Damned Good Show: The Winged Legend of World War II

A fitting companion to Derek Robinson's other war stories - Piece of Cake, War Story etc. A solid, interesting and often compassionate look at RAF Bomber Command during WW2. Robinson's fighting stories are not the "guts or glory" books, but tell it pretty much like it was. His research is excellent and his stories always enjoyable.

I must protest some of the less than stellar ratings for this book, especially when the objection is a comparison to some of his others. I've read, and thoroughly enjoyed, several of his books, but that doesn't mean that I wasn't just knocked out by the insight into early WW II Bomber Command strategy, aircraft, and aircrew in this book. Some of his other books deal with, perhaps, more "glamorous" services, but I find bombers terribly interesting, and I think he has done a marvelous job of capturing not only RAF Bomber Command's early efforts, but the attitudes of the people involved. My suggestion is: don't be put off by the less than good reviews of this book shown here. It's a fascinating read!

OK. It's not terribly fresh in plot or characters. In fact you could say it's Piece of Cake transferred to Bomber Command without the freshness or style that made the previous book so good.But it kept my interest for the day and a half it took me to read it.To begin with, we learn a fair bit about medium bomber operations in early World War Two, before the bomber offensive really got cranked up. Just as in Piece of Cake, they were doing it all wrong at the beginning yet thought they were hot stuff and it takes a while to puzzle out their mistakes.The arrival of a film crew and their participation on a mission over Germany gives a unique insight into the difficulties of undertaking such a mission at all, let alone filming it. I enjoyed that part.But on the down side, when two of the wilder pilots went off for a drunken spree in London, I thought oh-oh - I've been here before. There's a bit of a feud and a bit of tension amongst the characters, but it hardly comes close to what we enjoyed in Piece of Cake. The marriage of two of the characters and subsequent events is just bizarre.On the plus side, it didn't descend into the slapstick of A Good Clean Fight.All in all, it covers a lot of familiar territory, it doesn't have the "edge" of previous novels, but it's inoffensive and entertaining. I like Robinson's style and that made this a four star book rather than a more mediocre three.

I really enjoyed this book. Derek Robinson has once again provided a witty, informative, entertaining, and well written book about British bomber command in early World War II. It was expecially interesting for me as I was reading the non-fiction Nineteen weeks at the same time which covers a similar time period.I do not have much to add to what previous reviewers have said, but I think it is unfair to compare him against himself. As other reviewers have pointed out, some of Derek Robinson's other books may be better or more original, and if I was rating this as a Derek Robinson book I might only give it 4 stars. Rated on its own merits or even against the many other books I have read in the last year, in my opinion it deserves 5 stars.

Derek Robinson has proven himself to be the best writer aboutair combat in World Wars I and II. This novel centers on thefirst couple of years of the british bomber command. Some ofthe characters from his other novels (e.g. the intelligenceofficer "Skull" Skeleton) appear here--a nice way of helpinggive continuity--Fighter Command (Piece of Cake), BomberCommand (this novel), North Africa (A Good Clean Show), etc.The novels pull no punches--terrible tactical theory, hugelyinflated combat claims, etc--you learn a lot about little-knownhistorical details, things that the military establishment would rather be forgotten. These are not anti-war novels, butnovels which often stess the dichotomy between the individualpilots and aircrew and the military bureaucrats who lay downpolicy. The example that best springs to mind (GoshawkSquadron, air combat in WW I) is when Squadron CommanderWoolley is told that headquarters deosn't want any more silkscarves issued (too expensive). These scarves are neededbecause the pilots must continually turn their heads to lookfor enemy aircraft--no silk scarves means bad chafing and lesshead-turning and more danger. Woolley puts a couple of bulletsthrough the briefcase with the HQ demand.Robinson's best novels are his WW I novels--5 stars, with Goshawk Squadron being the best. The WW II novels are close--4 to 5 stars. My star ratings are usually based on how oftenI would reread a novel--I reread Goshawk Squadron about once ayear--similarly Piece of Cake. 4-star novels are not quite asrereadable. There are a couple of 1-star books that I willreread once in a while, for amusement--these books reallydeserve much less than 1 star. Some books I keep, some get soldto used bookdealers. Derek Robinson's novels I keep--and oftenget a backup copy for my office.