1
I consulted several accounts about the RMS Queen Elizabeth’s wartime service. These include: Andrew Britton, RMS Queen Elizabeth, Classic Liners series (Stroud, Gloucestershire, UK: The History Press, 2013); D. A. Butler, Warrior Queens: The Queen Mary and Queen Elizabeth in World War II (Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania: Stackpole Books, 2002); Chris Koning, “Queen Elizabeth” at War: His Majesty’s Transport, 1939–1946 (Wellingborough, UK: Patrick Stephens, 1985); and The Two “Queens”—War Service of the Queen Mary and Queen Elizabeth, Hutchinson’s Pictorial History of the War, Vol. 26, pp. 389–92. Also informative was the entry for the RMS Queen Elizabeth on the Great Ocean Liners website, accessed at https://www.greatoceanliners.com/rms-queen-elizabeth, and an article on the site about the Queen Elizabeth written by Henrik Reimertz. A fascinating wartime account of the Queen Elizabeth’s conversion from luxury liner to troop transport is “Thousands of Canadian Workers Make Queen Elizabeth Troop Ship,” The Gazette (Montreal, Canada), December 6, 1944, p. 16. The Manhattan “Super Piers” from which many U.S. servicemen departed in World War II are described in “Sailing Away,” New York Times, March 12, 2006, Section 14, p. 4. An indispensable source on trans-Atlantic convoys during the war is the Arthur Hague Convoy Database, accessed at http://www.convoyweb.org.uk/misc/index.html.
2
Cal Stewart’s first encounter with Ben Kuroki aboard the Queen Elizabeth was related to the author by Stewart’s son. Scott Stewart, author interview, July 24, 2023.
CHAPTER 8: “CHINAMAN BOY”
1
The Story of the 93rd Bomb Group (San Angelo Texas: Newsfoto Pub., n.d.), Chapter 2.
2
Ibid.
3
Rollin Reineck, author interview, September 23, 1991.
4
Martin, Boy from Nebraska, p. 76.
5
Stewart, Ted’s Travelling Circus, p. 21.
6
Ibid., p. 22.
7
Martin, Boy from Nebraska, p. 78.
8
Ibid.
9
Lieutenant George R. Kaiser, Jr., October 4, 1942, “Historical Narrative of the Four Hundred Ninth Bomb Squadron, 1942, Month of October.” Author’s collection.
CHAPTER 9: “HEY, THEY’RE SHOOTING AT US!”
1
Stewart, Ted’s Travelling Circus, p. 3.
2
Ibid., p. 7.
3
Ibid.
4
Theodore Finnarn, author interview, August 10, 1991. An Ohio native, Finnarn was the flight engineer and top turret gunner of Thunder Bird. The tail gunner who was so shaken by his first encounter with enemy flak was Jack R. Stover, a carpenter born in Illinois and living in Northern California at the time of his enlistment. The pilot was Charles (Pat) Murphy, the son of a prominent Mississippi attorney, and the copilot was Joe Avendano, a full-blooded Apache from Southern California.
5
Stewart, Ted’s Travelling Circus, p. 8. The five men who died in the crash of the Big Eagle were Lieutenant William Marsh and sergeants James Detoris, Stephen Eppolito, Clayton Kammerer, and Arthur N. Torrey. The pilot of Big Eagle was Captain Alexander Simpson and his copilot was Lieutenant Nicholas H. Cox.
6
Stewart, Ted’s Travelling Circus, p. 14.
7
Ibid.
CHAPTER 10: “LOOK AT ME NOW”
1
