Bert Stiles Bert Stiles (1920-1944) was an American author of short stories who was killed in action during World War II while serving as a fighter pilot in the U.S. Army Air Forces. Born in Denver, Colorado he was the son of an electrician, Bert Stiles, Senior, and a music teacher, Elizabeth Huddleston Stiles. He attended Denver's South High School and worked summers as a junior forest ranger in Estes Park, both of which became sources of material for his short stories. After graduation from high school (1938) he entered Colorado College and became a feature writer for the campus newspaper, The Tiger. Stiles enlisted in the United States Army in January 1943, became an aviation cadet, and was commissioned a second lieutenant, Air Corps, in November. He won pilot wings and was assigned to a B-17 Flying Fortress replacement crew sent to the Eighth Air Force in March 1944. Stiles refused an opportunity to return to the United States as a flight instructor and volunteered to be a fighter pilot with the Eight. He joined the 505th Fighter Squadron, 339th Fighter Group, a P-51 Mustang unit stationed at Fowlmere, England. On November 26, 1944, on the 16th mission of his second tour, Stiles' squadron was flying at 26,000 feet altitude south of Hanover, Germany, on a bomber escort mission. Stiles was flying a P-51 nicknamed Tar Heel. Encountering 40-60 Luftwaffe FW-190s, Stiles engaged one in combat and shot it down. In the heat of the dogfight disorientation lead to low altitude flying resulting in his P-51 impacting the ground almost immediately, killing him. He is interred at the Ardennes American Cemetery, Neupré, Liège, Belgium. His mother commemorated his memory by having his writings made into a book - Serenade to the Big Bird. First published in England (1947), then in the U.S. (1952), Big Bird achieved cult status among aviation enthusiasts for its honest depictions of bomber combat and also won favorable literary reviews for its spare, Hemingway-style prose and its anti-war sensitivity. It has been re-issued periodically, the most recent in 1998.
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