Customer Reviews
An essential, extremely thorough and entertaining read - By: Art, 02 Jan 2009 
I got this book with no preconceptions & I was so glad I did. It's an extremely thorough & scolarly work. My only criticism would be that it is largely made up of quotations from other works, newspapers, articles & also interviews that Mr Bishop undertook personally. I was hoping for more from the author himself but the other side of that coin is that it allows the subject to speak for itself.
It's a fascinating insight into servicemen's life for Bomber Command crew. I also feel this book should be required reading for school children, as it gives the real life view of WWII. As an English school boy one is brought up learning about WWII & it becomes the source of playground games & imagination but the reality is somewhat different, grittier & far more interesting.
When I read this book, I was partly motivated by the memory of my late father who during WWII volunteered for the RAF hoping to become a Flight Engineer on Lancasters. Due to the start of USAAF daylight raids on Germany he finished his basic training to be told they didn't need more bomber crew & was thus returned to his reserved occupation.
I now realise that this might have been a narrow escape & also admire him for volunteering & I'm full of admiration for those that did get to fly.
An incisive account of one of the most important sectors of the Allied offensive. - By: C. Bowden, 16 Aug 2008 It is very easy to lament the work done by Bomber Commandin the mid to end years of the Second World Warin Europe. This book does just that. But it also delves into the hearts of those who flew the bombers, the emotions of those who let loose the bomb doors, the feelings of those who shot at night-fighters. And the book's great achievement isin presenting a view that not only helps us understand the great personal sacrifice these men made, but the even greater emotional sacrifice they have suffered since the end of the war.
With some glaring grammatical mistakes, the book's editors should be sacked, but allin all, this is a highly endearing yet incisive account of one of the ugliest aspects of war, yet an aspect that greatly hastened the end of the suffering of Europe.
Should be compulsory reading! - By: Mr X, 04 Jun 2008 
This book is the best book I have read so far this year.
It describes the strategic air war against Germany by the RAFin the Second World War. That description makes it sound maybe a bit dry & academic but it is far from being either of those things! It tells the story of this chapterin the war from a very human point of view. For example, there are chapters describing the airmen's training, lives at their bases, their motivation, how they dealt with the fear of being killed whilst carrying out operation over Europe at night & many other highly interesting aspects of the lives of these remarkable men.
The book also describes the strategy behind the bombing of Germany, from the beginning to the end of the war & gives a good insight into the main commanders - people such as Charles Portal & Bomber Harris.
The story toldin these pages is often very moving & I once I had finished the book I thought about it for a long time afterwards, quite unlike other books I have read. I felt great sympathy for all the men of Bomber Command, which has never had the vital role it playedin World War II properly publicly acknowledged. I hope that this book will cause many to ask why this is so & perhaps focus efforts to have a permanent memorial specific to these men built, & to have this done before the last of them die & they recede from living memory.
A moving but balanced account. - By: Mark Davison, 01 Jun 2008 Bomber Boys brought tears to my eyes. It is a movingly written record & assessment of the horrors that aircrew endured during World War II. My father - a navigatorin a 44 Squadron Lancaster - had told me on many occasions about his war service & I understood something of the difficulties. However, it was only by reading this book that one can put into perspective the terrible loss, the low chances of survival as well as the physical & mental strain of missions.
Nor does the book shirk from the real moral ambiguities of the campaign & follows through to officialdom's post-war embarrassment of their role. The book fillsin many of the gaps that I did not appreciate when talking to my father & allows me now to understand how truly heroic his & his fellow aircrewmen's contribution was. I only wish that my father could have survived a couple more years to have enjoyed reading it.
The truth behind the Dam Busters' legend - By: happyreviewer, 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, whichin 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, really, to think that they might not have received as much recognition as their efforts deserved. Buy this book & be amazed!
