Air war against Hitler's Germany, (American heritage junior library)

by Stephen W. Sears

Book Overview

There were other air wars fought during World War II - by Britons against Germans, by Germans against Russians, by Americans against Japanese, among others - but none was more dramatic nor more savage... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: B0006BM2TK
• Release Date: January 1964
• Publisher: American Heritage Pub. Co.
• Length: 154 Pages
• Weight: 1.35 lbs.

Customer Reviews

Concise History

"Air War Against Hitler's Germany" by Stephen W. Sears. Simon & Schuster, New York, 1964 & 2004. The famous author, Stephen W. Sears ("Landscape Turned Red", 2003), has produced a concise history of the air war against Nazi Germany. The author's emphasis is on the USAAF Eighth Air Force, which flew out of England against the Nazi Occupied continent. The very first chapter, "Mission Number 52", recounts the first real mission that the Eighth Air force had against Nazi Germany: the bombing of the Focke Wulf aircraft factory in Bremen, April 17 1943. From then on, the author retraces the history of air war, how the RAF took over the night while the USAAF took on daylight "precision" bombing. The book builds up to the build-up of thousand aircraft raids, the fire storms in cities such as Hamburg and the need for fighter escort for the daylight American attacks. The author likes (in my humble opinion) the B17 Flying Fortress more than the less "pretty" B24 Liberator, and he provides much detail about the development and general workings of the B17, how the aircraft is started and taken off from an airfield, the B17 ability to fight off fighters, and the ability of the B17 aircraft to carry bomb load. Having said this, I point out one of the most interesting chapters is Chapter 4, (page 45), entitled "Target: Ploesti". The raid on Ploesti was flown by B24 Liberators (for a single book that addresses the Ploesti raid, see, "Into The Fire: Ploesti" by Duane Schultz). The importance of fighter escort for the bombers is presented in Chapter 6, "Little Friends"; this chapter is a concise summary of the impact of P51 Mustang and its ability to prevent the German Luftwaffe from interfering with the American Air Force's bombing of Nazi Germany. In fact, this small book (only 124 pages) is a concise summary of the air war in Europe, the pros and cons of the bomber war and the highlights of the actual events. The paper back that I borrowed from the library was profusely illustrated with black & white photos of the B17 in action, the insides of the bomber itself and action-torn aircraft.

Great book

Very good for young adults to learn about the WW2 bombing campaigns against germany.

The victory of daylight precision bombing in World War II

My favorite television show as a kid was "Twelve O'Clock High," and for me there has never been an airplane as important as the B-17. I know I bought models of the "Memphis Belle" several times and it was not until about ten years ago that I finally got to not only see but climb inside an actual Flying Fortress, only to be amazed at how small these bombers actually were. That becomes an important fact when reading "Mission Number 52," the opening chapter of Stephen W. Sears' book on "Air War Against Hitler's Germany" for the American Heritage Junior Library. The story of the 52nd mission flown by the U.S. Eighth Air Force was a raid on the Focke-Wulf aircraft factory at Bremen in northwestern Germany. Sears details the entire mission, from the pre-dawn briefing, to the bomb run over Bremen, to the finally tally of how many American bombers did not return from Mission 52. Sears presents Mission 52 as providing his readers with both the promise and the problems of the American air offensive against Hitler's Nazi Germany and the controversial policy of daylight precision bombing; after all, the Luftwaffe's attempt to use daylight bombing during the Battle of Britain had not succeeded. After a thorough explanation of the debate over the theory, Sears provides a look at what the Germans were doing to defend the Third Reich. Other chapters are devoted to the famous raid on the oil refineries at Ploesti, the "Autumn Crisis" of the American daylight bombing offensive, and the P-51 Mustangs and other American fighters that served as "Little Friends" to the bombers. The final chapter details the victory that was won in the air, despite German advances in creating the first jet aircraft, and covers the fire-bombing of Dresden, which becomes the European theater equivalent of the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, with three RAF and American raids doing what it took one atomic bomb to do to a city in Japan. The editors of this book take a dual perspective, that the air war over Europe proved to be more that Billy Mitchell and other advocates of air power had ever conceived, and that from a contemporary perspective these lumbering propeller-driven bombers carrying payloads of "conventional" bombs are considered obsolete. However, in this interesting volume Sears shows exactly what they accomplished to win the war in Europe. This book is not only illustrated with historic photographs taken during World War II, including combat photographs, but also by paintings and sketches done by American, British, and German artists. "Air War Against Hitler's Germany" is not a comprehensive look at what the 8th Air Force accomplished, but it certainly covers the main points with enough depth and insight to make reading it well worth the effort for young students interested in the subject. For older readers it is a reminder what the "Memphis Bell," which I finally got to see on display at Mud Island, and thousands of other Flying Fortresses and Liberators accomp