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(More customer reviews)The achievements of the 4th Fighter Group, the Debden Eagles of the Eighth US Army Air Force in World War II England, are genuinely heroic. The men of the 4th led all the other U.S. fighter groups in the European Theatre of Operations in the destruction of Luftwaffe aircraft, having at least 1,010 officially credited. In the likes of John Godfrey, James Goodson, Ralph 'Kidd' Hofer, Don Gentile, Don Blakeslee and others, the 4th generated more top-scoring aces than any other American fighter group of the War.
One relatively unsung hero of the 4th FG is Captain Donald Emerson of Pembina, North Dakota. Captain Emerson died on Christmas Day 1944 when his P-51 Mustang was downed by enemy ground fire. On that day his group was escorting B-24 bombers which were attacking a target near Kassel, Germany.
As a military aviation writer, I have read all of the better books about the air war in World War II...or so I thought...until I discovered Donald's Story by Sandra D. Merri! ll. Sandra Merrill is Captain Emerson's niece and about nine years ago, she began to 'study World War II'-and hated every minute of it. But she was becoming deeply affected by her uncle's wartime letters home which had been saved by her family. She enrolled in a college course about the War and, being a gifted writer, was moved to write Donald's Story, a riveting, bittersweet memorial to a man she knew only as a family legend.
"I was conscious of listening to Donald's Story for nearly 40 years, but I had listened as if it were some homespun fairy tale. It wasn't until I had sons nearing draft age that Donald suddenly became more than a deified storybook figure-a real human being, my own flesh and blook. And then the dormant obligation I had felt to tell Donald's Story began to stir, and I knew that even though he was just one among countless thousands of unknown heroes, he still might speak for many of them-reason enough for his story to be told. I was about to set out! on an odyssey of discovery, and by reading Donald's letter! s, finding his friends and recording old memories, I was going to do my best to remember an uncle that I never really knew."
In a unique approach to her format, Merrill manages to escort the reader through Captain Emerson's brief life, her own rediscovery of him, and almost the entire history of the 4th Fighter Group in World War II England. Emerson's poignant letters home, which he wrote throughout his training and his combat service, are the essence of Donald's Story and, unless you are made of wood, you will be moved by them. Merrill's journey of discovery is the reader's journey, and it is heart-breaking, uplifting and quite unforgettable.
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