Mr. Gustin said he'd need a better source than Martin Caidin for the
B-17/FW-190 story. In this case, although it's been amply shown that Caidin
shouldn't be trusted on much, he was pretty much correct about this story.

Agreed - Marty didn't fiddle with this one, but, can you see why Mr. Gustin
didn't want to jump right up and take MC's word for it, before the other source
came up?

I think I would have worded it similarly if I were to have been the responder
ahead of him - MC was a GREAT writer and I would never take that away from him.
I am a struggling writer myself and I know there are times when I see a great
story in someone's book, the first inclination I have is that I want to use it;
the second inclination is to realize that simply by being in someone else's
book, the details have already been through at least one filter, perhaps more.
So I tend to reject published books as sources, unless I can read a long list
of original historic sources listed in the credits - even then, I typically go
off to find those original sources.

I believe the same thing as he does about Caidin - he filled his books with
bar
stories and genuine historians are going to be cleaning up his mess for the
next 100 years.

You are probably right.

snip agreed stuff

Getting back to the original FW 190 / B-17 story, which is more accurate,
Caidin, or the other...? Marty wrote to thrill; the other guy wrote his
account to tell the story accurately.

Based on the two accounts, Caidin inflated 2 FW's to 3. It would be hard to
gainsay the other account, as he was sitting about six feet from where the FW
struck. Nothing else in the co-pilot's account contradicts what Caidin said,
although the co-pilot has the FW strike inboard of the #3 engine and Caidin
indicates a strike on the engine itself. That's a difference of a few feet.


True - what I was pointing out was the main difference between the two
accounts. One was the nuts and bolts blow by blow description by the CP - in
contrast, MC's account was more like the "Two Fisted Tales"-type of writing,
where Marty talks about the 'Fort blasting enemy fighters and only just barely
refrains from using the "there I was, waist deep in spent shells.." line.
But that is why I loved to read him as a kid!

I appreciate your comments.

Cool - glad we can disagree without slinging monkeydoo.

v/r
Gordon
====(A+C====
USN SAR

Its always better to lose AN engine, than THE engine.