Bombers: The Aircrew Experience

The crews of the Lancasters, Halifaxes, Mosquitoes, the Fortresses, Liberators and Marauders - and, for that matter, the Heinkel 111s, the Junkers 88s, the Mitsubishis and the Savoia-Marchettis - had some of the most thankless and most dangerous jobs of all those who fought in the Second World War. For the most part, they performed them with courage, skill and determination. Few had chosen their role, many disliked it, but most believed it was necessary for the cause they fought for. The majority were young, in their teens or early twenties - often too young to vote for their government, but never too young to die for their country.This book is an account, largely in their own words, of what these men (and their successors who flew in Korea, Vietnam, the Gulf and elsewhere) experienced: flying five to six miles above the earth, deep into enemy territory, and then returning to a short interlude of comparative normality at 'home' before contemplating the next briefing, the next mission. Unlike many other combatants, they had little control over their own fate - there are no foxholes in which to take cover in the sky, 99 of the projectiles fired at their aircraft might burst in harmless puffs of smoke, the hundredth might tear a wing off or riddle their body with shrapnel. The fighters that preyed upon them could soar and jink like hawks while they had to fly straight and level, holding formation by day, alone and vulnerable by night.The debate over the wisdom, the morality and the effectiveness of bombing as a means of waging war will probably never be resolved, but there can be no doubt ahout the price paid by those who did the job - over 100,000 RAF and USAAF bomber aircrew died in World War II, as did many thousands more in Allied and Axis air forces.