After The Liberators
 William C. McGuire II
 (Reviewed by The Editor - Rebecca Brown)
 1999 Parkway Publishers, Boone, NC
  ISBN: 1887905197
Amazon's price is: $16.95

A RebeccasReads author featured in Authors & Books

A Father's Last Mission, A Son's Lifelong Journey. In 1944, a navigator on a B24 Liberator is reported missing over Germany & presumed dead while at home his only child celebrates his first birthday. 50 years later that son is compelled to discover how his father died.

Dramatic & effective, this son recreates what it might have been like for his father on his last days & hours as a Navigator in the Eighth Air Force as he gears up with his crew & heads off from Wendling Air Station 118 in East Anglia, Norfolk, England for a daylight bombing raid over Friedrichshafen & Augsburg, Germany during WWII.

Back in the United States, William C. McGuire II is all of a year old when his father is away fighting The War in Europe. This son will never get to know his father & that is the core for the telling of After The Liberators.

I can remember the rumble & the roar of those mighty airships as they thundered away from nearby aerodromes. The silhouette of those planes were familiar to my childhood eyes as my brothers had charts on the walls of our airraid shelter at which we'd stare & then peek out the door into the sky to see which were friendly & which were foe.

This is a cathartic read for every child who lost their father during wartime before they ever got to know him. Honor may be due those men who meet death in the service of their country & the freedom in the world, it is for peace, however, the lonely hearts & souls of those children are searching. This son has found it by recounting both his father's flight toward death & the stories of the men who survived & remembered him.

“There is a school of thought among the children of those killed in the war that...society...does not want to hear from us...growing up with a shadowy hero father can leave one with certain quirks...always looking for approval. We, the WWII fatherless, do that a lot.”

With the serendipitousness of the Cosmos in action, Bill McGuire wins a contest & is given a lifelong wish to fly in a Liberator & gets tickets for a trip to Europe. Unlike most other war memoirs & biographies, After The Liberators is emotion-charged with the author's recreation of scenes as described by survivors of that raid, his search in the villages of the countryside into which his father's plane crashed & his own lifetime.

It is a story of the United States Army Air Force, about bombardiers & navigators, electrically heated flying suits, aircraft assembly plants & Zeppelin factories. Of a mission doomed from the start by foul weather & a sky filled with enemy aircraft.

It is also a healing memoir, emotionally written, rekindling a time only a few now remember, from a fatherless son who could not forget.

An interesting & unusual addition to your war book shelf.

Bill McGuire offers more than a story, he includes a chart of the formation of the 392nd Bomb Group that set out on March 18, 1944 & a host of family & military photographs together with a good Index & Bibliography & a thorough Acknowledgements section as well as a list of Information Sources for those interested in gathering the last fragments of their relatives' memories.

Do catch my Interview with this natural-born writer.
(10/14/01)

Rebecca

For a personalized “Signed 1st Edition”...

“If anyone wants a signed copy and wants to take the trouble of mailing it to me, I will autograph it and mail it back. Awkward I know, but my publisher is handling orders now and those books are unsigned. If anyone wants to be in touch with me via mail or on the internet here are the addresses. I welcome comments and questions. This is the least I can do to share our honored heritage and in a way pay back some of the great men I have come to know who served in World War II.”

Bill McGuire
#2 Washington Square
Larchmont, NY 10538
He may also be reached by e-mail: A43fool@aol.com