First published 2007
Donald Miller chronicles the American Eighth Air Force's bombing campaign against Nazi Germany during World War II. The book follows the young airmen who flew B-17 Flying Fortresses and B-24 Liberators on deadly missions over Berlin, Hanover, and Dresden. These bomber crews faced unique challenges fighting in freezing air at altitudes no previous warriors had experienced. Between missions, they lived relatively comfortable lives on English bases, sleeping in clean beds and enjoying entertainment from Glenn Miller's Air Force band. Yet they faced higher death rates than infantry soldiers. The crews included notable figures like actors Jimmy Stewart and Clark Gable, while their missions were documented by filmmaker William Wyler and journalists Andy Rooney and Walter Cronkite. Miller draws from interviews, oral histories, and international archives to tell the story of this prolonged air campaign, which represented the only fighting inside Germany until the final months of war. The narrative extends beyond combat missions to explore life on English air bases and in German prison camps, concluding with the forced marches of captured airmen through the bombed German countryside.
Genres: history, 20th-century, military-fiction, world-war-ii, non-fiction, aviation
Vibes: emotional, thought-provoking
Tropes: based-on-true-events, ensemble-cast
Setting: Berlin, Dresden, England, Germany, Hanover
Period: World War II
671 pages · Paperback · Simon & Schuster