Remembering Jim "Twitch" Tittle

Hey all,

I just learned that our friend and frequent COMBATSIM.COM contributor, Jim "Twitch" Tittle, passed away on August 30, 2009 from prostate cancer. I'm sorry, but I don't know how old Jim was, but I think he was in his sixties. [Update: Jim was 61 years old].

I can't recall how I first met Jim, but I'm sure he made himself known to me through our forums. Jim was an ardent student of military history, specifically WWII fighter pilots and planes. Not only did Jim have one of the most extensive private libraries on military planes and pilots, but he also had personally met and interviewed many of WWII's top aces because he attended their reunions whenever he could.

With that impressive library of books, manuals, government publications and his vast amounts of material from first-hand interviews, Jim was able to contribute over 100 military history and op ed articles to COMBATSIM.COM. I am so grateful that I had the opportunity to publish those articles, but I have to admit, there were dozens and dozens more he offered to me, but I refused them because I wanted to pay him for every one. I had hoped he would publish all his stories into a book, but I don't think he ever did. I enquired many times why he hadn't been published by a major publisher, and his reply was always the same: he was just happy to write about what he loved and didn't really care about being published in that way.

I met Jim in person twice at successive E3's in Los Angeles in 1999 and 2000, I believe. What can I say other than that Jim was as nice a guy as one could hope to meet. What struck me most about Jim was his sheer energy, enthusiasm, and joy verging on glee, for all things WWII air combat. I recall standing with him and looking at a poster featuring a German fighter plane for one of the WWII air combat sim games of that day, and he proceeded to give me a very entertaining history lesson about that specific plane and who flew it and how many kills the pilot had gotten and on and on. I'm sure he could've gone on for days like that!

According to Jim's wife, Alma, Jim passed away at home surrounded by his family. She told me that Jim fought very hard against his cancer because he had so many things left he wanted to do, but near the end he accepted what he could no longer fight against and was at peace.

I, for one, feel very privileged to have known and met Jim. I am very saddened by his passing, but also grateful for the time I knew him. I also extremely grateful for his writings as they will forever remind us of the great pilots and planes of a bygone era, and remind us also of the enthusiastic and remarkable James Tittle from California.

Rest in peace, my friend.

Here are just a few of the articles written by Jim that I found on the site (and I apologize for not finding all of them, but the site's indexes are such a hodgepodge even I can't find everything).

I believe Jim's last article for us was The Brothers Horten and Their Wings back in 2007.

James Ellis Tittle
Feb. 11, 1948 - Aug. 30, 2009

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