Chaps,
Well my initial misgiving was correct this book did leave a rather unpleasant taste in my mouth. !! For a number of reasons.
Firstly the author obviously is anti Bomber Command, Air Ministry, Tedder, Portal and Harris. Bomber Commands many mistakes of which we are all fully aware are recorded with microscopic detail. Chapters of the book are devoted to the Harris v Portal oil debate, at times in makes cringing reading. The many successes of Bomber Command especially from mid 1944 are given scant mention, the author prefers to concentrate on the commands failures and fixation of
“erasing cities”.
As a comparison the exploits of the US 8th and 15th Air Force are cherry-picked, even the occasions when the Americans failed in their objectives, i.e “precision bombing” the failure is turned into a symbolic triumph,
“better to try and fail, than not try at all “
The book is most definitely written for the American market, buy only if you want a one sided view of the bomber offensive or you want a warts-and-all account of the conflict between Harris – Portal / Spaatz-Arnold then this is your book.
Regards
Steve
