Battlefields in the Air: Canadians in the Allied Bomber Command

By Dan McCaffery

Book Overview

Did the Allied bombing of Germany in World War Two needlessly brutalize and decimate a terrified civilian population? Or was it necessary to force the end of the most destructive conflict in history? Dan McCaffery seeks answers to these questions on both sides of the bombsights.

The importance of the bomber command to the Allied victory has always been hotly debated. In Battlefields in the Air, McCaffery sets out to examine the role that bomber command played and to decide if Arthur Harris's strategy of area bombing was central or incidental to the Allied victory.

Beginning with the Allies' early losses, the author describes how their position improved dramatically under the leadership of Harris. He discusses the bombing of the Ruhr dams, the raids on Hamburg, Berlin, Nuremberg, and Dresden, and he looks at the devastating effect that these campaigns had on the Germans.

Relying on a wide range of sources, including interviews with Allied pilots and eyewitness civilian accounts, Battlefields in the Air offers a fascinating look at a dramatic chapter in World War Two.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1550284916
• ISBN13: 9781550284911
• Release Date: January 1995
• Publisher: Lorimer
• Length: 196 Pages
• Weight: 0.90 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 6.3" x 9.3"

Customer Reviews

A Canadian View of RAF Bomber Command in WWII

This book gives a good overall view of the Canadian participation in the British Bomber campaign in World War II. The book has vignettes from Canadian aircrew, but also of Germans who were on the receiving end of their bombs. The book in it's brief 176 pages gives the reader a good feeling of what itwas to fly in the bombers over Germany at night during the war. He has many personal interviews interroven through out the book, these include stories from the author's father and uncle. The only negative is the book is a little slim for it's price. It also delves into the contoversey of carpet bombing and the ethics of the whole bomber campaign. On the whole the book is good, with old and new material included to give a good overview of what it was like to fly bombers in the war.