KILLING SKIES
By Simon Read
Spellmount (U.K.)

Of the 125,000 airmen who flew with the RAF’s Bomber Command during WW II, more than 55,000 perished in Britain’s struggle to take the war to the enemy.  Bomber Command’s efforts to wreck Germany from end to end would emerge as one of the deadliest and most protracted campaigns of the war. Simon Read’s KILLING SKIES examines the most controversial facet of Britain’s war effort.

 British-born Read, a journalist and student of the British air war for more than a decade, was inspired to write this book after rediscovering the log book and combat reports kept by his grandfather, an air gunner with Bomber Command who survived 51 operations over Nazi Germany and Occupied Europe.  With the revitalized interest in the Second World War spawning many new books and movies, Read felt that new attention should focus on a campaign that has been harshly — and unfairly — criticized for the “killing of women and children.”  To this day, Bomber Command veterans remain without a campaign medal. In March 2001, Read left the copy desk of The Oakland Tribune and traveled to Britain where he spent 14 months researching and writing KILLING SKIES. 

In addition to the detailed discussions of Bomber Command’s raids and special operations, the book examines Churchill’s response and influence on British bombing policy.  The bomber, Churchill believed, was Britain’s only chance against the Nazi onslaught when the island nation stood as Hitler’s sole nemesis.  As Britain’s circumstances changed throughout the course of the war, so too did Churchill’s reliance on Bomber Command.  One man whose faith in the bomber remained absolute was Air Marshal Arthur “Bomber” Harris. Even now, critics of Bomber Command equate Harris and the men who followed his orders with war criminals. The book demonstrates that Britain — fighting for its very life — was left with few options. Circumstances dictate methods in total war.

Relatively few books have been published on the British bombing campaign against Germany, especially compared to the number of books on D-Day, Stalingrad or the exploits of the U.S. 8th Army Air Force. No previous book on the subject has made such use of first-hand accounts to tell the story from the perspective of the men who flew the missions.

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