was a travel writer with a wry sense of humor, brings his talents to illuminating the lives of the men who flew for the Ninth Air Force. Publication was delayed for 55 years, and it is a long overdue salute to the stepchild of United States Air Corps.