« Father would have loved to have been there. » The last home of Arnold Helding, a WWII fighter pilot
I am the author of The Legend of Little Eagle, a novel inspired by a true story: the heroic action of a USAAF fighter pilot named LeRoy Lutz in June 1944 in France. This book can be found on Amazon … Continuer la lecture
Franz Stigler/LeRoy Lutz: two examples of a higher call
In December, 1943, a badly damaged B-17 american flying fortress was struggling to return to its english base after his first bombing mission over Germany. Half its crew was dead or wounded, it was constantly loosing altitude. Suddenly, a Messerschmitt … Continuer la lecture
Another connexion with a WW2 pilot
I was in for a surprise recently when I found a very small parcel (perhaps 3×2 inches) in my mailbox. The sending adress carried a name that was familiar to me in Montana. And when I opened up this very … Continuer la lecture
A P-51 Mustang for the price of a Beetle (or almost)
I’m not an aviation specialist, not even a real aviation buff, but I’ve come to like planes more than a non-pilot. Unexpected circumstances (the discovery of a letter in a small museum in Montana) have led me to write a … Continuer la lecture
On July 31, 1944, Antoine de Saint-Exupéry went MIA
In The Legend of Little Eagle, a novel with an important background on aviation and WW2, I tried to tell in a faithful way, based on different historical accounts, how the disappearance of Antoine de Saint-Exupéry was felt by his … Continuer la lecture
William Wyler risked his life to film « The Memphis Belle » missions over Germany
Many people interested in WW2 and aviation have probably seen The Memphis Belle, a movie by Michael Catton Jones released in 1990. This beautiful film was also pretty accurate, and beyond paying tribute to the crews flying the B-17s flying … Continuer la lecture
A little house in Burgundy
The Legend of Little Eagle, a novel with a strong aviation/WW2 background, is a story that the reader discovers through the investigation of a narrator, Hélène Marchal. She wants to know who was a young USAAF fighter pilot who got … Continuer la lecture
The choice between saving one’s own life or the lives of others
French version I have written earlier how a letter, found in a small museum in Montana, had inspired the writing of my novel « The Legend of Little Eagle ». This letter, dated 1947 and sent from France, was … Continuer la lecture
LeRoy Lutz of the 434th Fighter Squadron died heroically in France on June 22, 1944
Traveling in the Flathead Valley of Montana some years ago, I stopped to visit the charming Ninepipes Museum near Ronan. Somewhere between the photographs, artifacts, weaponry, old tools, and some paintings of Charles Russel, my attention was drawn by the … Continuer la lecture
Stories that connect and enlighten
About two weeks ago, I sent a paperback copy of my novel The Legend of Little Eagle to the Ninepipes Museum of Early Montana. I had thought that a story which was inspired by a letter I had found … Continuer la lecture