!: Rite of Passage: A Teenager's Chronicle of Combat and Captivity in Nazi Germany

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Jul 17, 2010 06:17:06

Drawing on a vast array of original source material that has survived for decades and previously classified information, this thrilling narrative history documents a young soldier’s miraculous survival in war-torn Europe during World War II. Soon after joining the U.S. Army Corps, a wiry, baby-faced 17-year-old found himself a seasoned warrior desperately battling head-to-head against the Luftwaffe’s best fighter pilots over Nazi Germany. Having amazingly escaped the fiery wreckage of his B-17, he relied on his ingenuity and determination to get him through two bitter winters in confinement as a POW in the infamous Stalag 17. Along with other American prisoners, he was coerced to flee the rapidly advancing Red Army as the European war came to a close and endure a brutal 18-day march where he witnessed firsthand the horrors of the Mauthausen concentration camp. Weighing an emaciated 110 pounds, he was finally rescued by Patton’s Third Army just days before Germany surrendered.

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±1±: Best Buy Review of Book

I took Matheny's book, "Right of Passage" to read on a trip to fish in Canada. I am a retired airline pilot and am attracted to stories involving planes. "Rite of Passage" is about planes to a point, but what it is really about is a young man, who at the age of seventeen years answered his country's call for warriors.
Shortly after December seventh, Ray Matheny, along with others lined up at the recruiting office to sign-up to go to war. Matheny was too young to sign-up at that time but was able to do so when he reached the age of seventeen, with his parents' permission. Matheny had a strong background in planes and flying, so the Air Force was his choice.
So beginning in the late Spring of 1942, this young man from the Watts, a part of Los Angeles, left home and began an adventure beyond his wildest dreams. An adventure that took him to the rigors of pre-flight training, to training missions in the B-17, heavy bomber, to a hazardous flight from America to England, to death defying missions over.Europe, to the perilous escape from a plane that exploded in mid-air, to the stark and dreadful prison, Stalag Luft 17B, to liberation and back to Watts. Thus, a young idealistic boy left Watts in1942 and eventually returned to Watts, tempered, tested, and seasoned, by a series of horrid events of war, a tough young man, the product of his "Rite of Passage".
As I read this book, I was made aware of several critical facets of those who were warriors in the air war over Europe. From my perspective as a pilot, I am amazed at the manner these young men were able to master flying a plane as complex as the B-17 and to do so in such a short expanse of time. Then as I read the events that occurred on both training and combat missions and the way that they handled serious, life threatening situations, I found myself in awe. What did these young men possess? What drove them to overcome all of the fear that proceeded each combat mission and the terror that happened on such missions?
It was from Matheny's description of these flights into the horrific arena of air combat, that I drew a glimpse of how bad it was and how brave these warriors were. They knew that the danger and risk were there, for they had felt it on prior missions, often in very heavy proportions, Yet, they prepared for the next mission, checked over the plane, climbed aboard, and roared down the runway, armed with determined sense of duty and love of country.
In Stalag 17B, the battle was still there, a battle to survive in an environ most foreign to those who were now "Krieges". These warriors of the sky now vied with the elements of weather, sessions of doubt, illness, a tortuous forced march, all under the guns of the prison guards. Matheny's account of these events are the most detailed and complete that I have ever read. He tells of the adjustments and coping mechanisms employed by a wide variety of personalities thrown together, enclosed by prison barbed wire in body, but the wire could never imprison their American spirit.
As I read this book, it caused me to reflect that these young men were driven by the best of what America can offer, the knowledge of what it means to be free. And gave me clearer vision as to what it means to promote, protect, and preserve that freedom.
These young men did that, millions of them did that, for us, and we should be forever grateful for what and how they accomplished this noble task. I recommend wholeheartedly Matheny's book. "Rite of Passage". By reading it and thinking about what it says you can do what I did. I am a better person and a better American as my rite of passage is more complete. Thanks to reading Matheny's book.

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