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WORRYBIRD: The Life Story of a WWII Bomber and the Crew Who Flew Her
Utilizing the voices of the B-24 Liberator “Worrybird” and her crew, the heroic and costly story of the air war over Europe unfolds.
“Can’t see how a man can get through 50 missions. Am I capable of the job?”
“Damn I hate that place.”
“Stanley, what the hell are you doing here?”
“Five out of seven ships lost. All four of us slept in the missing boys’ tent. Slept on the floor.”
These are the diary reflections of three of the ten crewmembers of the B-24 Liberator Worrybird. She was “born” in Dallas, Texas and built for one purpose only – to deliver up to four tons of bombs on Hitler’s Nazi war machine. “Worrybird” is the saga of the air war over Europe told not only through the crew who flew her, but also through Worrybird herself, the eleventh “crewmember.”
As with her human crew, Worrybird experiences a range of emotions, beginning with terror during their cross-country flight to Florida. She becomes lost over the empty waters of the Atlantic on her way to Africa, almost becoming a casualty before encountering a single Messerschmitt bullet or Flak shell. She and her crew feel despair and utter helplessness after the loss of so many of her fellow B-24s of the 449th Bomb Group, based out of Grottaglie, Italy.
Author Roderick Stanley not only delivers the true tales of missions survived but also the lighter side of war, as Worrybird and her crew temporarily escape the continuously unfolding drama at 20,000 feet. From “egg fry” gatherings in their tent, poker games generously lubricated with Seagram’s V.O., meeting the local people during shopping trips into nearby towns, to spending R&R sailing on the blue-green Adriatic, “Worrybird” envelopes all the emotions of their wartime experience.
“Can’t see how a man can get through 50 missions. Am I capable of the job?”
“Damn I hate that place.”
“Stanley, what the hell are you doing here?”
“Five out of seven ships lost. All four of us slept in the missing boys’ tent. Slept on the floor.”
These are the diary reflections of three of the ten crewmembers of the B-24 Liberator Worrybird. She was “born” in Dallas, Texas and built for one purpose only – to deliver up to four tons of bombs on Hitler’s Nazi war machine. “Worrybird” is the saga of the air war over Europe told not only through the crew who flew her, but also through Worrybird herself, the eleventh “crewmember.”
As with her human crew, Worrybird experiences a range of emotions, beginning with terror during their cross-country flight to Florida. She becomes lost over the empty waters of the Atlantic on her way to Africa, almost becoming a casualty before encountering a single Messerschmitt bullet or Flak shell. She and her crew feel despair and utter helplessness after the loss of so many of her fellow B-24s of the 449th Bomb Group, based out of Grottaglie, Italy.
Author Roderick Stanley not only delivers the true tales of missions survived but also the lighter side of war, as Worrybird and her crew temporarily escape the continuously unfolding drama at 20,000 feet. From “egg fry” gatherings in their tent, poker games generously lubricated with Seagram’s V.O., meeting the local people during shopping trips into nearby towns, to spending R&R sailing on the blue-green Adriatic, “Worrybird” envelopes all the emotions of their wartime experience.
352 pages, Kindle Edition
Published April 3, 2024
25 people are currently reading
13 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
November 27, 2024
To paraphrase George Bush who after listening to Trump's first Inaugural Address in January 2017, "this book was some weird shit"
Imagine reading a loving tribute to one's father, who served as a bombardier on a B24 in Italy during 1944, who went on multiple raids to heavily defended war production sites, including the infamous Ploesti, and who survived his 50 missions along with the rest the crew.
Now imagine the book written from the point-of-view of an anthropomorphized airplane ("Worrybird") with the vocabulary and style not too far off from a children's book of talking machines (think - Cars and Trucks and Things That Go by Richard Scarry).
The author freely admits in the preface that he felt there were countless books detailing the strategic air campaign, individual squadrons and crews, and so on. So, how to make his book, a true tribute to his father, stand out? The inspiration came to him while reading a picture book to his grandson where construction equipment talked to each other.
Let's just say that while he carries off the conceit and stays true to the conceit throughout the book, to an adult reader, it just doesn't work. The B-24's "life" as it were, starts at the Consolidated factory in Texas, experiences flying, chats (a lot) with other planes also being constructed at the same time, and so on. Our protagonist (the airplane), then meets up with her crew, flys to Italy, and then goes on missions, finally ending up in the scrapyard for parts.
Worrybird struggles to understand the meaning of its brief life, eventually coming to realize that her friends (other planes) would be shot down or crash, that "life" was precarious and subject to chance, and that fulfilling the mission was paramount.
The book only really managed to be interesting when Stanley changes the point of view to that of the crew (or other crews in the squadron) that have particularly noteworthy stories to recount. In these brief vignettes, the book reads like a real history.
Stanley did incredible research into the squadron's history, digging deep into after action reports. He describes a fair bit on technical details of B24 assembly and fitting out. There are many photos. No maps. Many footnotes.
Stanley could have written a compelling story told from the human perspective, as virtually all other military histories are written, and the book would have been plenty fascinating. But no, we get a cross between a children's book and a war history. It just doesn't work and could explain why it was apparently self-published.
You can't take anything away from what Stanley's father did during the war, nor can you take anything away from Stanley's homage to his father and crewmates and, yes, the airplane that carried them through stiff enemy opposition. But as a reading experience? Nope.
Imagine reading a loving tribute to one's father, who served as a bombardier on a B24 in Italy during 1944, who went on multiple raids to heavily defended war production sites, including the infamous Ploesti, and who survived his 50 missions along with the rest the crew.
Now imagine the book written from the point-of-view of an anthropomorphized airplane ("Worrybird") with the vocabulary and style not too far off from a children's book of talking machines (think - Cars and Trucks and Things That Go by Richard Scarry).
The author freely admits in the preface that he felt there were countless books detailing the strategic air campaign, individual squadrons and crews, and so on. So, how to make his book, a true tribute to his father, stand out? The inspiration came to him while reading a picture book to his grandson where construction equipment talked to each other.
Let's just say that while he carries off the conceit and stays true to the conceit throughout the book, to an adult reader, it just doesn't work. The B-24's "life" as it were, starts at the Consolidated factory in Texas, experiences flying, chats (a lot) with other planes also being constructed at the same time, and so on. Our protagonist (the airplane), then meets up with her crew, flys to Italy, and then goes on missions, finally ending up in the scrapyard for parts.
Worrybird struggles to understand the meaning of its brief life, eventually coming to realize that her friends (other planes) would be shot down or crash, that "life" was precarious and subject to chance, and that fulfilling the mission was paramount.
The book only really managed to be interesting when Stanley changes the point of view to that of the crew (or other crews in the squadron) that have particularly noteworthy stories to recount. In these brief vignettes, the book reads like a real history.
Stanley did incredible research into the squadron's history, digging deep into after action reports. He describes a fair bit on technical details of B24 assembly and fitting out. There are many photos. No maps. Many footnotes.
Stanley could have written a compelling story told from the human perspective, as virtually all other military histories are written, and the book would have been plenty fascinating. But no, we get a cross between a children's book and a war history. It just doesn't work and could explain why it was apparently self-published.
You can't take anything away from what Stanley's father did during the war, nor can you take anything away from Stanley's homage to his father and crewmates and, yes, the airplane that carried them through stiff enemy opposition. But as a reading experience? Nope.
April 3, 2024
Great WWII book. Not just for guys!
I enjoyed this historical novel that uses 3 officers’ personal diaries & mission records to recount part of the air war over Europe in 1944. It felt personal & I was invested in what happened to Worrybird’s crew, the other members of the 449th, their lives at the airbase, as well as what happens to Worrybird herself.
I also learned a lot about the 449th Bomb Group & B-24s in particular. How they were manufactured & how they traversed the US on their way overseas. Sounds like dry reading, but it was not. Quite the opposite.
I received this book as an ARC & all opinions are my own.
I enjoyed this historical novel that uses 3 officers’ personal diaries & mission records to recount part of the air war over Europe in 1944. It felt personal & I was invested in what happened to Worrybird’s crew, the other members of the 449th, their lives at the airbase, as well as what happens to Worrybird herself.
I also learned a lot about the 449th Bomb Group & B-24s in particular. How they were manufactured & how they traversed the US on their way overseas. Sounds like dry reading, but it was not. Quite the opposite.
I received this book as an ARC & all opinions are my own.
February 10, 2025
I read a lot of historical novels and a good deal of them are WWII, mostly dealing with the Holocaust. I really enjoyed this one because I knew nothing really about the air war in Europe. The author manages to really personalized the thoughts and feelings of the crew AND the actual airplane, the Worrybird.
It was easy to tell that it was heavily researched and I especially liked that he used actual diaries from 3 of the 4 Officers, one of whom was his father.
Plus I appreciated that he used actual footnotes - yay!
It was easy to tell that it was heavily researched and I especially liked that he used actual diaries from 3 of the 4 Officers, one of whom was his father.
Plus I appreciated that he used actual footnotes - yay!
March 22, 2025
A good book. Would have been better without the personification of the aircraft.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews