MIDLOTHIAN, TEX. – An author who wrote a nonfiction historical World War II book involving a Tomahawk resident was recently recognized by an organization that works to honor military veterans.
David E. Huntley, author of The B-17 Tomahawk Warrior: A WWII Final Honor, was inducted into the "Heritage of Heroes," a Midlothian, Tex., group whose goal is to “honor, support and empower veterans by preserving their enduring legacy, fostering meaningful faith-based community and connectivity and providing critical resources for stability and well-being.”
“We are focused on preserving the complete story of military service members, encompassing the time before, during and after their careers,” the organization said. “Our goal is to transform their heritage into a lasting legacy. This preservation effort also includes civilian survivors and those from past wars who are no longer with us, including our Gold Star families.”
Huntley said his induction into the Heritage of Heroes came as a surprise – he was under the impression that he was simply going to give a presentation to the group.
“Little did I know that I would be inducted into the Heritage of Heroes myself that day, and I was extremely honored to be pinned and receive the scroll of membership, for which I am most proud,” Huntley stated.
Huntley joins roughly two dozen other individuals inducted into the Heritage of Heroes.
The B-17 Tomahawk Warrior: A WWII Final Honor documents the stories of the crew of the Tomahawk Warrior, a plane that went down in 1944.
The Tomahawk Warrior was piloted by Charles J. Searl of Tomahawk.
Huntley witnessed the immediate aftermath of the crash as a child.
The Tomahawk Warrior
In the early morning hours of Aug. 12, 1944, a plane, engines sputtering, roared over the cottage of Huntley’s family in Loudwater, near High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire, about 30 miles west of London. The aircraft passed over at a low altitude and went down less than a minute later at Lude Farm in Penn, just north of Loudwater.
Huntley, who was nine years old at the time, raced to the scene with his brother and stepbrother to find that the aircraft had been destroyed and its entire crew had been killed in the crash.
Huntley later learned that the plane was called the Tomahawk Warrior, and Searl was its pilot.
The Tomahawk Warrior was a B-17 Bomber, part of the United States Army Air Forces 398th Bomb Group. On the morning of the crash, the plane and its crew departed from Royal Air Force Station Nuthamspead, England, headed for Versailles, France, on their 25th bombing mission.
On the way to France, the plane, loaded with bombs for the mission, experienced mechanical problems and went down.
Huntley said the explosion was heard in all the surrounding towns, and the blast was louder than most he had experienced in London during the Blitz, Nazi Germany’s bombing campaign against Great Britain in 1940 and 1941.
According to the 398th Bomb Group Memorial Association, Searl purposely put the ill-fated aircraft down in an open field near Lude Farm, saving countless lives by avoiding the populated areas nearby.
Huntley’s book
Huntley said he found information about the Tomahawk Warrior, its crew and the crash purely by chance while researching another WWII story. Coincidentally, he discovered the account of the Tomahawk Warrior on Aug. 12, 2016, the 72nd anniversary of the crash.
“The book provides an in-depth look at the lives and loves of the brave, very young men who faced immense odds of survival in brutal conditions,” Huntley said.
The book is also a “comprehensive look at a section of time of air combat in WWII in 1944,” according to Huntley.
Readers will also learn about how Huntley secured a British Honor for the fallen Tomahawk Warrior crew and led a delegation of family descendants he had traced to England to receive the award from the British authorities.
“Later, with the help of a member of the House of Lords, (Huntley) was able, with other locals, to establish a Permanent Commemorative Marker adjacent to the crash site of the Tomahawk Warriors,” the release stated.
The book can be purchased on Amazon at www.tinyurl.com/3h6zx9pu.
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