Show notes
LUCK OF THE DRAW: MEMOIR BY WWII AIRMAN FRANK MURPHY - CHARACTER IN APPLE+ "MASTERS OF THE AIR"
CNN Correspondent Chloe Melas, Her Mother, and Her Grandmother Band Together to Honor His Legacy
Murphy was a member of the 100th Bomb Group, aka "The Bloody Hundredth"
"In the pursuit of authenticity, of accurate history and undeniable courage, no words matter more than 'I was there.' Read LUCK OF THE DRAW and the life of Frank Murphy and ponder this: How did those boys do such things?"-Tom Hanks
Chloe Melas is a much-recognized CNN Entertainment correspondent by day, but she has a passion that bridges her chosen field with the legacy of her late grandfather, Frank Murphy.
Last year, Melas and her family visited the set of Masters of the Air, the Playtone (Tom Hanks)/Amblin Entertainment (Stephen Spielberg) Apple+ series coming in early 2023. Her grandfather is the basis of the character featured in the series and planed by Jonas Moore.
Now, along with her mother and grandmother, she has shepherded the reissue of Murphy's 2001 memoir, LUCK OF THE DRAW: My Story of the Air War in Europe (St. Martin's Press Griffin; on sale February 28, 2023; $18.99 USD) to coincide with the premiere of the series.
"My grandfather once told me he spent the rest of the life walking with ghosts but looking back with pride,"Melas writes in the foreword she co-wrote with her mother, Elizabeth Murphy and with the support of her grandmother, Ann Murphy. "Our family's goal is to keep Frank's memory and that of his fellow men alive and pass on the greatness to the next generation."
Murphy was a member of the 100th Bomb Group, one of five B-17 bomb groups sent to England in the spring of 1043 to form the new 4th Bomber Wing. He landed in England in June and by the time his plane was shot down in October, her served 126 hours in combat over Europe, experiencing some of the bloodiest fighting of the war.
In 2001, Murphy wrote about his combat tour, "It lasted only four months - four months, however, in which were compressed many of the most exciting, and all of the most frightening and life-threatening, experiences I have known in my entire life."
Given today's technology, stepping into a WWII vintage B-17 is akin to entering a tin can - one that flies and is manned by a crew of ten. Four of the crew members were officers in the front, the pilot, co-pilot, bombardier, and the navigator - the position held by Murphy. The navigator, Murphy wrote, "climbed aboard lugging a briefcase crammed with maps, Mercator charts, books, paper, pencils, drawing instruments, a hand-held calculator, and strange looking optical instruments. He was invariably hunched over his narrow shelf-like table in front of which was a repeater set of basic flight instruments and radio controls. He looked at his watch constantly, drew lines, and scrobbled notes to himself on the papers, maps, and charts in front of him, much like Scrooge's wretched drudge, Bob Cratchet, in Dicken's classic tale, A Christmas Carol."
In typical self-deprecating style, Murphy neglected to mention that he also led them to their target and got them home safely.
The six sergeants in the rear were aerial gunners and a radio technician. "No fighting men in military service anywhere, anytime, would be more deserving of respect," Murphy wrote. "The risks they took were all out of proportion to their military ratings or pay. Their job was difficult mentally and physically, and fraught with the danger of injury or death, almost always deep in enemy territory."
The 100th Bomber Group lost forty-five aircrafts together with their crews in less than 4 months of combat operations. Because of its heavy losses at Regensburg, Bremen, and Muster in August and October 1043, they became known throughout the Army's Eighth Air Force as The Bloody Hundredth.
LUCK OF THE DRAW features Murphy's harrowing descriptions of the battles, including the "suicide mission" that he and his fellow crewmen survived deep over enemy territory in Regensburg, and their final battle over Muster during what came to be known as Black Week (October 8-14, 1943), what Murphy describes as "a staccato succession of trials of fire on a scale unprecedented in aerial warfare."
Shot down over enemy territory, Murphy and the other surviving crew members were arrested by the German police. With the same eye for detail and storytelling ability that serves his combat writing, Murphy shares the highs and lows of his internment in the infamousStalag Luft III, later made famous by the Hollywood feature, The Great Escape. The men survived freezing conditions, near starvation and a last-minute forced march as the Russian Army approached. He was liberated on April 29, 1945.
Although he is not here to further describe those 22 months himself, his granddaughter Chloe Melas is available to share the stories learned at her grandfather's knee.
Among the items she could discuss are:
*The ragtag group of twenty-somethings, hailing from cities and small towns across the U.S. that made up the crew of Murphy's plane, The Bastard's Bungalow.
*Early flight technology described in minute detail by Murphy in the book.
*Bombing strategies that were only just taking shape as the war started, and the heroism involved in flying over fortified enemy territory.
*Conditions in the World War II POW camps, and how The Great Escape and Hogan's heroes barely scratched the surface.
*The trip forty years after the war that nudged Murphy to talk about his WWII experienced, and the camaraderie that developed among the survivors over the years.
*Why it is so important to share stories like this with a new generation.
In a tribute to his comrades, Murphy made this observation: "There was no single reason why men who looked death in the face over Europe in 1943 went back into battle day after day. The airmen of the Eighth were amateurs, not professional soldiers. We had no idea whether we were good soldiers or not, but we had not collapsed in the face of a difficult enemy. Duty, honor, country played their part, certainly, but not because these precepts were drilled into us by the Army. It was just the way we were. In my view, however, the single driving force that kept us going was the bond one felt with the men who stood steadfastly beside him when all their lives were at stake."
PRAISE FOR LUCK OF THE DRAW
"Murphy describes some of the bloodiest air battles of the war as only a person who was actually there can. Luck of the Draw is a riveting and often harrowing must-read for anyone interested in military aviation, the second world war, or just plain real-life adventure."- John Orloff, writer, HBO's Band of Brothers and Apple+'s Masters of the Air
"Navigator Frank Murphy's propulsive account of the American bomber war against Nazi Germany is also a powerful and poignant memoir of survival in a German POW compound. The books' heart-stopping account of the brutal Winter March of the captured Allied airmen across the heart of Hitler's dying Reich placed it with Twelve O'Clock High as a classic of World War II literature." -Donald L. Miller, author of Masters of the Air: The Greatest Bomber Boys Who Fought the Air War Against Nazi Germany
"A gripping, inspirational account of incredible bravery, resilience, and sheer will to survive. Frank Murphy was a true American hero who served courageously in the skies over Europe during WWII and who then demonstrated extraordinary fortitude and determination in the face of unimaginable challenges as a prisoner of war. A truly extraordinary story!"- General David Petraeus, US Army (Ret.), former Commander of the Surge in Iraq, US Central Command, and NATO and US Forces in Afghanistan, and former Director of the CIA
"Ever wonder if you had what it took to stare death in the face and push it aside and go forth into the unknown? That is what these young airmen of the 8th Army Air Force accomplished every time they leaded up for another mission. Frank Murphy has eloquently described the harrowing experiences of a B-17 crew from the loss of crewmembers, confronting his own mortality and ultimately the trauma of incarceration as a prisoner of war. This account is partly to honor his noble brothers of the air but also a reminder to future generations of the heroic young men of the Bomber Command."-Rick Perry, son of B-17 tail gunner BG, 14th Governor of Texas, and 7th Secretary of Energy
"Every generation needs a spokesman for it endeavors. In this respect Murphy does the young men of VIII Bomber command proud."-Roger A. Freeman, author and Eighth Air force historian
ABOUT FRANK MURPHY AND CHLOE MELAS
Frank D. Murphy survived months in a German POW camp after being shot out of his B-17 Flying Fortress. He withstood a harrowing death march in sub-zero temperatures - and his bravery earned him the Distinguished Flying Cross, the Purple Heart, and the Air Medal. The incredible stories of Frank Murphy and his 8th Air force's 100th Bomb Group - nicknamed The Bloody Hundredth - will be featured in the upcoming Stephen Spielberg and Tom Hanks Apple+ TV Series, Masters of the Air.
Chloe Melas is an entertainment reporter for CNN, covering breaking celebrity news, industry analysis and in-depth investigations. She currently resides in New York with her husband and their two sons.
https://twitter.com/ChloeMelas
https://www.cnn.com/profiles/chloe-melas
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