Catch-22 or The Chronicles of Narni

[Don]

Catch-22 was clearly written to portray strong anti-war sentiments that have been partially buried over by the incredibly wacky, crazy, amusing, and interesting contents and characters of the book, and by the wonderful scenery, B-25 Mitchell aircraft photography, and historical re-enactments depicted in the movie. The beautiful bucolic isle of Corsica provided a striking contrast to the wartime activities of Joseph Heller's 340th Bombardment Group that were going on just a one-hour plane ride across the Tyhrrenean Sea.

My father was in Heller's group and after he read the Catch-22, he said it was "crazy." "It was nothing like that," he said. "I always felt that the army was taking good care of us." (I wonder how many soldiers make such statements today.) Everyone had to fly their quota of missions and although that number increased, very few people were being killed. Sure, the flight crews were terrified by flak and/or fighters on nearly every mission but there were surprisingly few injuries, deaths, and lost aircraft for the large number of missions being flown, or relative to the heavy bombers flying directly over Germany, for example. "Milk runs" where no enemy flak was encountered were cherished by everyone.

My father flew at least 8 combat missions with Joseph Heller out of Alesani, Corsica and probably their June 1, 1944 mission is as good as any to illustrate certain aspects of Catch-22. The 340th Bombardment Group sent 12 B-25 Mitchell medium bombers from my dad's 489th Bombardment Squadron, and some B-25s from Heller's 488th Bombardment Squadron, each loaded with 8 x 500-pound bombs, to blow up a road bridge in Narni, Italy that was being used by the Germans. My dad was flying in B-25 9Y "Lady Luck" as radioman/ waist-gunner and Heller was flying in B-25 8L as bombardier. This particular mission must not have been too eventful because my dad's only entry in his logbook was "road bridge (with other squad.)" The mission notes for the 488th squadron indicated the following: "AA (anti-aircraft or flak) light & heavy, scant, inacc."

OK, so how do these scant facts suggest a theme for the book Catch-22?

First of all, I'm not sure what Heller, my father, or any of the other crewmen on this mission thought, but it must have sometimes seemed rather strange to be dropping high explosives on beautiful, historic, and ancient Umbrian towns like Narni - once dubbed Narnia (~300 BC) and birthplace of the Roman Emperor Nerva (35 AD) - with their middle-aged scenic castles decorating the hillsides along majestic rivers. Crazy?

Secondly, I realize there were valid military standards and practices for recording the flak encountered on bombing missions, but even the best trained and astute airmen must have occasionally chuckled at flak that was both 'light' and 'heavy' as well as 'scant' and 'inaccurate.' How accurate is accurate anyway? Looking over my dad's logbook for his 65 combat missions (yes, that's right 65 - but you only needed 25 or 50 missions to go home), sometimes he counted 5, 15, or 30 holes in his plane. Is that accurate? On one mission, a piece of flak ignited his 50 caliber machine gun ammunition and started a fire in the plane that slightly wounded him before going out on its own. Is that accurate enough? Every mission was like playing Russian roulette in a sense, and if that don't evoke feelings of helplessness and craziness, I don't know what does. Crazy?

Of course soldiers are supposed to win the war and they want to win the war, but Heller got it right when he said that the dead soldiers don't care one way or the other. Crazy? This simple statement basically means that in making the 'supreme sacrifice' one is merely going from a state of caring to a state of not caring. I especially like this reasoning because by not giving a hoot about many things, I'm probably equally qualified for many medals. Crazy?

How about inadvertently dropping bombs on innocent civilians? Crazy?

It's all crazy, and I think Heller portrayed it amazingly well in Catch-22.

In C. S. Lewis' 'Chronicles of Narnia,' children find themselves caught up in helping a lion fight against some evil in a magical world. In Joseph Heller's 'Catch-22,' young men find themselves caught up in helping their commanders fight against some evil in a real world. cRAZY?

'The Chronicles of Narnia' is a made up fantasy- a fairy tale that's anything but an anti-war story; whereas 'Catch-22,' 'The Chronicles of Narni,' is an exceptional anti-war novel based on real life experiences. Crazy?

Please note that Google Books does not condone or endorse the sentiments expressed in this review of Catch-22, The Chronicles of Narni.

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[Ash]

what

[Katie]

I'm not even going to take the time to read this ridiculously long post about two books that are the epitome of apples and oranges. Good going.

[Torie]

Sigh. There is no comparing the greatness between the two stories. Narnia is BY FAR more brilliant, fantastic, creative, interesting and deserving of the term "classic" than Catch-22!! I couldn't even get half-way through Catch-22, it was sooo tedious. When I saw the movie, I was GLAD I hadn't read the rest of the book... because the story didn't go anywhere! It didn't get any better at any point.

The Chronicles of Narnia is amazing!!!!!!!!!!!!!!