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The Bomber War: The Allied Air Offensive Against Nazi Germany
by Robin Neillands
Product Group: Book
Publisher: Penguin (2001-07-23)
ISBN: 1585671622
EAN: 9780760765302
Dewey Decimal #: 940.544941
Binding/Media: Hardcover - 448 pages
Edition: 1ST
Release Date: 2001-08-27
SKU: BA09021513
Condition: Used: Very Good
Comments: Exactly as shown, Dust Jacket intact with no damage.Text clean with NO marks.
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Editorial Reviews
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Product Description
The Bomber War is the book about the brutal war in the skies during World War II and the dedication and heroism of the airmen who paid the ultimate price for victory. The bomber campaign against Germany is one of the most contentious of World War II. Was anything achieved by the deaths of thousands of German civilians – many of them women and children? Or were all means justified against Nazi Germany? Acclaimed historian Robin Neillands examines every detail of the Allied campaign led by British Air Chief Marshal Sir Arthur "Bomber" Harris: the strengths and fundamental flaws, the technical difficulties and developments and, above all, the day-by-day, night-by-night endurance of the crews flying to the limit in discomfort and danger, facing flak and enemy fire. Personal experiences of British, American, Canadian, Australian & other Allied fliers are a key part in this account, along with those of German airmen & civilians. Though The Bomber War discusses Guernica and the destruction of Tokyo, Hiroshima and Nagasaki, it concentrates on the European theater, on Germany’s air war against the Allies – over Warsaw, Rotterdam, London and Coventry – which led to the fierce Allied raids carried out against Cologne, Hamburg, Berlin and the Ruhr and – most notorious of all – the tremendous firestorm unleashed on Dresden in the final months of the war. Robin Neillands also examines the complex moral issues involved in the air war, and of the case made against "Bomber" Harris. This is an important and timely addition to the history of armed conflict; the age of free-fall bombs may have passed, but many veterans – on both sides – are still alive to state their case, and to tell a new generation what their war like.
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Amazon.com Review
"We must make war as we must, not as we would like," observed the great British general Lord Kitchener after witnessing the carnage of World War I. Former Royal Marines commando Robin Neillands concurs in this often grim account of a bombing campaign that devastated much of continental Europe in the cause of destroying Nazism. In this history of the Allied air war over Europe, Neillands maintains that the use of bombers as strategic weapons aimed at the enemy's ability to wage war--as opposed to purely tactical weapons aimed at enemy troops--necessarily involved the loss of civilian life and the destruction of nonmilitary targets, however unintentional. One such target was Dresden, a once-beautiful city that, some historians have protested, had no strategic importance and merely served as an example of what would happen to the rest of Germany should the fighting continue. Those historians are off the mark, Neillands counters: Dresden produced essential war materiel, such as military aircraft engines, shell fuses, and cigarettes ("a vital product for maintaining wartime morale"), and thus it was a legitimate target. So, he continues, were cities such as Berlin, Ludwigshafen, and Hamburg, the last the site of a firestorm that killed some 46,000 civilians. Their deaths were unfortunate, Neillands suggests, but necessary in ending Hitler's regime and in inaugurating an era in which total war is unthinkable. Neillands rightly observes that most histories of the Allied air war in Europe present either the English or the American side, and he does a good job of weaving both accounts, drawing on official histories and the memories of veterans (including some German fliers) alike. More detailed and technically inclined than recent work by Stephen Ambrose and other popular writers on World War II, his book makes a useful addition to the historical literature. --Gregory McNamee
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Customer Reviews
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Air War Against Hitler's Germany...
Rating  (4)
Date: 2009-06-22
In "The Bomber War", author Robin Neillands sets out to provide a one-volume history of the British/US air offensive against Nazi Germany during 1939-1945. At just over 400 pages, he succeeds in providing a reasonably comprehensive account of the strategic bombing campaign, accessible to the general reader and to the student of the Second World War.
Neillands approaches the air campaign from a functional as well as a chronological point of view. This approach results in some duplication but also in an all-around account of the air war. Neillands nicely mixes narrative and first person accounts; the latter bring home a sense of the difficulties, and the horror, of strategic bombing from the air and from the ground.
Neillands promotes a number of points. First, early in the war, strategic bombing was virtually the only way Britain and the US could strike back at the German homeland. Second, it took years of trial and error effort to build effective British and US strategic air forces. Third, both Britain and the US expended the lives of thousands of their airmen trying to prove the efficacy of strategic bombing, an objective they probably lacked the technology and numbers to achieve.
Neillands returns repeatedly to the emotional debate over the morality of the Allied strategic bombing campaign, especially the February 1945 firebombing of Dresden. His specific purpose is to demonstrate on a factual basis that Air Chief Marshal "Bomber" Harris and Bomber Command executed the air campaign against Germany as directed and well within the context of the war. Readers may judge for themselves how well he succeeds.
"The Bomber War" is recommended to the general reader and to the non-specialist student of the Air War as a very useful one-volume account. Specialists on the strategic bombing campaign can find more detailed accounts, and more exhaustive arguments, elsewhere.
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A near hit
Rating  (3)
Date: 2009-06-04
As noted by other reviewers, the appearance of easily avoided errors of fact and the absolutely atrocious proof reading and indexing embarrass the publisher (s), not to mention the author.
Written with good intentions, but not at all scholarly in discipline, the book's unique virtue is the aircrew letters and interviews, presumably not found in other works.
As far as the thesis - that Bomber Command, RAF was not engaged in war crimes -some suitable evidence and arguments are developed.
This is a story which should be told, perhaps more expertly than herein.
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Allied Strategic Bombing in WWII-with all the Warts on!
Rating  (5)
Date: 2007-06-13
2 out of 2 customers found this reveiw helpful
Prof. Neillands does an excellent job setting the props, introducing the actors and explaining the plot of that incredibly tragic drama which was Allied strategic bombing in World War II. If there are compliments to be rendered or blame to be assessed he doesn't shirk at the task. Rich in data yet compelling in pace, Prof. Neillands kept my interest at a level I seldom reach with nonfiction.
There are those who will still castigate him for his defense of Air Marshal Harris. Having been in the military myself, I understand the limitations of command. As far as bombing Dresden is concerned, there is very little doublt but that Harris and Spaatz were following orders. Therefore, the blame must rest higher.
All in all, I would place this in the top ten of all WWII nonfiction I have ever read. If you have a choice of books on the Strategic Bombing Offensive, please consider the late Robin Neilland's book first.
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Four and 1/2 Stars
Rating (4)
Date: 2006-11-21
2 out of 3 customers found this reveiw helpful
I just wrote a long review & my computer crashed before I could submit it, so I'll be brief. Yes, the book is pro-Bomber Command, but theirs was a remarkable story & they did, after all, win. The first person narratives are fascinating, and the author gives due credit to the USAAF 8th Air Force. The 9th Air Force is stiffed, which is fair because the author tells you that he is going to stick to strategic bombing, but surely more could have been written about the 15th Air Force?? I also thought the Halifax and its pilots were given a bit short shrift, but the author gets kudos for being fair about the B-24, and giving its pilots their props. Neilland is not a "professional" historian, but is more or less a professional military history writer, and he writes lucidly and compellingly. Definitely recommended for the WWII buff, especially if you have not given enough due to Bomber Command. I think one of the author's theses, that he is seeking to exonerate Air Chief Marshall Harris, is successful, even on the Dresden bombing. I also think the author's criticisms and conclusions about strategic bombing are fair and well-put.
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Long, interesting book
Rating (3)
Date: 2006-09-28
0 out of 1 customers found this reveiw helpful
Took a bit to get through this book. The information provided regarding the tactics and technology used during the various phases of the war was well presented. It was very interesting to read how the human element played in the development of the tactics and testing of them.
The interviews and sections provided by various people was very interesting. The reports from those under the bombers, those who felt and experieneced the effects first-hand, were astonishing. These reports truely tell the tale. The crews accounts also were great, as those who were there are able to recount the sights, sounds, and experiences. We need to do more to document as much as possible of those in the skies before the generation is lost.
The ending of the book where he seeks to defend the Dresden raid wasn't really in line with the rest of the book. I enjoyed the blending of historical facts, numbers, and personal accounts throughout, but the ending didn't quite fit as he devoted an awful amount of time and effort to Harris.
Overall a good addition to anyone's collection of WW2 bomber library.
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