Life of the 381st Bomb Group
The World War II Diary of Eighth Air Force Chaplain James Good Brown
Format:Hardback
Publisher:University of Missouri Press
Published:15th May '26
Should be back in stock very soon
While working on his first book, Bob Korkuc became intimately familiar with the 381st Bombardment Group of the Mighty Eighth Air Force and met the group’s chaplain, James Good Brown. Brown kept a diary during his time with the bomb group (1943 to 1945) in which he chronicled the daily experiences of the men.
Years after the war, Brown self-published his diary, which today is hard to find. Through his friendship with Brown, Korkuc gained access to and chose to edit the original docu - ment so that more readers might appreciate this insightful wartime eyewitness account.
Serving in his early forties alongside men twenty years his junior—whom he called the “Mighty Men of the 381st”—Brown took part in morning briefings, shared meals with crews, and anxiously awaited their return from dangerous daylight bombing missions. Flying as a noncombatant, an unnecessary eleventh crewmember, Brown describes his own observations of a Flying Fortress combat mission over Germany. Writing with extraordinary candor, Brown documents the inner workings of a bomb group that flew 297 combat missions over Europe, providing vivid character assessments of his fellow airmen and capturing both their victories and devastating losses.
In addition to judiciously editing Brown’s original diary for readability, Korkuc created a unique appendix, which reveals the fate of every airman who served with Brown. The immediacy of Brown’s narration combined with Korkuc’s meticulous editing make this a promising new resource for scholars and general readers alike.
“This mesmerizing book offers an inside look at the brave young men who overcame sheer fear to wage the US 8th Air Force’s bloody aerial offensive against Hitler’s Germany. James Good Brown, the 381st Bomb Group’s chaplain during World War II, recorded his observations as his friends flew off to die or returned to cope with their taste of hell. Brown testified to the nobility of the many Americans who paid the ultimate price to save their world from tyranny. Editor Bob Korkuc has crafted Brown’s essays into a memoir that both warms and rends the heart.”—Gregory J.W. Urwin, Temple University, author of Facing Fearful Odds: The Siege of Wake Island
“Chaplain James Good Brown served as Head Chaplain for the 381st Bomb Group (H) from its formation in January 1943 at Pyote Texas, deployment to the 8th Army Air Force in the UK, 297 combat missions from June 1943 – April 1945, and base closure in the UK in June 1945. As Chaplain, he developed close and personal relationships with the group leadership, combat crews, and ground personnel. In 1984, Brown published his wartime accounts in The Mighty Men of the 381st: Heroes All. The book was the first comprehensive overview of 381st history and became a classic both among 381st readers and, more generally, those interested in the remarkable history of the airwar. The book had two printings but has been unavailable for over thirty years. Bob Korkuc undertook the massive task of transcribing Brown’s book and supplementing it with information about the fate of the airmen who Brown described. This reissue of Brown’s diary offers an extraordinary work to a new generation of readers and honors the 619 airmen lost with the 381st. Highly recommended.”—Kevin E. Wilson, PhD, Executive Director, Group Historian, 381st Bomb Group (H) Memorial Association
"An outsider's experience from the inside, the diary of Chaplain James Good Brown traces a pastor's observations and development over the course of three years as chaplain of a B-17 bomber group from its training in Texas to its last combat mission from its base in England. After feeling out of his depth and unworthy, Brown grows into a man who supported, encouraged, stiffened, and consoled air and ground crews through wartime experiences worse than any of them ever expected. All of them faced constant threats of death with courage and steadfastness carrying out duties devoid of all celluloid glamor. Brown's diary sheds new light on the wartime experience of those who launched and flew bombing missions over Nazi-occupied Europe."—Michael E. Weaver, Air Command and Staff College, author of The Air War in Vietnam
“Korkuc has a deft editing hand, preserving Chaplain Brown’s original voice and message while filling in large gaps in the historical record with his own research. This isn’t a daily diary. Instead, it is a record of the triumphs and hardships, the glory and horror, the mundane and monumental events of sustained aerial combat. Readers come away from this exceptionally readable work with something more than fact, figures, and statistics (although those are there too). They develop a shared perspective with the airmen of the 381st Bomb Group.”—Cory S. Hollon, Col, Ph.D., USAF, Assistant Professor, School of Advanced Air and Space Studies
ISBN: 9780826223487
Dimensions: 229mm x 152mm x 38mm
Weight: 739g
392 pages