Serenade to the Big Bird (Schiffer Military History)

Rating:
Summary: He had the gift of immortality
Review: Bert Stiles at age 23 was thrust into a war he didn't understand but one that he knew had to be won. He gives us his thoughts and emotions starkly and beautifully, and if he had lived, he would have been one of our best writers. When the years have done their filtering process, this book will be a classic of World War II.

Rating:
Summary: Truly a most poignant, heartfelt book - true life irony.
Review: I was born ten years to the day after the first 8th Air Force mission against Berlin (March 4, 1944). I was a fourteen year old boy when I first read Serenade to the Big Bird by Bert Stiles. I was touched deeply by this real life account by a real and genuine man - not a hero or a warrior - but a young man just doing his duty.

This book is ironic in the true sense of the word. Bert Stiles didn't know he was writing his masterpiece. He was just recording his thoughts about life, love, war and death - without the slightest bit of selfconciousness. What he delivers is brilliant; an honest look into the heart, mind and soul of a real citizen soldier, a twenty-three year old in world gone insane.

This small volume is packed with all the emotions of war. There are highs, lows, and the dull boredom of military existence. Through it all, Stiles expresses his humaness and shares his observations. His skillful writing lets the reader experience the pain of loosing buddys in combat as well as the simple pleasure of enjoying fresh strawberries in English countryside - all within a few pages. Hanging over the entire narrative is the readers awareness that Stiles is writing his own epitaph.

This book survived the war. Bert Stiles did not. He's buried in Belgium along with thousands of his comrades, a victim of the carnage he had to experience in order to create such a beautiful literary legacy.

Find this book and read it.

Rating:
Summary: Serenade To The Big Bird by Bert Stiles: a must read
Review: In 1969 I had the pleasure to visit with Richard White a co-pilot in a B-17 during World War II. His plane was shot down over Berlin in 1944 and he spent some months in a German Stalag. He told me that if I really would like to know how it was that I should read this book. I have read it. It is awesome! It is written in a style that had me totally engrossed from start to finish.

Rating:
Summary: Serenade To The Big Bird by Bert Stiles: a must read
Review: In 1969 I had the pleasure to visit with Richard White a co-pilot in a B-17 during World War II. His plane was shot down over Berlin in 1944 and he spent some months in a German Stalag. He told me that if I really would like to know how it was that I should read this book. I have read it. It is awesome! It is written in a style that had me totally engrossed from start to finish.

Rating:
Summary: Bert Stles, a real hero
Review: Many pieces of literature on World War II have a stale and purely academic feel to them. This tone of work is informative but can lack the personal element that is necessary to really feel the piece of history that is being portrayed. Serenade to The Big Bird is full of feeling and gives a truely personal account of not only some of the battles of the war but also many of incredible people who fought them; not "historically important" people like generals and the like, but the men who did the physical work on the front lines, and in this case, in the air. It is an extremely thoughtful and down to earth piece of work. The book is especially important to me personally because Gordon Beach, the belly turet gunner in the book is my grandfather (who turns 89 on December 14th). The book sheds light on a part of my grandfather's life that he isn't always so quick to speak of.

Rating:
Summary: A voice form the past that speaks of today
Review: This book chronicles the life of Bert Stiles, who was killed during the war. Considering when the book was written speaks wonders for Berts insightfulness, and understanding of humanity. This book is wonderful from an historical aspect, as Bert gives us some indepth insights into life in the air and on the ground during the air war over Eurpoe. Bert also gives us something else, even more wonderful, his understanding on both sides of the battle of the people involved. Bert had a unique sense of what this war was doing to people, and just how the world would percieve it years into the future. Bert gave his life for us during those years, flying the fighter he always wanted, but his words sail on through time, to inform us even today.

Rating:
Summary: Not the first
Review: This is not close to the first review of this book. Read the other listings for much more detail.

I gave the book 5 stars, but it isn't at that level as a piece of literature. However, it is well beyond that level as an artifact of history. As I write this in late 2003, the Denver Post has almost daily obituaries for the WWII generation. Soon they will all be gone. In another 30 years the Vietnam vets, in another 50 the Gulf kids. Each will leave some worthwhile fragments of their experience, this is one of the better ones I've found from the WWII group.

As a Denver kid that had problems with Denver Pub Schools, sat on the bench for high school football, went off to war in Vietnam, flew in the Navy, I found Stiles' book to be a godsend, to understand MY life, and my relationship with my father's generation. Read it because it is a ROUGH manuscript, obviously not well edited, and it is honest, and for any number of reasons, it seems that honesty comes at a premium and probably always has.

The current President, who had the opportunity to really be a combat pilot and did everything he could to avoid it, now poses on flight decks. The current Governor of Colorado, who never did a day in the military, passed out pictures of himself in a flight-suit climbing down from a aircraft wing to associate himself with a strong defense. What a miserable collection of mutts compared to their father's generation.

The remarkable thing about these kids wasn't that they were courageous heroes, but because they weren't and they still got the job done. One bloody, gut-wrenching day at a time. Spin that.

Rating:
Summary: Not the first
Review: When Bert Stiles wrote this book, the war was still raging across the world. It was 1944, he had just completed a horrific tour of duty as a B17 co-pilot, and the memories were fresh in his mind. Even though Bert seemed to be a somewhat sensitive man, some of his words have a callous feel to them. He talks about the officers and enlisted men forming a baseball team, and "..after the Schweinfurt raid, we had to replace the whole infield"-Simply put, so many men had been killed on that mission, no one was left to play on the team. Bert was an intelligent man, a good writer, but he lacked the experience to know when to back out of the war. Passive, intelligent, creative people do not make good fighter pilots. Bert was killed in action shortly after writing his memoirs.

Rating:
Summary: A Life Cut Short, A Great Writer Silenced. A Must Read.
Review: While researching a WWII novel and history book myself, I asked a number of former 8th Air Force fliers which novel about the air corps experience over Europe was best, only two novels were ever mentioned. One, "Twelve O'Clock High" has become a classic. The other, "Serenade to the Big Bird", I had never heard of. I found a copy and read it. Bert Stiles was a college student from Denver, Colorado who became a B17 co-pilot in the 8th Air Force. His writing style is similar to Ernest Hemingway, probably because Hemingway was popular at the time Stiles wrote. In direct, simple prose, Stiles describes the life of an Air Corps Officer, both on the ground and in the air. He pulls no punches. The death is rarely glorious, but the young men are no less heroic. The theme of emptiness is played out over and over...empty beds after a mission, the empty hardstand for the plane that didn't come back. Stiles was obviously a very sensitive individual with a gift for observation and description. The book is short but very concentrated. Rarely does Stiles waste a word. The sheer terror, the SNAFUS, the occasional funny moments, the doubts- all are described here. One of the reasons Bert Stiles' book is so eloquent is that his is a voice from the past--his usage and slang are from the forties. It is a book written by a very young man. Stiles finished his tour and took some time to write "Serenade to the Big Bird". He then volunteered as a fighter pilot, and was shot down and killed shortly after he finished the book. In a way, this is as much a story of a life unfullfilled as anything else. What kind of writer might Bert Stiles have become had he lived? After reading this book, I was left thinking he would have become a great one. This is his only work. It is a must read for anyone interested in the air war and the men who fought it. It is a must read for anyone who wants to read a great writer.