Luck of the draw : my story of the air war in Europe

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Title:

Luck of the draw : my story of the air war in Europe

Author:

Murphy, Frank, 1921-2007, author.

ISBN:

9798885790000

Edition:

Large print edition.

Physical Description:

775 pages (large print), 40 unnumbered pages of plates ; illustrations ; 22 cm.

Series:

Thorndike Press large print nonfiction series.

General Note:

"The text of this Large Print edition is unabridged. Other aspects of the book may vary from the original edition."

Originally published in 2001 with new foreword to the 2023 edition by Elizabeth Murphy and Chloe Melas.

Contents:

Foreword to the 2023 edition / by Elizabeth Murphy and Chloe Melas -- Introduction / by Ian L. Hawkins -- Combat aircrews : coming of age -- Before the war -- The war comes to America -- Hendricks Field, Sebring, Florida -- The 100th Bomb Group -- The 100th stumbles -- The VIII Bomber Command -- Combat -- Dangerous days, desperate hours -- Münster -- Stalag Luft III -- Liberation -- Epilogue -- Appendices.

Personal Subject:

Murphy, Frank, 1921-2007.

Corporate Subject:

United States. b Army Air Forces. Bombardment Group, 100th.

United States. Army Air Forces. Bombardment Squadron (H), 418th.

Stalag Luft III.

Subject Term:

World War, 1939-1945 -- Prisoners and prisons, German.

World War, 1939-1945 -- Personal narratives, American.

Prisoners of war -- Germany -- Biography.

Prisoners of war -- United States -- Biography.

Flight navigators, Military -- Biography.

Large type books.

Added Author:

Melas, Chloe,

Murphy-Melas, Elizabeth,

Local Subject:

Large print editions.

Summary:

"The epic true story of an American hero who flew during WWII, soon to be featured in the upcoming Steven Spielberg and Tom Hanks TV Series, Masters of the Air. Beginning on August 17, 1942, American heavy bomber crews of the Eighth Air Force took off for combat in the hostile skies over occupied Europe. The final price was staggering. 4,300 B-17s and B-24s failed to return; nearly 21,000 men were taken prisoner or interned in a neutral country, and a further 17,650 made the ultimate sacrifice. Luck of the Draw is more than a war story. It's the incredible, inspiring story of Frank Murphy, one of the few survivors from the 100th Bombardment Group, who cheated death for months in a German POW camp after being shot out of his B-17 Flying Fortress. Now with a new foreword written by his granddaughter Chloe Melas, of CNN, and daughter Elizabeth Murphy. "A gripping, inspirational account of incredible bravery, resilience, and sheer will to survive. A truly extraordinary story!"--General David Petraeus, U.S. Army (Ret.)"--

Holds:

Available:*

Library	Call Number	Status
Searching... R.H. Stafford Library (Woodbury)	LP 921 MURPHY	Searching... Unknown
Searching... Wildwood Library (Mahtomedi)	LP 921 MURPHY	Searching... Unknown

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Summary

Beginning on August 17, 1942, American heavy bomber crews of the Eighth Air Force took off for combat in the hostile skies over occupied Europe. The final price was staggering. Almost 4,300 B-17s and B-24s failed to return; nearly 21,000 men were taken prisoner or interned in a neutral country, and in total, approximately 26,000 bomber aircrew made the ultimate sacrifice. Luck of the Draw is more than a war story. It's the incredible, inspiring story of Frank Murphy, one of the few survivors from the 100th Bombardment Group, who cheated death for months in a German POW camp after being shot out of his B-17 Flying Fortress.

Reviews (2)

Publisher's Weekly Review

Originally published in 2001, this finely wrought memoir captures the fortitude and resilience of the "greatest generation." Atlanta native Murphy, who died in 2007, volunteered for the armed forces after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. As a navigator with the VIII Bomber Command, better known as the Mighty Eighth, Murphy flew daylight missions over Germany before U.S. fighter escorts could travel such distances; losses were so great that "a crew member's chance of completing his combat tour was statistically zero," Murphy writes. Murphy's own luck ran out in October 1943, when his plane was shot down near Münster. Held prisoner at Stalag Luft III in Poland, Murphy viscerally describes "the uncertainty inherent in waking up each morning, day in and day out, week in and week out, year in and year out, in an enemy prison camp, never knowing when it would end," and recounts the March 1944 escape of 76 airmen (later dramatized in the film The Great Escape) and its aftermath. Students of military history will appreciate Murphy's detailed accounts of the Army Air Corp's training program and a B-17 navigator's responsibilities, while more casual readers will savor Murphy's heartfelt tributes to comrades in arms. The result is a winning WWII story. (Feb.)

Kirkus Review

The true World War II heroics that inspired the 1963 film The Great Escape. After Pearl Harbor, Murphy enlisted in the Army Air Corps because "it was clear…that long-range bombing would play a major role in how the war would be fought." Trained as a navigator, he was shipped off to an air base in England, part of a flood of young men, many still in their teens, who flew aircraft that were guinea pigs of sorts; it would be only a couple of years into the war that radar was sufficiently effective that Allied air crews could bomb on more than the rare cloudless days. As Murphy writes, crouched in a cramped B-17, he witnessed plenty of horrors as aircraft collided, were hit by anti-aircraft artillery or Luftwaffe fighters, or crashed. After parachuting into a German field, he was collected by police and sent to the infamous Stalag Luft III. Murphy's portrait of how discipline was maintained in the camp is especially well crafted. For example, he writes about one captured general in charge who, coincidentally, had knowledge of the ULTRA code-breaking project but, despite constant interrogation by their captors, deprived them of "the biggest intelligence coup of the Second World War." Unlike many late-in-life war memoirs, Murphy avoids most but not all clichés. He wears his flag on his sleeve, not surprisingly, and while much of his narrative concerns the horrors of combat and captivity ("Life never returned to complete normality, because 'normal' is a relative term"), he can also wax hyperbolic: "The world will never again see a sight to equal that of the United States Eighth AF in full battle array moving majestically through the skies over Germany toward the end of the Second World War." Frank Murphy's story in Luck of the Draw will be featured in the TV series Masters of the Air, from Steven Spielberg and Tom Hanks. A good choice for students of Air Force history. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

The Crew	7
Foreword to the 2023 Edition	9
Acknowledgments	17
Introduction	25
Prologue	29
1 Combat Aircrews: Coming of Age	51
2 Before the War	72
3 The War Comes to America	104
4 Hendricks Field, Sebring, Florida	130
5 The 100th Bomb Group	139
6 The 100th Stumbles	160
7 The VIII Bomber Command	183
8 Combat	207
9 Dangerous Days, Desperate Hours	247
10 Münster	320
11 Stalag Luft III	390
12 Liberation	471
Epilogue	499
Appendices
100th Bombardment Group	525
A Operational Summary	527
B Operational Losses, June 22, 1943-October 14, 1943	537
C Aircraft Markings and 100th Bombardment Group Aircraft History	571
D 418th Bomb Squadron Original Aircrews	675
E Operational Matrix - 1943	683
F Personal Report on the Regensburg Mission, August 17, 1943	743
Selected Sources	761

Available:*

Bound With These Titles

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Summary

Summary

Reviews (2)

Publisher's Weekly Review

Kirkus Review

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