I read with growing incredulity the apparent ‘canonisation’ of the late
English Eighth Air Force historian Roger A Freeman on Facebook.
It
seems that many there think that the man could do no wrong, his writings
should be regarded as delightful pearls of wisdom handed down to the
uninitiated and uneducated masses from on high and that in his spare
time he would walk on water.
As the Engineering Director of the
East Anglian Aviation Society, one of the three organizations that
founded the aviation museum at Duxford (once home of the 78th Fighter
Group) near Cambridge, England I came in contact with the man, and sadly
having known him, I can say for certain that was not the case.
In
the early 1970s – some 40 years ago now – Freeman produced three major
works on the Eighth Air Force –‘The Mighty Eighth’, ‘Mighty Eighth War
Manual’ and the ‘Mighty Eighth War Diary’, a trilogy of books that many
have come to regard as being the ‘bibles’ of the 8th Air Force.
At
the time of production they appeared worthy of that accolade, but for
those who care to look deeper, they have not stood the test of time
well.
In order to explain what I mean, let us look at how Freeman
deals with one aircraft - possibly the most famous and well-documented
aircraft of the so-called ‘Mighty Eighth’, B-17F 41-24485 Memphis Belle.
When Memphis newspaperman and journalist Menno Duerksen was
researching his ‘Memphis Belle - Home at Last’, one of the people he
contacted was Freeman.
In a reply dated February 6th 1987 to a
letter from Duerksen querying mission completion dates between the
‘Memphis Belle’ and the 303rd Bomb Group’s B-17 ‘Hells Angels’, Freeman
revealed some interesting information and made some even more revealing
points about his own work. ‘...my information as used in ‘The Mighty
Eighth’ was based on squadron and group reports and PR handouts rather
than an actual count of missions completed from the individual mission
reports. In fact, that information was still restricted when I put ‘The
Mighty Eighth’ together. Indeed, knowing the liberties that were taken
by the PR people, nothing short of the examination of each individual
mission record would satisfy me that the date was correct.’
So,
it seems that the renowned The Mighty Eighth - first published in 1970 -
was written using an undisclosed percentage of Eighth Air Force Public
Relations material. This is clearly an admission IN THE AUTHORS OWN
WORDS that he was well aware that some of the data contained therein was
‘suspect’ to say the least! In the same letter Freeman goes on to drop
another bombshell and suggest what he thought was really needed. ‘... I
have never had the opportunity to verify this, but it does show that to
arrive at some hard facts on this subject it would be necessary to
review the individual aircraft records of the three groups’ operations
at this time’.
Now it may well have been the case that much
material was still restricted from public sight when the book was first
published - but why had Freeman not made any attempt to get more
accurate information in the ensuing seventeen years up to the time of
writing that letter?
This is proof that in early 1987 Freeman had
STILL not verified the mission dates. Yet less than a year earlier he
had supposedly revised ‘The Mighty Eighth’, but the caption to a
photograph on page 50 was still the same ‘...First B-17 in the 91st BG
to complete 25 missions, she was also the first in the VIII BC to be
returned to the USA with her crew’. Even at that time it was commonly
known amongst aviation historians that both statements in that caption
were incorrect.
As an author and historian who for many years has
been involved with the historical aviation movement, I looked long and
hard at what had previously appeared in both print and the visual media
before deciding that leaving the material unchecked and/or not corrected
simply did not do justice to the aircraft or the men involved. It was
attempting to correct these ongoing ‘innaccuracies’ that drove me into
writing.
A number of English aviation historians already knew that
much of the information which had appeared was suspect - but the
discovery of Freeman’s admission about his own work and the
contradictions about what he had still not done regarding checking
individual mission logs, despite making such a definite statement about
the Memphis Belle, came as something of a shock to say the least!
If Freeman could allow such a caption containing apparently ‘unchecked’
information to appear - in not only the first edition which was
understandable, but also the revised 1986 edition where he had a
perfectly good chance and plenty of time to correct it, then what else
was ‘in error’ in the trilogy of so-called ‘bibles’ of the American
Eighth Air Force?
As it turned out, quite a lot was.
Even by
1994 when Roger Freeman co-wrote ‘Claims to Fame The B-17 Flying
Fortress’ with Steve Birdsall which, according to the title’s own
dustjacket in a paragraph relating to the Memphis Belle, was a method of
‘... correcting inaccuracies on the best known Fortress.’ Not only did
they still manage to get the date of the King and Queens visit to
Bassingbourn wrong but they also contradicted themselves. On page 78
they have the Memphis Belle crew starting the bond tour in Washington DC
on 9 June. Further on, in one of the photo-sections they have a caption
that states that the crew were presented to Generals Eaker and Devers
at Bovingdon airfield in England on the same day!
Waiting for over 24 years and still not have found time to update the records goes beyond laziness!
Then, in 1999 I was in discussion with my then-publishers Cassels Ltd,
who were overjoyed in gaining the rights to publish a paperback version
of the ‘Mighty Eighth’ – I politely asked if they were going to revise
it to knock out the many errors that it contained. ‘Oh no…’ I was told
‘…we want to get it out as soon as possible. We might paste over the
occasional word, but that’s all’.
That is exactly what they did
and the evidence is still there to this day for all to see and spot for
those capable of doing such a thing, for Cassels even used a slightly
different typeface on the pasted text.
So, if so many errors appear
in his work about possibly the most famous and well-documented of all
Eighth Air Force machines what hope is there for lesser known and more
poorly documented aircraft being correctly recorded?
Very little
hope I think, especially given the man’s growing band of slavish
followers. Today there are more primary source documentation records
available on both sides of the Atlantic than there have ever been and
yet Freeman’s vociferous ‘followers’ appear only interested in
regurgitating 40 year old ‘facts’ as quoted by the great man and
attacking anyone who dares to question what he recorded.
It concerns me that this blind acceptance is doing untold damage for future history!
Immediately after I posted it on the Eighth Air Force Historical Society (Official) Facebook page sure enough I got attacked - 'how DARE I say such things against the memory of such a man who cannot reply back?' 'It seems that I am jealous, bitter and twisted... etc etc etc. Funny thing though - not ONE person said I was wrong!
