The Mighty Eighth: The Air War in Europe as Told by the Men Who Fought It

Gerald Astor has a gift. Period.His ability to make the reader FEEL what it was like to be in a B-17, under fire, cold, and far from home...is simply amazing.I have never read an account of the air war that made me truly understand what it must have been like to actually be there.While Astor managed to stick to facts and figures. He also managed to bring to life the very experience of flying over Germany.His ability to describe and bring a story to life surpasses Ambrose...without a doubt. (and I am an enormous fan of Ambrose)

The bold US Air Corps policy of daylight strategic bombing deep into Nazi territory proved deadly, unfortunately it was deadly on both sides. Bold is too tame a word to describe the incredible devotion to duty exhibited on almost every mission of the Mighty Eighth bomber force. For maximum results, bombing accuracy was exchanged for planes and lives. They bombed during broad daylight, they took no evasive action on a bomb run and not until late in the air campaign would there be pursuit escorts over enemy territory. The bombers became sitting ducks for flak and easy pickings for enemy fighters. I had two uncles, both dead now, who were gunners on bombers in the Mighty Eighth. I never could get them to tell me much about it, but now we have this book to give us details of what fliers endured. I learned a lot from this book and plan to read it again soon. The personal oral history format exposes you to several different viewpoints, often on the same incident. Coming to England in the nick of time to bolster the battered and exhausted R.A.F., these fliers were not all the stereotypical egomaniacs I had seen portrayed in countless films. In this book I met salesmen, farmers, college students, high school ROTC Cadets, engineers and mechanics who all loved their country and loved to fly. Certainly there were some hotshots in the mix, but most fliers just wanted to kill all the Germans they could. Shooting down a ME190 with a waist mounted .50 caliber machine gun after dropping a full load of bombs on a Nazi synthetic fuel refinery suited them just fine. I learned that just simply finding your home field in the fog could be as big a gamble as flying through a German flak barrage surrounding your primary target. This is a great companion piece to "Band of Brothers" and both of those "The Greatest Generation" books. All these books give you first person accounts weaved into the author's narrative. In this book though, the weave is almost seamless making this a thoroughly enjoyable yet enlightening read chapter after chapter. A superb job of editing with just the right amount of historical perspective. Now if we can only focus Mr. Astor's attention on the Pacific!

This book was just plain fun and exciting to read. Those guys in those planes were extremely courageous. You should also read and watch "12 O'clock High."

I just read this book. I was a little hesitant to read a book on the air war over Europe as most of my interest is in the ground war BUT once I started to read this book, I couldn't put it down. It is a GRIPPING account of aerial combat and every bit as thrilling as the accounts of the epic battlefields of Europe. The book is full of first-hand stories, many of which are likey told for the first time. A major accomplishment as many of our "heroes" are now passing on. It's great that their accomplishments are recorded for the future. After reading this book, I realized that the bomber offensive against Germany hurt it almost as much as the Russian steamroller on the Eastern Front. A very highly recommended book!

My father was a navigator on a B-17 in WWII and has passed away. I am interested in what his life was like back then. Even though it does not refer to his specific bomb group, I found it very interesting and detailed and gave me a good idea of the dedication and service of our veterans. It is amazing that anyone survived those times. I also didn't think much about how new aviation was at the time. This is a very readable history and I highly recommend it.