SEVEN CAME THROUGH

This will probably -- from the sales angle -- prove to be the They Were Expendable of the Spring. Personally, I confess to some degree of disappointment in the book -- there is no attempt to cut any deeper than the already widely publicized story of the experience published in Life. I had hoped for deeper plumbing of the psychological aspects, for some of the challenge that his brief radio speech, after his return, carried to every listener. Three quarters of the book retrace the many times told record of survival against odds, a story that parallels in many aspects the story of The Raft. The last quarter is virtually a ""report to the nation"" of his findings, such as can be released, on our air power in action, his recommendations as to improvements in equipment of emergency gear, his brief indictment of the failures of labor and industry to measure up to the needs and the spirit of the men at the front. Interestingly at variance with the position of Allan Michie in THE AIR OFFENSIVE AGAINST GERMANY (reviewed below), and one could wish that Rickenbacker had expanded his claims rather than making categorical (and perhaps too rose-spectacled) statements of the things we like to hear. Sure to best sell.