| |||||||||||||||
Did you know you can trade in your old books for an Amazon.co.uk Gift Card to spend on the things you want? Plus, get an extra £5 Gift Certificate when you trade in books worth £10 or more before June 30, 2012. Visit the Books Trade-In Store for more details. |
Frequently Bought Together
Product details
|
More About the Author
Product Description
Review
‘[A] magnificent history… It is impossible not to be carried along by Miller’s passion for his subject’ (The Daily Telegraph )
‘[Eighth Air Force and Patrick Bishop’s Bomber Boys] complement each other superbly, encapsulating the best modern scholarship on the subject’ (Andrew Roberts The Times )
‘[Eighth Air Force and Patrick Bishop’s Bomber Boys] complement each other superbly, encapsulating the best modern scholarship on the subject’ (Andrew Roberts The Times )
Product Description
Eighth Air Force received glowing reviews in hardback alongside Patrick Bishop’s Bomber Boys – ‘They complement each other superbly, encapsulating the best modern scholarship on the subject’, said Andrew Roberts in The Times. It reprinted quickly, and has sold steadily in hardback even at £25. Now it makes an ideal impulse-buy paperback. The Bomber War in World War II was waged by two forces: the Lancasters and Halifaxes of the RAF’s Bomber Command, and the Flying fortresses and Liberators of the American Eighth Air Force. Thousands of young Americans flew hundreds of raids over Germany, bombing by day in huge formations, attacking industrial plants, oil refineries and cities, in desperately dangerous missions from which the numbers who never returned was appallingly high. But between Pearl Harbor and the Normandy landings the bomber war was the only way the Allies could take the way directly to Germany in Europe, making every town and factory the frontline. Donald Miller’s history covers the individual destinies, the notorious raids like Schweinfurt-Regensburg and Dresden, the social transformation of sleepy East Anglian villages by an influx of hundreds of good-time young Yanks, the POW camps in which many of them ended up, and the endless controversy about the ethics of area and terror bombing. Donald Miller is John Henry McCracken Professor of History at Lafayette Colle in Pennsylvania.
Inside This Book
(Learn More)
Tags Customers Associate with This Product(What's this?)Click on a tag to find related items, discussions, and people.
|
Sell a Digital Version of This Book in the Kindle Store
If you are a publisher or author and hold the digital rights to a book, you can sell a digital version of it in our Kindle Store.
Learn more
What Other Items Do Customers Buy After Viewing This Item?
Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
9 of 9 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
This account of the American 8th Air Force daylight raids tackles all three of the major issues: the strategic background that provides the context; the individual histories that illuminate the detail of the strategy; and a review, in passing, of the ethical issues involved.
As might be expected by a historian of Miller's calibre (his works have been nominated for every major American literary award) the work is balanced; the background research comprehensive and the narrative well-crafted. This is likely to be the definitive work on the subject for some years, since the book is so comprehensive and benefits from astute comment brought about by the author's familiarity with the breadth of the source material.
As might be expected by a historian of Miller's calibre (his works have been nominated for every major American literary award) the work is balanced; the background research comprehensive and the narrative well-crafted. This is likely to be the definitive work on the subject for some years, since the book is so comprehensive and benefits from astute comment brought about by the author's familiarity with the breadth of the source material.
9 of 10 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
I already read a great deal of interesting books on this subjet, so when I purchased this title, my initial thoughts were that I wondered whether this pretty voluminous work would succeed in keeping me hooked on its contents. It pretty well did! The obvious strength lies in the wide angle which Donald Miller has used when dealing with this subject. Apart from the "Bomber Boys" and their Heavies, he spent quite a bit of attention to other - often not so popular and therefore less known - elements, all of which offers the reader a beautiful, near complete and detailed picture of what this mighty group of soldiers' stay in England meant and how it left a permanent mark on local life. The "small stories" (petite histoire in French) offer a welcome change to the vividly described operational accounts. Great contribution too about those brave people in occupied Europe, who assisted shot down airmen with getting them back to their base, and the chapters about the crews in the Stalags and DuLags are both moving and breathtaking. As such this book is most recommended reading for all interested in the Mighty Eighth and airwar in general. The reason I deducted the one star is that I can not quite understand why one of the most recent, interesting and major contributions of the airwar written by Jörg Friedrich, is missing from the immense list of publications and books the author has relied on to write this massive work.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
I can add little to what has already been written by other readers. This is an excellent book, well researched and very readable. The American Army Air Force Generals are described with candour. Their conviction that the Americans can deliver 'pin point' bombing by unescorted bombers flying in close 'self-defending' formations results in a mounting scale of carnage until finally they have to admit that they were wrong - the bomber must always be escorted if it is not to sustain an unacceptable loss rate. The arrival of the P51 Mustang turns the tide and the fate of the Luftwaffe. The human side is well documented in the stories of the American crews. A book that should be read by everyone who has an interest in air warfare, the American 8th Army Air Force and WW2 in general. Rather unusually for an American writer, Donald Miller even manages to acknowledge that the Americans didn't win the war single handed, although we would have been hard pressed without them!
Most Recent Customer Reviews
Eighth Air Force
A wonderful book, easy to read and utterly absorbing. Thank you to all the young Americans who sacrificed their lives and futures in the 1940s for Europe's freedom.
Published 11 months ago by Cannon Fodder
Excellent
Very readable and clear history, taking in the view from the generals and from the bomber crews, excellent analysis on how the air war was won.
Published 12 months ago by Simon Wilkinson-Blake
Almost perfect!
This is a fine book which I really enjoyed reading and which added greatly to my understanding of the European air war. However, there are a couple of surprisingly basic mistakes. Read more
Published on 24 Nov 2008 by G. H. Fraser-sampson
Listmania!
Look for similar items by category
Look for similar items by subject
Feedback
- Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
- I am the Author, and I want to comment on my book.
- I am the Publisher, and I want to comment on this book.
|
