Military History Book Discussion
May 02, 2024
7:30 AM

by Donald L. Miller

Masters of the Air is the deeply personal story of the American bomber boys in World War II who brought the war to Hitler's doorstep. Donald Miller takes readers on a harrowing ride through the fire-filled skies over Berlin, Hanover, and Dresden and describes the terrible cost of bombing for the German people.

Fighting at 25,000 feet in thin, freezing air, bomber crews battled new kinds of assaults on body and mind. Air combat was deadly but intermittent: periods of inactivity and anxiety were followed by short bursts of fire and fear. Unlike infantrymen, bomber boys slept on clean sheets, drank beer in local pubs, and danced to the swing music of Glenn Miller's Air Force band. But they had a much greater chance of dying than ground soldiers. In 1943, an American bomber crewman stood only a one-in-five chance of surviving his tour of duty, twenty-five missions.

The actor Jimmy Stewart was a bomber boy, and so was the "King of Hollywood," Clark Gable. The air war was filmed by Oscar-winning director William Wyler and covered by reporters like Andy Rooney and Walter Cronkite, all of whom flew combat missions with the men. Until Allied soldiers crossed into Germany in the final months of the war, it was the only battle fought inside the German homeland.

Strategic bombing did not win the war, but the war could not have been won without it. American airpower destroyed the rail facilities and oil refineries that supplied the German war machine. Masters of the Air is a story, as well, of life in wartime England and in the German POW camps.

We need RSVPs by April 30, 2024, to Robert Epstein at Macabee1948@gmail.com

Recommended book purchase:
Amazon - https://tinyurl.com/2yodzhal
Half-Price Books - https://tinyurl.com/26vgplv6