THE AIRFIELD MAN

Boys are still getting the flak of WW II aerial warfare stories. This one at least takes place after the fact, as Simon Saunders is taken on a trip to see his father's old airfield in East Anglia. It returns Mr. Saunders back to the time when he discovered that his American friend, Chips Parkwood, was dropping information to the Germans and he had to shoot him down. Simon has to stay alone in the area but he meets another boy, Chuck Parkwood, who is visiting with his mother and a hired aviator in an attempt to find out how his father died. There's a trigger-happy stranger loose at the field but he can't stop the boys from finding out the connection between their fathers. Chuck's natural sense of disillusionment is mirrored by Simon's discovery that Mr. Saunders was less capable than he had thought. And a little more investigation proves both men innocent. That psychotic gunman is a little too exaggerated, and the flashbacks are over familiar. The boys are sympathetically handled, however, and their story, which does take an unusual tack, makes an active, masculine adventure.