A Manifest Spirit: The 359th Fighter Group 1943-1945

by Janet Fogg, Charlotte Baldridge, Richard Fogg

Aerial combat. Strafing. Bombing. Protecting the bombers. Pilots, armorers and crew chiefs. Officers, cooks, mechanics, and more. These were the men of the 359th Fighter Group.The three fighter squadrons of the 359th Fighter Group, based northeast of London, flew 346 missions over continental Europe between December 1943 and April 1945. Their green-nosed Thunderbolts and Mustangs not only protected the bombers but often embraced an even more dangerous tactical role engaging ground targets. In the deadly dance that ensued many a brave young pilot lost his life in the skies over western Europe, but our bombers got through and the GIs landed at Normandy.Relying not on recollections rendered imprecise by the passage of time, or secondhand reports which inevitably lose context, A Manifest Spirit instead presents observations from the group historian, base chaplain, and the fighter pilots themselves, recorded as they occurred during the war. The complex operation of a fighter base, the deep satisfaction of a successful mission, and the heartbreak of waiting for pilots that never returned, are presented with the clarity that can only come from contemporaneous reports.A Manifest Spirit is a tribute to the officers that gave the 359th Fighter Group its organization and direction, the enlisted men who made it work, and above all the pilots, 121 of whom made the ultimate sacrifice in the pursuit of freedom.

416 pages, Kindle Edition

Published July 23, 2017

About the author

My focus on writing began while CFO for the coolest architectural firm in Boulder. Fifteen writing awards later I resigned from OZ to follow the yellow brick road, and ten months after that signed a contract with The Wild Rose Press for my first published novel, Soliloquy, a HOLT Medallion Award of Merit winner.

Since then, I’ve co-authored three WWII military histories: Fogg in the Cockpit, A Manifest Spirit: The 359th Fighter Group 1943-1945, and Tales from the 359th Fighter Group. If you have questions about the 359th Fighter Group, please don’t hesitate to contact me.

I’ve also collaborated on three novels: Misfortune Annie and the Locomotive Reaper, Misfortune Annie and the Voodoo Curse, and A Serenade to Die For. In December 2021 Bob West and I celebrated acquisition of Twenty Miles of Fence–Blueprint of a Cowboy by Bison Books, an imprint of the University of Nebraska Press. Words are flying as I also continue to write chapters for two serial tales on Kindle Vella: Shadow Patterns of Melt and Bright Shining as the Sun.

Happy reading!

Reviews

[Karen Lin · Rating 5 out of 5]

I’m not your typical reader of this type of book; I’m neither a historian nor a WWII buff. But A MANIFEST SPIRIT is a human tale, even a neophyte lay person can relate to.

Janet and Richard Fogg and Charlotte Baldridge put us on the ground in wartime Britain, deep into Nazi Germany territory, as well as in the air experiencing enemy engagements. We learn the details of those enemy contacts through many resources including Pilots’ Personal Encounter Reports. We live pieces of the Fighter Group's lives in and out of the military setting through the Chaplain’s Informal Reports of Morale; movies, dances, educational programs, organized sports, even minstrel shows put on by the men were meant to keep the morale high.

This book is comprehensive, and that is an understatement. Other layers will surely appeal to the eager WWII buff, like Reports from the Office of the Group Historian and press releases about pilots like Lieutenant Rene Burtner, Jr. former North Carolina State College backfield being awarded the Air Medal. Add Escape and Evasion Reports, like that of Lieutenant Smith on 4/11/44 in which he recounts running out of gas and crash landing and “Holy Smokes” coming face to face with a German Patrol searching for him with dogs. You’ll have to read the book to find out what happened!

We get the inside scoop about both technical and practical matters such as changes of command and conditioning drills. We look over the shoulders of squadron leaders complaining that the call sign for the 368th (Beesnest) sounded too much like that of the 370th (Weelass). We’re in the head of pilots like Lieutenant Kibler as he describes being fired at from behind, making a tight roll to the right and his subsequent bursts spiraling the smoking enemy down, the pilot bailing out. We learn how long it takes 56 aircraft to get off the ground and that many other details of air warfare were carefully counted: abortives, refuels, victories, destroyed enemy aircraft, belly lands, and, sadly, the cruelly expensive months in which over a dozen men were lost.

Making this a more accessible book to the uninitiated, we are introduced intimately to these brave military heroes, some of whom were fated never to return. Adding yet another personal layer to the book, one of the many men written about is Richard Fogg’s own veteran father, Howard Fogg, also an artist seen painting a P-47 shooting down an Fw 190 in one of the hundreds of photos liberally sprinkled throughout the book. The brilliant, exhaustive A MANIFEST SPIRIT, years in the making, is a perfect follow-up to the Foggs' previous book, Fogg in the Cockpit, a compendium and commentary on Howard Fogg’s wartime diary.

From the sorrows of learning of family members who’ve passed away back home to the joys of V-E day, the full range of emotions is explored here. This is a human tale above all else.

[Marti Lewis · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read this once (not twice as Goodreads tells me) and just finished during the wee hours this morning. I am not a war battle buff, but I had read Janet and Richard Fogg's Fog In the Cockpitt, which were compiled from Howard Fogg's diaries. My incentive to read both of these books was that my father was a fighter pilot in the 359th Fighter Group. When I started this one, I had some doubts about getting through stats and battle details (given by the pilots' reports mainly), but I warmed up to it very quickly and enjoyed this read very much.

At the end of each month while the Group was active in the war, the Chaplain wrote a morale report and all are included in the book. They give us some idea of what these men were going through and how they were entertained (on-base movies, parties and dances, baseball games, basketball and other sports, and the stats on the church and temple services, Protestant, Catholic and Jewish. There are a lot of photos of the pilots, ground crews, Thunderbolt P-47s and Mustang P-51s (in the air on the ground).

I really felt good at the end of the book! It is sad that so many lives were lost, sometimes even in routine non-battle flights, but the outcome of the war was a happy ending of the book for me. I wish there had been something like this to read at the time that my father was alive so that I could have discussed with him. I have to admit that I didn't have much interest in war books back then. We lost him in 1990.

There is a facebook page "359th Fighter Group, 1943-1945" that was/is moderated by the authors of this book. Unfortunately, Char Baldridge (359th Fighter Group Historian from the early '90s until recently) passed away a few years ago. The page is a good place to see photos that are also in the book and more.

This is a must-read if you have a relative who was a fighter pilot or if you have an interest in WWII books about air battles.