Eagles at War

EAGLES AT WARWalter J. Boyne Eagles at War is the most compelling fictional account yet of World War II in the air. Covering every theater of the war, it combines some of the most realistic combat actionever written with the dramatic story of the war’s impact on industry and society. Colonel Walter Boyne continues the saga, started in Trophy for Eagles, of America’s rise to aviation supremacy. In the secret research laboratories of the Luftwaffe and in the skies over Europe and the Pacific, in the boardrooms where the modern military-industrial complex was forged and at clandestine meetings where a defeated Germany’s top-secret-weapons expert negotiates safe passage to the United States, Eagles at War tells the story of aviation’s role in the emergence of the Unites States as a superpower. As the coming global war becomes inevitable, American aviation pioneers Frank Banfieldand Hadley Roget put down their peacetime tools and become key architects of Allied victory in the air. Their nemesis, Bruno Hafner, is Hitler’s man in charge of developing thefirst jet fighter and other wonder weapons, using slave labor toiling in ghastly underground factories. Leading America’s aviation buildup is General Henry Caldwell, whose merciless prodding of the American aviation industry ultimately results in victory, even though he is the vulnerable target of sexual blackmail. Eagles at War coveys the unprecedented scope and ferocity of the air war through the eyes of key players and various airmen from all sides of the conflict. In bringing to life pilots and planes, generals and aviation giants, heroes and villains, Boyne makes superb use of his talents as a military pilot, historian, and novelist. Colonel Walter J. Boyne, an Aviation Hall of Fame honoree, lives near Washington D.C. He is the coauthor of The Wild Blue and the author of the Smithsonian Book of Flight. From Publishers WeeklyBoyle recycles the major characters from Trophy for Eagles to tell the story of aviation's development as a decisive weapon in WW II. Frank Caldwell, now a hard-hitting Air Force general, and still-hot pilot Frank Bandfield match wits and skills with Nazi Germany's production genius Bruno Haffner and Luftwaffe ace Harold Josten in this episodic work, in which the principal plot lines involve America's search for a long-range escort fighter and Germany's efforts to introduce jet and rocket weapons. Although more constrained than its predecessor by the need to adhere to historical events, this novel nevertheless skillfully integrates fact and fiction. While the work is not technically a roman a clef, knowledgeable readers will have no difficulty identifying the Bell Airacobra as the model for Boyne's misbegotten "McNaughton Sidewinder." And if Eagles at times exaggerates the personality factor in U.S. aircraft design and procurement policies, the novel is correspondingly successful in conveying the byzantine realities of a Third Reich that spectacularly failed to fight its war with its scientific and technical expertise. Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc. From School Library JournalYA-- The story of the buildup and growth of the airplane industry and the Air Force is well told in this fictional account of World War II. Fight scenes between aircraft are taut and dramatic, many real people make an appearance, and lots of descriptive data about the types of airplanes being built and their problems is included. While the focus is on the growth of the American industry, problems of the German expansion of their aircraft manufacturing are well covered also. Unfortunately, the dialogue between the men and women is somewhat trite, and the fictional characters are stereotyped. The men are very manly, and the good women stay home and cheer their men on. Those women who work are portrayed as cold and calculating. Even so, Boyne has captured the mood of the times, and there's a lot of technological information sure to please aviation buffs and students interested in the attitudes and events of this period. --Pat Royal, Crossland High School, Camp Springs, MDCopyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc.