Beirne Lay, Jr.

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Beirne Lay, Jr. was an author, aviation writer, Hollywood screenwriter, and combat veteran of the Second World War with the U.S. Army Air Forces. He is best known for his collaboration with Sy Bartlett in authoring the novel Twelve O'Clock High and adapting it into a major film.

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[edit] Early life

Born September 1, 1909, in Berkeley Springs, West Virginia, Lay attended St. Paul's School (Concord, New Hampshire), and Yale University, graduating with a B.A. in English in 1931. As an undergraduate he boxed and rowed.

[edit] Early military career

He enlisted in the United States Army in July, 1932 and began pilot training at Randolph Field, Texas. In June, 1933, he earned his pilot's wings and was commissioned a second lieutenant in the Army Reserve at Kelly Field, Texas. He was assigned to the 20th Bombardment Squadron at Langley Field, Virginia, flying the Keystone B-6 and Curtiss B-2 Condor bombers. In February and March, 1934, he was part of the Army Air Corps unit delivering U.S. mail during the Air Mail Scandal, flying the Chicago-to-Nashville route. The operation was unsuccessful and marred by a number of fatal accidents in which the Air Corps took the brunt of public blame. Upset by what he viewed as the injustice of the criticism, Lay began his writing career while still on active duty by submitting rebuttal articles and pieces on aviation in general, published in The Sportsman Pilot, Esquire, The Saturday Evening Post, Today, and Harpers. In November, 1935, he left active duty but remained a Reserve officer, promoted to 1st lieutenant on August 16, 1936.

[edit] First return to civilian life

Lay went to work for The Sportsman Pilot and became its Managing Editor. In 1936 he began writing an autobiographical book about his experiences in pilot training entitled I Wanted Wings, published by Harper Brothers in 1937. Soon after he was approached by Hollywood producer Arthur Hornblow, Jr. to sell the film rights to Paramount Pictures and to write the screenplay for a film adaptation. Lay agreed and worked three years on the project, but the final product was largely the result of re-writes by a team of screenwriters brought into the project. During this time he met and married his wife, Philippa Ludwell Lee, and made the acquaintance of Capt. Frank A. Armstrong at Barksdale Field, Louisiana, where Armstrong commanded the 13th Bomb Squadron.

[edit] World War 2 service

Lay went back on active duty at his own request just after the outbreak of the Second World War in 1939, as a flying instructor in Chino, California. The publication of I Wanted Wings brought Lay to the attention of the staff of Army Air Forces Col. Ira C. Eaker, chief of the Air Corps Information Division and himself a writer. After meeting Lt. Lay, Eaker arranged for him to be transferred to Headquarters USAAF in Washington, D.C. in early 1940. There, promoted to captain, he worked primarily as a speechwriter for General Henry H. Arnold, Chief of the Army Air Corps.

In January, 1942, Eaker was made brigadier general and ordered to go to England to create what would become the Eighth Air Force. Lay was made part of Eaker's staff cadre, as Eighth Air Force Historian and Film Unit commander. He was promoted to lieutenant colonel and in August, 1943, was granted permission to obtain combat experience in preparation for possible command of a combat unit. During that month he flew five missions with the 100th Bomb Group, a B-17 Flying Fortress unit stationed at RAF Thorpe Abbotts, including the Regensburg portion of the costly Schweinfurt-Regensburg mission, which he flew as a co-pilot. Lay wrote a detailed critique of the mission for Brig. Gen. Curtis LeMay and used much of the content in an article entitled "I Saw Regensburg Destroyed", which appeared in the November 6, 1943 issue of The Saturday Evening Post. The same material also became a chapter in Twelve O'Clock High.

Lay was then returned to the United States, where he was assigned to a B-24 Liberator unit then undergoing group training at Salt Lake City, Utah, the 490th Bomb Group. On February 28, 1944, he was assigned as commander of the 487th Bomb Group at Alamagordo, New Mexico, which he took overseas to Lavenham, England, in April.

On May 11, 1944, Lt.Col. Lay led his group to Troyes, France, on its fourth combat mission. His group encountered heavy flak near Châteaudun, the location of a Luftwaffe fighter airfield, and both Lay's B-24 and that of his deputy commander were shot down. Lay parachuted from his aircraft near Coulonges les Sablous and was hidden by members of the French Resistance. As news of the Allied approach following D-Day reached Lay, he decided to attempt to join up with the Allied advance units. Lay did this without being shot by his own side and returned successfully to England in August. Lay was prohibited from further combat because of his knowledge of underground activities. From this experience he authored a second book, published by Harper Brothers in 1945, I've Had It: The Survival of a Bomb Group Commander, which was re-issued in 1980 by Dodd, Mead and Company under a new title, Presumed Dead. Lay also wrote an episode for the television series Combat! entitled: "The Milk Run," which would appear to be loosely based on his own experiences

[edit] Second return to civilian life

After the war, Lay returned to Hollywood, where he was working in 1946 when he was approached by Sy Bartlett, another veteran of the Eighth Air Force, to collaborate on the novel-screenplay project which became Twelve O'Clock High, published in 1948 and released in 1949, respectively. Lay continued as a colonel in the Air Force Reserve and with fellow reservist Jimmy Stewart approached Paramount with a concept for the film Strategic Air Command.

Lay continued as a screenwriter for movies and television during the 1960's, then retired in Westwood, California, where he died on May 26, 1982, of cancer, survived by his wife and two daughters, Philippa Ludwell Lay and Frances Custis Lay.

[edit] Film Credits

[edit] Sources

  • Coffey, Thomas M., Decision Over Schweinfurt ((1977). ISBN 0-679-50763-9
  • Farmer, James H., "Hollywood's Bomber Baron", Flight Journal, December 1999, Air Age Publishing.
  • Duffin, Alan T., and Matheis, Paul. The 12 O'Clock High Logbook (2005), (pp. 7-14). ISBN 1-59393-033-X
  • Freeman, Roger A., The Mighty Eighth (1993 edition), (pp. 4, 68, 141, 260). ISBN 0-87938-638-X
  • Freeman, Roger A., The Mighty Eighth War Diary (1990), (pp. 91-95). ISBN 0-87938-495-6
  • Wilder, Elizabeth, family member
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