The Men Who Flew The Heavy Bombers

Author : Martin W. Bowman
Publisher : Pen and Sword Aviation
Page : 257 pages
File Size : 53,7 Mb
Release : 2022-08-09
Category : History
ISBN : 9781526746344

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The Men Who Flew the Heavy Bombers by Martin W. Bowman Pdf

Martin Bowman’s considerable experience as a military historian has spanned over forty years, during which time he has amassed a wealth of material on the participation by RAF and Commonwealth and US 8th and 15th Air Force crews in the series of raids on the cities and oil transportation and industrial targets in the Third Reich, culminating in ‘Round-the-Clock’ bombing by the RAF, operating at night on the largely forgotten Stirling, the gamely Halifax and ultimately the more successful Lancaster, and the US 8th Air Force B-17 Flying Fortress and B-24 Liberator crews by day on a target list so long and wide ranging that it defies the imagination. Hundreds of hours of painstaking and fact-finding research and interviews and correspondence with numerous airmen and women and their relatives, in Britain, America and beyond has been woven into a highly readable and emotional outpouring of life and death in combat over the Third Reich as the men of the RAF and Commonwealth and American air forces describe in their own words the compelling, gripping and thought-provoking narrative of the Combined Bomber Offensive in World War Two, which resulted from the RAF nocturnal onslaught and the American unescorted precision attacks on targets throughout the Reich until the P-51 Mustang escort fighters enabled the 8th to assume the mantle of the leading bombing partner in theatre. February and March 1945 saw the most intense bombing destruction when Nazi defences were minimal or absent and the war was all but over. Final victory in May 1945 came at a high price indeed. Half of the U.S. Army Air Forces' casualties in World War II were suffered by Eighth Air Force, with in excess of 47,000 casualties, with more than 26,000 dead. RAF Bomber Command lost 55,573 men killed out of a total of 125,000 aircrew and 8,403 wounded in action while 9,838 became prisoners of war. RAF and American bomber crews could, therefore be forgiven for thinking they had won a pyrrhic victory; one that had taken such a heavy toll that negated any true sense of achievement, though, if nothing else, the human effort spent by RAF Bomber Command and the Eighth Air Force did pave the way for the Soviet victory in the east.

Author : Martin W. Bowman
Publisher : Pen and Sword
Page : 300 pages
File Size : 46,7 Mb
Release : 2015-05-31
Category : History
ISBN : 9781473861138

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The Heavy Bomber Offensive of WWII by Martin W. Bowman Pdf

This book contains fourteen stirring accounts, each conveying an authentic sense of what it was really like to fly as a member of air-crew during the various bombing operations of the Second World War. The storytellers are an eclectic mix of pilots, navigators, bomb aimers, wireless operators and gunners who flew on operations in heavy bombers. It conveys the terror of being coned by German searchlights over the target, attacks by Luftwaffe night-fighters, often catastrophic damage to aircraft and the ensuing struggle to keep the machine airborne on the return trip to base. It tells of the comradeship between the crew and the humour between them, often borne of fear. The gentle and unassuming narratives include 'Millennium'; 'One of Our Aircraft Is Missing'; Bomber's Moon; 'Bombing Berlin' 'The Ordeal Of Pilot Officer Romans DFC'; Last Man Out' operations on Whitleys and Halifaxes; Flying Officer 'X'; Stirlings; 'Rescue At Sea' 'The Incendiary Load's Alight'; 'The Night Of The Bombs' and 'The Kassel Raids of 1943' as well as BBC Broadcasts and stories by Allied war correspondents. Each of these accounts conveys the sense of purpose that these men felt in doing one of the most dangerous jobs of the war. It is a fitting tribute to those that survived and the many thousands who died in the struggle against Hitler's dreadful ambitions in Europe.

Author : Frank Musgrove
Publisher : Pen and Sword
Page : 186 pages
File Size : 50,6 Mb
Release : 2005-01-01
Category : History
ISBN : 9781473813793

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Dresden and the Heavy Bombers by Frank Musgrove Pdf

This is the story of a young man's entry into the war in 1941 and culminates in his flying on the bombing raid to Dresden in February 1945. This is not a gung-ho account of flying with Bomber Command but neither is it a breast-beating avowal of guilt. These memoirs take the form of a basic narrative of the author's RAF career and pay particular attention to fear, morale and, as the author explains, the myth of leadership. Several raids are described in detail and illustrate the variety of experience, problems and dangers involved in such hazardous warfare. So, nearly 60 years after his dramatic experiences, how does he view the bombing of factories and cities and the inevitable grave moral issues that have slowly and insidiously crept up on him ? The answer will surprise many younger and older readers.

Author : Arthur Harris
Publisher : Pen and Sword
Page : 381 pages
File Size : 50,9 Mb
Release : 2005-03-01
Category : Biography & Autobiography
ISBN : 9781473812604

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Bomber Offensive by Arthur Harris Pdf

The Royal Air Force commander of bombing operations during WWII offers an insider’s view of his legendary career in this classic military memoir. Marshal of the Royal Air Force Sir Arthur “Bomber” Harris remains a controversial figure in the history of the RAF. While many vilify him for his merciless carpet bombing of Germany, others believe that his contributions to Allied victory are grossly undervalued. In Bomber Offensive, Harris candidly describes how he led the men of Bomber Command in the face of appalling casualties, his fierce disagreements with higher authority, and the complicated relationship he had with Winston Churchill. Written soon after the close of the Second World War, Harris's memoirs reveals the man behind the Allied bombing offensive that destroyed the Nazi war machine, but also many beautiful and historic cities, such as Dresden. His defense of these total war tactics stands in stark contrast to modern military policy, which considers such indiscriminate killing a war crime.

Author : Philip Kaplan
Publisher : Unknown
Page : 244 pages
File Size : 40,7 Mb
Release : 2000
Category : Bombardiers
ISBN : 0760720576

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Bombers by Philip Kaplan Pdf

The crews of the Lancasters, Halifaxes, Mosquitoes, the Fortresses, Liberators and Marauders - and, for that matter, the Heinkel 111s, the Junkers 88s, the Mitsubishis and the Savoia-Marchettis - had some of the most thankless and most dangerous jobs of all those who fought in the Second World War. For the most part, they performed them with courage, skill and determination. Few had chosen their role, many disliked it, but most believed it was necessary for the cause they fought for. The majority were young, in their teens or early twenties - often too young to vote for their government, but never too young to die for their country. This book is an account, largely in their own words, of what these men (and their successors who flew in Korea, Vietnam, the Gulf and elsewhere) experienced: flying five to six miles above the earth, deep into enemy territory, and then returning to a short interlude of comparative normality at 'home' before contemplating the next briefing, the next mission. Unlike many other combatants, they had little control over their own fate - there are no foxholes in which to take cover in the sky, 99 of the projectiles fired at their aircraft might burst in harmless puffs of smoke, the hundredth might tear a wing off or riddle their body with shrapnel. The fighters that preyed upon them could soar and jink like hawks while they had to fly straight and level, holding formation by day, alone and vulnerable by night. -- Amazon.com.

Author : Andy Anderson
Publisher : Author House
Page : 158 pages
File Size : 50,5 Mb
Release : 2006-04-20
Category : History
ISBN : 9781452040387

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ONE PILOT'S STORY by Andy Anderson Pdf

This is a remarkable book. It is the real life story of a pilot of the famed 91st Bomb Group, the Memphis Belle Group, in World War II, and the missions flown in that Group by the author and his comrades. It follows him from the time his B-17 was shot down over the German-French border, he was rescued and hidden by villagers in the tiny village of Baslieuse, then escaped through a Europe occupied by Nazi forces desperate to escape pursuing Allied armies. The book chronicles, in fascinating detail, the life and training of those young men who made up the heroic 8th Air Force, and describes the affectionate relationship often maintained by their crews with that most famed heavy bomber of all time, the fabled B-17. It includes some of the most tragic stories as well as some of the wryest humor ever written about combat groups. A heavy bomb group consists of 36 heavy bombers. The 91st lost 207 planes during its WWII combat time—32 during the author''s flight tenure. Dr. Anderson uses the words of the extraordinary crews of those planes to describe the training they absorbed, the missions they flew, the results they achieved, the tragedy of watching their planes explode and their friends die, and the heroism that brought so many near fatally damaged planes home with their dead and wounded crews. This is also a story of growing up in pre-war America, and of the growth and development of that sturdy character which enabled these young men and their children and grandchildren to help create today''s world. God bless them, their achievements, and what their heroism made possible so that we could live in the world we do today.

Author : Devon Francis,Devon Earl Francis
Publisher : Unknown
Page : 424 pages
File Size : 47,6 Mb
Release : 1979
Category : History
ISBN : WISC:89058510959

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Flak Bait by Devon Francis,Devon Earl Francis Pdf

Author : Bruce Lewis
Publisher : Weidenfeld & Nicolson
Page : 287 pages
File Size : 50,9 Mb
Release : 2022-08-18
Category : History
ISBN : 9781474626293

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Aircrew by Bruce Lewis Pdf

A vivid, first-hand account of the tension and excitement of flying missions over Nazi Germany The British and American bomber crews of the Second World War often had to endure the most terrifying conditions. Not for them the glorious, all-or-nothing exhilaration of the Battle of Britain pilots - rather, the slow dwindling of courage as mission followed mission, the long, freezing, ear-shattering journey to the target, the bursting flak, the prowling night fighters. Then, if they were lucky, the long haul home, sometimes nursing a battered, barely flyable machine, often perilously short of fuel. Bruce Lewis flew in thirty-six such raids. In this book he records, in his own words and those of his fellow survivors, the events that made operational flying such a fearful experience. This is a blisteringly honest account of life for the Second World War bombers.

Author : Stephen Darlow,Shanda Brown
Publisher : Stackpole Books
Page : 322 pages
File Size : 50,5 Mb
Release : 2010
Category : History
ISBN : 9780811706421

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D-Day Bombers by Stephen Darlow,Shanda Brown Pdf

Eyewitness accounts of heavy bombers on D-Day. Rarely told story of what happened above the beaches. Detailed descriptions of various bombing runs.

Author : Martin Caidin
Publisher : ibooks
Page : 762 pages
File Size : 45,9 Mb
Release : 2010-09-15
Category : History
ISBN : 9780743434706

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The B-17 - The Flying Forts by Martin Caidin Pdf

There is no such thunder in history -- nor ever will be again -- as the deep-throated roar of the mighty, four-engined B-17s that streamed across the skies in World War II. The long runways are silent now, the men and planes are gone. But out of the massive files of records available, and the memories of the men who flew, Martin Caidin has assembled this dramatic portrait of America's most formidable heavy bomber of the war. The B-17: The Flying Forts recreates a vanished era and a great and gallant plane -- a plane that could absorb three thousand enemy bullets, fly with no rudder, and complete its mission on two engines. A plane that American pilots flew at Pearl Harbor, Tunis, Midway, Palermo, Schweinfurt, Regensberg, Normandy, and Berlin, in thousands of missions and through hundreds of thousands of miles of flak-filled skies. A plane that proved itself in every combat theater as the greatest heavy bomber of World War II.

Author : Martin W. Bowman
Publisher : Unknown
Page : 0 pages
File Size : 53,5 Mb
Release : 2007
Category : B-17 bomber
ISBN : 185367754X

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B-17 Combat Missions by Martin W. Bowman Pdf

The B-17 Flying Fortress is, along with the British Avro-Lancaster, the most famed heavy bomber of World War II. More than 12,000 B-17s were built and the planes were the mainstay of the Eighth Air Force's campaign of daylight precision-bombing raids on targets in Germany and the occupied territories. Unsurprisingly, given the B-17s pre-eminent role in the war, many books have been published on the aircraft and the men who flew in them. These fall into two categories. On one hand there are the largely text-only books recounting the experiences of the airmen who flew B-17 missions (most famously, Brian D. O'Neill's Half a Wing, Three Engines and a Prayer, and John Comer's Combat Crew); on the other are the many illustrated books that focus mainly on the plane's technical development and capabilities. Uniquely, B-17: Combat Missions combines the two approaches, describing in detail both the technical role of each crew-member, and following this up with extensive first-hand reports, many drawn from previously unpublished oral histories, showing what it was like to be, for example, a ball-turret gunner or a co-pilot. Equipment is described in detail, as is what it was like to use it. Throughout the book, the text is accompanied by newly commissioned and archive photos. In the introductory and final chapters, daily life is described for the airmen when not flying on missions. Photos of magazines, posters and other items of memorabilia evoke the atmosphere of the time, complementing the vivid picture drawn of the brave men of the US Eighth in action in the 'wide blue yonder'. AUTHOR: Martin Bowman is the author of eighty-six books on USAF/USN and RN/RAF operations. For many years he has been a frequent contributor of photographic and written articles to Flight International, Rolls-Royce Magazine, and Aeroplane Monthly. Major General Lewis E. Lyle (USAF Retd) led the 379th bomb group in World War II. SELLING POINTS: * The first fully illustrated book to combine operational and design information with first-hand accounts of combat missions * More than 200 photographs * Newly researched oral histories featured throughout

Author : Edward Jablonski
Publisher : Garden City, N.Y. : Doubleday
Page : 392 pages
File Size : 55,7 Mb
Release : 1965
Category : History
ISBN : STANFORD:36105023660934

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Flying Fortress by Edward Jablonski Pdf

Profusely illustrated with 400 photographs.

Author : Martin W. Bowman
Publisher : Pen and Sword
Page : 527 pages
File Size : 42,8 Mb
Release : 2006-09-15
Category : History
ISBN : 9781783409341

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Flying into the Flames of Hell by Martin W. Bowman Pdf

The book contains twenty-three stirring accounts of what life flying as air-crew in World War Two was really like. The writers are a mixed bunch of pilots, navigators and gunners who flew medium and heavy bombers or Mosquitoes. It conveys the terror of being coned by German searchlights over the target, attacks by Luftwaffe night-fighters, catastrophic damage to aircraft and the ensuing struggle to keep the machine airborne on the return trip to base. It tells of the comradeship between the crew and often the humor between them which was often bred from fear.The gentle and unassuming narratives convey the sense of purpose that these men felt in doing one of the most dangerous jobs in the war. It is a fitting tribute to those that survived and the many thousands who died in the struggle against Hitler's dreadful ambitions in Europe.

Author : Pino Lombardi
Publisher : Unknown
Page : 400 pages
File Size : 48,5 Mb
Release : 2015
Category : Stirling (Bomber)
ISBN : 1781554730

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Short Stirling by Pino Lombardi Pdf

During 30 years of research, this book was written about the Short Stirling, the RAF's first four-engined heavy bomber in WW2. Illustrated with largely unpublished wartime photos, it describes in never before revealed detail, the design, construction and the factories where Stirlings were produced. The men and women who built them relate their stories and the aircrews give their personal accounts of operating the Stirling. A chapter is devoted to the training of aircrew; flying the Stirling is described in detail. There were unsung heroes too. Not forgotten is the work of the RAF ground crews and Maintenance Units, often working outdoors in freezing conditions. Then there are the civilian men and women who repaired and rebuilt damaged Stirlings; little adulation was given for the vital work they achieved completely rebuilding 268 Stirlings. The final transport version of the Stirling is featured both in its RAF and post war civilian role - and how it went full circle to become a bomber again, in the hands of the Egyptian Air Force. There are chapters which explain to the reader what happened to all the Stirlings at the end of the war; what has been unearthed and survives to the present day.

Author : Travis L. Ayres
Publisher : Penguin
Page : 233 pages
File Size : 48,5 Mb
Release : 2009-10-06
Category : History
ISBN : 9781101145364

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The Bomber Boys by Travis L. Ayres Pdf

True tales of heroism and the men who fought and died in the skies of World War II Europe. In World War II, there were all too many ways for a fighting man to die. But no theater of operations offered more fatal choices than the skies above Nazi-occupied Europe. Inside of a B-17 Bomber, thousands of feet above the earth, death was always a moment away. From the hellish storms of enemy flak and relentless strafing of Luftwaffe fighters, to mid-air collisions, mechanical failure, and simple bad luck, it’s a wonder any man would volunteer for such dangerous duty. But some very brave men did. Some paid the ultimate price. Some made it home. But in the end, all would achieve victory. Here, author Travis L. Ayres has gathered a collection of previously untold personal accounts of combat and camaraderie aboard the B-17 Bombers that flew countless sorties against the enemy, as related by the men who lived and fought in the air—and survived. They are stories of heroism, sacrifice, miraculous survival and merciless warfare. But they should all be remembered... INCLUDES PHOTOS