Alan Cooper (3)

Appendix 2 of this book is one of the most humbling passages of writing I have ever seen. From page 146 to page 224 it lists each of the Bomber Command aircraft lost between 5th March and 31st July 1943 in the Battle of the Ruhr including the fate of each crew member. The font is not large.

In this period Bomber Command flew 29,022 missions dropping 60,825 tons of bombs on Germany and lost 2,990 men killed. The nearly three thousand killed is a staggering number, but it is only when you see each name printed alongside his comrades that it really strikes home. Whatever one may think of the missions they were asked to fly, one cannot doubt the courage of those who did and it is a tragedy that it took so long for them to receive a memorial.

I have to say, though, that the rest of the book is a bit of a mess. It has a number of interesting facts and anecdotes, but they are written almost as a stream of consciousness, inserting snippets seemingly at random between other passages. What I think this book really needed was better editing to help the author build a narrative out of the superb material and recollections he has gathered. It's not a hard read but it is a confusing one and maybe not suited to the casual reader - if you have no clue about this field I think you'll struggle in places.… (altro)