by John Meurs
For review copies contact Terresa Ray at 1-800-343-1583 or tray@quailridge.com
Relive a fateful day in the life of the Mighty Eighth Air Force:
Sunday, November 26, 1944
Not Home for Christmas describes the fate of the thirty-four heavy bomber crews of the 8th USAAF who did not return to their bases in England after their mission of Sunday, November 26, 1944.
On that day, John Meurs, a nine year old schoolboy living in a village in Nazi-occupied Holland was having his meager war time lunch with his family when a B-17 crashed near his house.
The crash made such a deep impression on him that nearly sixty years later, after his retirement in 2000, Meurs began to research the crew of “his” B-17. He later extended his research to the complete 8th USAAF mission of November 26, 1944, concentrating on the thirty-four heavy bombers of the Mighty Eighth that did not come back.
His research covers the 314 crew members of the planes that were lost that day—136 were killed in action, 170 were taken prisoner, and 8 were hidden by the Dutch Underground until their liberation by Canadian troops in the spring of 1945.
He collected the personal stories of veterans who lived through it, families of veterans lost, and witnesses of the crashes. These first-hand recollections provide a compelling and terrifying account of the reality of war.
Thanks to those men who “would not be home for Christmas” in 1944 and many of their comrades in arms, he and his country have lived in peace ever since.
Now available!
ISBN 978-1-934193-31-0 • Quail Ridge Press • 2009
544 pages • retail $16.00 plus $4.00 shipping for any number of books ordered within the U.S.
