"Richard Eager" A Pilot's Story (Main Review) Second Edition 2024
Main Book Review ~ Second Edition 2024
“Richard Eager” A Pilot’s Story
by
Colonel Richard Ernest Evans and Barbara Evans Kinnear
Preamble
This is one of the cornerstones of the main website’s book reviews platform. Thus, it remains in place here, even though almost all Aviation Themes have been on the Aviation Website Eyes to the Skies since its launch two years ago. Thus, this Review is also found on that website.
The United States of America is experiencing much turmoil, and in amongst that is an abundance of conspiracy theory. All of us certainly in the West and NATO trust the American People to look beyond state and national boundaries in November 2024.
When Colonel Evans wrote this biography and which, thankfully, his daughter Barbara Evans Kinnear and granddaughter Katie then worked together to bring the biography to international publication, that was an example of, at least for me, America at its finest.
The last twelve months have been tumultuous around the world. There are too many comparisons this month alone with the Munich Crisis, 1938 to dismiss the comparisons simply as coincidences.
Like millions of people in the United Kingdom, I was outraged when the former British prime minister discharged himself from the most important D-Day Commemoration on 6 June 2024. To the American People, I would simply say, you saw what happened. Two weeks later he was gone. The British People reacted in like fashion to that moment in ancient history that likes to recall a king seeing a hhand, writing on the wall in front of him.
What all of us dislike here, and indeed are angered, is the suggestion within America that they alone fought at D-Day, that they alone “won the war.” That is not so.
The United States Army Air Force (previously the US Army Air Corps, now the United States Air Force) - The Mighty Eighth as we affectionately referred to all US Squadrons serving in the United Kingdom, flew operations by day and the Royal Air Force flew operations by night.
In the Second World War the RAF operated what I, as a boy building Airfix models, referred to as the mighty foursome ~ the Short Stirling, the Handley Page Halifax, the Avro Lancaster and the colossal Short Sunderland Flying Boat - four-engine heavy and very heavy bombers operated by the Royal Air Force and her constituent British Commonwealth Air Forces that were, in the European Theatre, brought within the direct command structure of the Royal Air Force for the war’s duration. The RAF also had squadrons of the mighty Liberator, and the US Catalina, both of which we operated in RAF Costal Command and were mainstays in the Battle of the Atlantic.
The Combined Chiefs of Staff, before General Eisenhower’s appointment, had decided that this was the most sensible military option given that the Fortresses and Liberators could fly at a higher altitude with precision aiming. The Royal Air Force was already waging the Strategic Ar Offensive against the Ruhr - the Battle of the Ruhr, and into which the CCS Directive enabled the newly arrived USAAF to neatly and seamlessly dovetail.
The CCS decision was of course approved by Churchill and Roosevelt, which therefore rebuts the scriptwriters’ tendency in their excellent Masters of the Air series, to incorrectly suggest that the Royal Air Force was playing second fiddle.
Not that higher altitude in daylight gave the USAAF the protection that the Combined Chiefs of Staff had expected, as we know only too well from the terrible losses suffered by the Mighty Eighth Air Force.
Likewise, on the Normandy Beaches. All of us recognise the carnage on Omaha Beach.
If we look along the coastline, we will see things are as vicious on the other beaches, and the Canadians, British and all Commonwealth forces fought with the same tenacity and ferocity as their American comrades on Omaha.
A Shameful Day
Thus, the 80th Anniversary of D-Day on 6 June 2024 became a shameful day for the British People when their then prime minister, the Right Honourable Rishi Sunak, failed to grasp the scope of his monumental blunder when he returned to the UK prematurely.
People could understand how such a mistake could be made by an individual. But collectively?
Simply put… What on earth does that tell us all about his advisers? How on earth could they have made such a deeply offensive blunder?
Around these Islands the question reverberated, bouncing back from shore to shore, shaking communities, and distressing those who can still recall the beaches on 6 June 1944, because they were there. Just a handful now.
Solution… He and his advisers must be likewise removed from office, post-haste. And so we did, as we always do in these islands, through the ballot box at the General Election.
Things are very different now.
Once again we have a prime minister who works with the first ministers of the three devolved nations of Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales. On visiting his three first ministers, the body language spoke volumes. The PM’s First Ministers knew that they had a good relationship with the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, and that they could and would work with him, even if their long term aim is to secure independence.
That is the hallmark of true leadership. It is also the hallmark of nationhood.
Colonel Evans was indeed also a very fine leader, a very natural leader. He worked with his men and women, not over them. He was a listener, and he had a tremendous rapport with his crews and with all the squadrons that he went on to command, right into the Cold War.
Richard Eager ~ A Pilot’s Story is a crucial addition to an aviation library. In Britain, a copy is lodged with the Royal Air Force’s Central Library at RAF Cranwell, the UK’s equal to the US Air Force Academy at Colorado Springs.
I have a large aviation library that I hope might remain part of the Family Archive after me. A central bulwark is Richard Eager ~ A Pilot’s Story by Colonel R E Evans and Barbara Evans Kinnear.
The Richard Ernest Evans military record is absolutely essential reading for anyone wanting to grasp wartime aviation, NATO aviation and Cold War aviation. Looking afresh this evening at my copies, the soft cover version very heavily annotated, and the hard cover edition a gift from Colonel Evans’s family, in mint condition even though heavily used and with it a large envelope of our correspondence, I marvel at the photographs that Mrs Barbara Evans Kinnear has assembled and placed into her father’s original manuscript.
Yes. This biography is essential reading for all who wish to look closely at military aviation. The Richard Eager story is truly inspirational and also a truly great record of family history. In war as well as in peace, family interweaves, permeates and strengthens the will, the resolve, the determination to defeat evil. This, for me, is what it is all about.
Kenneth Thomas Webb
14 September 2024
United Kingdom
Author Note
The Scam that hit Microsoft in May 2024 hit customers worldwide. The result, here, was that my main email account of twenty years was rendered unusable in an instant, which in turn rendered the computer system unusable. A month later, the wiped clean Desktop System was returned from Apple. Problems persisted with the Microsoft E-Mail and associated programs, so I was forced to forthwith close the account in June. This meant the loss of all records, data, contacts, drafts et cetera. My main email is now webbkenneth402@gmail.com. By this means, I am hoping to resume contact with overseas friends, especially those in the USA. This was a hiccup, when I consider the calamities that hit people all over the world, whether by violence, insurrection, war or violent weather patterns. So I was most fortunate.
I’ve been asked what the 402 digits mean. They refer to Avro Lancaster PB402 LQ-M of the RAF Pathfinder Force, my mother’s brother’s Lancaster, which finally came down over Germany on 16-17 January 1945 following a mid air collision with Avro Lancaster KB850 WL-O, all fourteen members of both the Payne Crew and the Kiehl Bauch Crew being KIA. Both this website and the Aviation website report on this more extensively elsewhere.
Richard "Eager" Ernest Evans, USAAC in PT-3, at Love Field, Dallas, Texas, USA.
GO FOR IT
Time does seem to fly,
And the good times past
Seem seldom, if ever, to last.
But the Bard has suggested
That we must each seize our tide,
And while holding fast to the mast,
Enjoy our ride!
Richard Eager
Chapter I
I
I am delighted to update this review with news that this book is now available as an e-book through Amazon.
The popularity of this Work is proven by its social media recognition via Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter.
The Author, Colonel Evans’s daughter, Barbara Evans Kinnear, has also engaged the services of a publicist that enables the Book’s outreach to WWII outlets, General and Military History outlets, and the many Air Force veteran groups not only within the USA but also those established through the Royal Air Force here in the United Kingdom and the wartime RAF’s counterparts throughout the Commonwealth of Nations.
Additionally, “Richard Eager” A Pilot’s Story has an outreach through book-centric channels, radio, and both audio and visual podcasts.
II
Live interviews can be a daunting prospect for writers and historians. We assume, because of Television and Media generally, that everything is done “at the drop of a hat”. Why? Well, I do my recordings don’t I, sitting here at my desk, so it has to be easy. If only that were true.
I labour this point because I always read through the Credits at the end of any film production. To give one a sense of perspective of just what goes on behind the scenes, films such as Eye in the Sky, Bohemian Rhapsody, Viceroys House, and The King to name but four, each took a minimum of 15,000 people to work together to make these productions.
The link here is the author’s live interview with Ben Buehler-Garcia, the host for American Warrior Radio.
Mr. Buehler-Garcia’s mission platform is straight and to the point:
“To bridge that gap of understanding
between those
who took the oath
and the rest of the civilian population …
by telling the stories of the men and women in our military and first responder communities …
and of those who support them.”
I especially like this interview with the Author, because there is a natural rhythm in the conversation, beautifully delivered by Mr. Buehler-Garcia.
Click here for Mr. Beuhler-Garcia’s most impressive Link and Broadcast. Thank you.
Chapter Two
I
THIS book, written by Colonel Evans in 1993 but not published in his lifetime, is co-authored by his daughter.
Spanning World War II, the Korean War, and the Cold War, it is a valuable source reference for the casual enthusiast, the student of history, and the military student alike.
As ‘Century 20’ - to use the author’s phrase - slips further into the past, Hollywood too easily steps in to inform us “how it really was”. I speak of the crews of the B-17 Flying Fortress and B-24 Liberator.
II
With over fifty combat missions flying the B-17 Flying Fortress over Germany and North Africa, then the B-29 Superfortress over Japan, the author brings to the fore the expertise and skills of every crew member.
Here is a team of ten men whose lives depend upon their pilot, but who also, each in their own nine stations, must be the eyes and ears of each other and their pilot. In battle, from their positions, they will see things that the pilot cannot see but can hear.
The extraordinary hexagon that one naturally draws between pilot - bombardier - navigator - ball-turret-gunner - tail gunner; the entire crew’s reliance upon strict intercom protocol that sweeps aside the Hollywood-type show notion of endless quips and banter, makes this a very important work.
This hexagon draws in the gun stations at waist point and below the nose of the B-17.
III
I like to read books that give me evidence of reality.
This book gives me that in double measure because the author penned a full glossary of terms that are highlighted in the text and easily found in the glossary at the book’s end.
IV
Here is a description of the pressure and skill of the American system of flying battle operations in boxed formations. These boxes meant that the aircraft must all fly within meters at most - and often feet only - of each other in order to give themselves maximum protection, as well as maximum defensive, and offensive, firepower to the attacking enemy squadrons.
With the end of the war, Colonel Richards was transferred to the Reserve only to be then called back to active service flying combat operations in the Korean War and then operations during the Cold War, and eventual command of the B-58 Test Squadron, United States Air Force.
V
Whilst this is a military record, the author writes from the angle of family life too. It also gives us a good outline of two controversial Generals - Montgomery and Patton - who did not see eye to eye; and the fact that the author was Monty’s pilot flying Theresa Leta gives us a fascinating insight into some of the characters that made up Allied high command, including Eisenhower, Doolittle, Bedell-Smith, LeMay and even George VI.
VI
For me, as a retired officer in the Royal Air Force (Volunteer Reserve), the book is an eye-opener. With two uncles - also RAF VR - flying, and going down, in Halifaxes and Lancasters, I’ve long wanted to look at the B-17 and B-24. Thus, for me, this has been an emotive read. There are times when I felt I really was inside the aircraft. In short, this book has opened up a whole new perspective of the price paid to secure the freedom that I enjoy today.
Richard Eager sums the whole thing up well as regards flight and ground crews …
“We clearly understood and appreciated our dependency upon one another.”
Now, that is this book’s hallmark.
Richard Eager ~ A Pilot's Story (Hard Cover)
The title is available in both hardback and softback via Amazon.
Visit www.richardeagerbook.com for more information.
Also, available on Amazon Kindle.
100% of profits from the sale of the “Richard Eager” book are donated to the Air Force Aid Society.
14 September 2024
All Rights Reserved
LIVERPOOL
© 2024 Eyes to the Skies
First reviewed 11 November 2021 and updated on 24 August 2023 and again on 13 September 2024, this being the Second Edition of the Review