By using the first chapter to introduce all the crew members and, in some cases, their families, the authors make the story much more personal. Readers who flip back and forth between the text and the photographs of the men who made this story what it is cannot help being drawn into and deeply affected by this story. If some director had indeed turned these events into a movie, it would have been much more interesting than the glorified Memphis Belle because it would have shown real American heroes doing what young men half a century ago did almost daily. To me, studying history and researching combat are nothing without emphasizing the people involved. Reading about two fighters locked in mortal combat is nothing without exploring the pilots in those aircraft.
Military history is more than just numbers, casualties, and body counts.
This is what makes Valor at Polebrook such a good book. Although suffering from frostbite and numb with cold, these two young men refused to bail out and tried to land the seriously damaged B-17 because the pilot was still alive. That they died while trying to save their friend should be an inspiration to us all. One minor problem with the story concerns Ten Horsepower, the name the authors use throughout the book in referring to the aircraft. Since this was not the crew's regular airplane, the name seemed to make sense, according to documents available at the time.