Gray Eagles

by Duane Unkefer

Book Overview

Thirty-one years after World War II, eight Luftwaffe aces, the "Gray Eagles," seek out their wartime nemesis, pilot Roger Lowen, and, in restored, fully armed Messerschmitt 109s, engage in one last... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0688049729
• ISBN13: 9780688049720
• Release Date: January 1985
• Publisher: Beech Tree Paperback Book
• Length: 467 Pages
• Weight: 1.80 lbs.

Customer Reviews

Fun novel - but could have been better

A group of Luftwaffe vets, having suffered the agony of surviving WWII, gather round in the American south west to plot a bit of revenge. They gather together and restore and rearm a squadron of WWII fighter planes - legendary Messerschmitt Me-109f's - and wreak havoc across that part of the US. Meanwhile, an aging USAAF vet, who was captured and nearly killed by the German aces on the last day of WWII, spends his time nearby flying a restored Mustang. The Germans nurse a grudge against him, though it's merely symbolic - he's just the last Yank they saw before the end of the war, and his star hasn't quite shot to the top since then. Nevertheless, they tear off into their targets with the idea of saving some of their fire for him. When word of the resurrected Luftwaffe gets around (how could it not?), the Yankee flier gathers a group of vets himself - more Mustangs and a solitary Spitfire, and it seems that the last air battle of WWII is about to be fought...again. "Eagles" was an innocuous enough book - the violence is mostly on the level of the A-Team. I guess we're supposed to like these guys enough to be fascinated about them. The real problem for me was the lack of a central character - the author tosses in another, an investigator who tracks down the grayed eagles and tries to persuade them to end their flights, before being forced to join them. The flying scenes suffered because there's no single POV, but that's not unusual for technothrillers and similar books. But the book also wastes an opportunity to get into the "warbird" subculture, in which old combat aircraft and their stories are restored and preserved. Instead, once each side gathers their troops together, they begin to think as if they were back in WWII. The book doesn't begin to question the ironies it raises - whether these guys are fighting for anything worthwhile, whether there's anything worthwhile about keeping old planes (and grudges) flying, and whether our protagonists would have saved themselves a lot of trouble had they simply fired up a copy of "Combat Flight Simulator" (or "IL-2" for that matter). Last of all, the book has a light touch, which is fine, but it turns violent and sad by the end. Still, "Eagles" was a worthy read, if not a memorable one.

Aviation Action Adventure - A Man's Book

The author writes very well and the plot is a good one. Aging German pilots decide to challenge American Air Aces to combat one-more-time. Perhaps only a male reader would understand the "need" to re-fight a lost war with all the trappings of restored aircraft, uniforms, and military customs (all this might be lost on a female reader). A good tension-packed read wherein you cannot wait to see what happens next. Good editing would have cut this book 15% or so, since some scenes and conversations are repetitious, but that is my only criticism. I would recommend this book to my male friends without reservation.