Being there . . . . when blue-eyed General of the Army George C. Marshall, soldier and
statesman, had few illusions about the Army, especially its Air Corps, under his command on 11
December 1941 when Italy and Germany declared war on the USA and vice-versa. And no
American office, Army or Army Air Corps, either superior or lower in rank, wanted to face his
gaze which drilled a man to his very core. “My Army Air Corps exists as an underappreciated,
underutilized force, yet to learn about close support for infantry, fascinated instead with
bombers. Logistics, from heavy weapon procurement down to the company supply room, was a
paper-choked channel that grudgingly washed-up shoddy clothing and tools. Fourteen
signatures are needed to get rations for my men. Intelligence, from General Staff to battalion
level, I have been awarded a scorned dumping ground for misfits and timeservers”.
VIRTUALLY EVERYWHERE GENERAL OF THE ARMY AND ARMY AIR CORPS GEORGE C. MARSHALL
LOOKED IN THE FIRST TWO WEEKS OF JANUARY 1942, HE FOUND INADEQUACIES THAT MADE
THE COMBINED FORCES A POOR MATCH FOR HITLER’S WEHRMACHT, SS, AND LUFTWAFFE.
UNDER MARSHALL, DETERMINED TO BE MASTERLY COMPREHENSIVE IN HIS SUPERVISION,
GUIDANCE, AND PROCUREMENT DEMANDS, ALL WHO MET AND DEALT WITH HIM THOUGHT
HE WAS THE BEST, NAY, GREATEST, SOLIDER THEY EVER MET – – THIS INCLUDED IKE,
ROOSEVELT, CHURCHILL, TRUMAN, STALIN, ACHESON, PATTON, AND BRADLEY. WHO WAS
BETTER TO BRING THE ARMY AIR FORCE FACE TO FACE WITH THE ELITE PILOTES OF NAZI
GERMANY.
Reviewed and highly recommended by Don DeNevi
“HAPPY JACK’S GO BUGGY – – A Fighter Pilots Story”, by Jack Ilfrey, with Mark Copeland. A
Schiffer Military /Aviation History Book, Atglen, PA: 1998, 125 pages, hardcover, 8 ¾” x 11 ¼ “,
$35. E-mail: schifferbk@aol.com; fax (610) 593-2002; telephone:(610) 593-1777.
Since their inception between 2003 and 2005 as a first-rate World War II military publishing
house, Schiffer Publishers (which other press can match such nonpareilness?) have focused,
when feasible, on the biographies and autobiographies of America, Allied, and enemy fighter
and bomber pilots. “If ever men earned their places in the annals of American military aviation
history, they were heroes like Francis “Gabby” Gabreski, Herschel H. Green, “Herky” to his
fellow pilots, and Jack “Happy Jack” Ilfrey.
In “Happy Jack’s” autobiography originally written in 1946, less than five months after
discharge, the eight-victory Fighter Ace places us buffs next to him as he flies his P-38 among
the other fighters of the famed 94 th Fighter Squadron. This heroic group of men were the first to
fly from the USA to England where within days the squadron is ordered to North Africa where
the fun and danger really begin. Almost immediately “Happy Jack” is on his way to becoming
our country’s first World War II ace. His life’s stories are about his flying exploits as a member
of the 20 th Fighter Group/ 8 th Air Force. Especially sensationally riveting is flying with “Happy” on
his incredible evasions through German-occupied France, leading readers to conclude that his
combat stories are the finest of aerial combat ever written.
In December 1944, Jack finished his second tour of combat after having combined a total of
142 Combat Missions, 528 Combat Hours. Three fourths or more of these were spent in P-38s
and the balance in the new P-51. After a 30-day home leave, “Happy Jack” was assigned to
McChord Field in Tacoma, Washington, as a Trooper Commander to not only help plan the
invasion of Japan, but also to assist in the processing of returning troops, especially after V-J
Day. What also makes Jack Ilfrey so endearing is his Epilogue, Chapter 12, in which he describes
his postwar activities in detail. Sadly, in the early 1950s, Jack’s 20-20 vision began to fade while
glaucoma set in. His flying career was over. In this gem of a pleasurable read, the “Color
Gallery” of the fighters he flew is worth the price in itself.
Next in this column’s Seven Part SCHIFFER PUBLISHERS’ Aviation Series will be an Introduction
and review of “WARPATH – A Story Of the 345 th Bombardment Group (M), ‘The Air Apaches’ in
World War II”, certainly one of the best facsimile “war book” reprints of World War II.
