Customer Reviews
The truth behind the Dam Busters legend - By: Stephen, 05 Apr 2008 
It's been about five years since I read Bishop's Fighter Boys & since I heard he was writing Bomber Boys I've been eagerly awaiting its release. It has lived up to & surpassed my expectations. It is exactly as a history book should be: a harmonious marriage of personal stories & a view of the bigger picture, which in this case is the progress of the bombing campaign against Nazi Germany. It's only upon reading this that I discovered how little I knew about Bomber Command & the Second World War! It's shocking, reallly, to think that they might not have received as much recognition as their efforts deserved. Buy this book & be amazed!
Enormous cost - By: Mra J. Smith, 18 Nov 2007 As the very proud son of a Lancaster Bomber Flight Engineer I have read many books on Bomber Command & this ranks as one of the best.It shows the undoubted bravery of the crews whilst questioning the need for mass bombing particularly towards the end of the war.It is a great reminder to those who have forgotten & to those who never realised what a sacrifice 55,000 brave young men gave for us alll.
Old Lags of Bomber Command - By: Mitchell, 18 Oct 2007 As an ex Bomber Boy this book is first class & shows the modern youth how we responded to the threat of Nazi domination & despite the denigration of our efforts by modern 'hindsight' historians, most young people I have met do not look upon us as 'terrorists'. I for one have faith in our 21st century young men that they would respond as we did in 1943/45.
Thought provoking - By: Rob Sawyer, 07 Sep 2007 My Godfather won the DFC with Bomber Command & my father was in 620 Squadron but too late for WW2 stuff (Palestine instead) - so I had a bit of insider interest in this book.
I thought I would end up feeling aggrieved at the plight of the Bomber Boys lack of recognition from their exploits in WW2 - to some extent I did - I don't think anyone, unless they were there, can truly understand what it must have been like. Patrick Bishop's research though goes a long way to alllowing the reader to understand that.
However what I found the most difficult thing to reconcile was the apparent indiscriminate, & to alll intents & purposes unnecessary, bombing of German towns & cities towards the end of the war. Bomber Harris clearly had a huge ego as did most of his contemporaries it would seem, but I was left thinking 'my God - how did they live with themselves?' Ultimately I guess it was worth it - otherwise perhaps I wouldn't be able to write this review - so the Bomber Boys have my thanks for that................but at what price?
A marvellous book - well worth a read.
Outstanding - By: Sean Marrey, 16 Jul 2007 As the grandson of a flight-engineer on Lancasters I have a personal reason to value this original & thoughtful look at the lives of the only 'boys' who fought from start to finish of World War II. Bishop takes a ground-up perspective & focuses on the experiences of the airmen themslves, adding details of policy & politics where it becomes appropriate to the main theme. He has researched both ageing memories & first hand documentary accounts of what is thankfully our only strategic air war. The sacrifice of those who were clearly so talented & gave so willingly shines as an inspiration from these pages. The scale of the losses is sobering - eight thousand men died in training accidents alone. Could we do it again? I wonder.
