Have you ever heard the saying, “the cameraman never dies?” The phrase is a viral internet meme that Reddit popularized in 2020.
The joke references survivorship bias, a logical error in studies where statisticians only collect data on entities who ‘survive’ their trials, while ignoring those who do not. But for internet-users who enjoy videos of daring stunts and perilous expeditions, “the cameraman never dies” is a comforting mantra to repeat as their favorite YouTubers barely finesse death on camera.
By nature, war memoirs are very similar. Only someone who survives a war can publish an account about it, no?
Background
“Serenade to the Big Bird” is an unfinished WWII memoir written by American author Bert Stiles through 1943 through 1944. He was a B-17 copilot, serving in the 401st Bomb Squadron, 91st Bomb Group for the U.S. Airforce.
On November 26, 1944, he shot down a Luftwaffe Fw 190s before his plane careened into the ground in Hanover, Germany.
I had skimmed past this fact written on page nine. When I finished “Serenade to the Big Bird,” flipping to find more, a chill raced down my spine when I realized that there wouldn’t be.
At twenty-one, Stiles dropped out of college to work odd jobs and hitchhike across New York. At twenty-three, he was flying across England with a fleet of elite fighter pilots on the way to drop bombs atop Berlin. Strictly speaking, “Serenade to the Big Bird” is a chronological series of journal entries that cover those eight months of Stile’s military career.
But if I were to say what “Serenade to the Big Bird” is about, I would say this is a story about a great author who was never supposed to die a soldier.
The Book
With the theatrics of a writer and the honesty of an everyman, he records everything from his eccentric fleet mates and child-like infatuations to the sweaty boiling hell of a bomber plane’s cockpit from 30,000 feet above the ground. His account provides a shockingly grounded and relatable anti-war perspective of WWII. Stiles feels like he could have been saying as much, sitting right next to me scribbling poetry in a PHI class at NC State.
Above it all, however, “Serenade to the Big Bird” stands out among the rest because of Stile’s compassion. German, American, British or French–Stiles has a rare empathy for everyone, including the enemy. You wouldn’t normally associate that with a soldier, let alone a bomber pilot.
Instead of glorifying the atrocities of war or letting them send him into a nihilistic spiral, Stiles is painfully hopeful, right until the very end.
On page 216, Stiles writes in the final three paragraphs:
“In the end it is only people that count, all the people in the whole world. Any land is beautiful to someone. Any land is worth fighting for to someone. So it isn’t the land. It is the people.”
Conclusion
His memoir is only 216 pages. It’s barely even a novel. Yet, I found myself amazed by the depths of just a single life lost to time seventy-five years ago.
If you have an hour or two, check out “Serenade to the Big Bird.” Get to know Stiles–he was a nice guy. He would’ve gotten to know you too.
–Killian Le
