Book Review: Dave Dawson with the Air Corps by R. Sidney Bowen
After several exciting adventures in the European and Pacific Theaters of World War Two, Captain Dave Dawson of Military Intelligence is certainly due a few days of rest and recreation. But after three days on the beach in California, he and sidekick Captain Freddy Farmer of the Royal Air Force are already getting restless. So they’re not the least bit disappointed when a telegram from Colonel Welsh, the true leader of American military intelligence, summons them to San Francisco.
On their flight to San Francisco, the pair spot a crashed airplane and land to help. The pilot is too far gone to save, but entrusts them with a dying message for Colonel Welsh that sounds a lot like “Albuquerque.”
At their destination, Dave and Freddy meet the colonel and go to his local office, only to find the office manager knocked out and tied up. A telegram from Colonel Welsh to him has been stolen, but it shouldn’t tell the thief anything they don’t already know. The colonel explains that the dead pilot had been hot on the trail of a German agent known only as “7-11”, one of their top operatives. The pilot had been last stationed in the Canal Zone in Panama, but passed through Albuquerque on his way to San Francisco.
Knowing that the office phone line has likely been tapped, the intrepid investigators suggest the colonel make a phone call that makes it appear they learned more from the dead man than they actually did, putting the spies on their trail and thus easier to spot. Sure enough, they’re soon the target of multiple assassination attempts, and eventually wind up learning of a Nazi plot to destroy the Panama Canal!
This volume was part of a fifteen book children’s adventure series to take advantage of interest in the war. The first book introduces Dave helping save British lives at Dunkirk, and joining their air force, which lasted until America entered the war after Pearl Harbor. Then he was able to get himself and Freddy transferred to the American military. This volume was printed in 1942, and our intrepid pair already saw action in the Marshall Islands.
As a children’s book (I’d put the reading level about middle school), the plotline is straightforward and many details are simplified–our heroes have a lot more freedom to move around and choose their own flight paths than would be acceptable in a real-life military situation. The research is also dubious–a lot of emphasis is placed on the desirability of Vultee model aircraft that in real life weren’t considered that impressive.
The actual enemy plan is pretty nifty. It wouldn’t work if the airplanes had radios (so no mention of plane radios, which were standard equipment by then, is ever made.)
The characterization is also simplistic. Dave and Freddy are brave, smart and loyal. They also bicker constantly in a way that’s supposed to be humorous but would lead most bystanders to conclude that they’re bitter enemies, or at least going through a rough patch in their relationship. 7-11, once he finally shows up, is an evil, arrogant Nazi who’s very hissable.
Content note: People die as the result of combat or sabotage. Some outdated ethnic terms are used.
This book is blatantly propaganda for kids. Mostly of interest to air adventure fans like myself.
