If World War II is ancient history to you, The Great Wounded Bird may let you know just what it was like to be in it. What it feels like to drop bombs on strangers, swim out of a bomber, not to really understand war even though you're in one. You'll learn how young men in frightening situations do things they never thought they would be obliged to do, who come to accept danger and hardship as a normal way of life and accept extraordinary events as...
In The Great Wounded Bird And Other Poems, David Westheimer (winner of the 2000 Texas Review Poetry Prize) presents a memorable, strongly recommended collection of poems about the experiences of men in a time and place of war. Poggio Mirteto: RAF bomber crewman are in the room next to ours/At Poggio Mirteto, the Italian quarantine prison./When we try to talk to them through the wall,/They do not trust us./We might not be what...
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This review first appeared in DR AHEAD, the newsletter of the Air Force Navigators Observers Association (AFNOA). AFNOA Member Westheimer (Turner 42-04)is one of the most successful writers of America's World War II generation, most famous for VON RYAN'S EXPRESS. However, for purposes of this review, two other books by him are notable: SITTING IT OUT, his 1992 memoir about being a prisoner of war in Italy and Germany, and...
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