By Robert J. Mrazek To Kingdom Come: An Epic Saga of Survival in the Air War Over Germany

This isn't really a history of the USAAF's 8th Air Force in WWII, for all you can see both the past and the future from 1943. It's a story of a handful of men on a few planes that were part of a day-bombing debacle, a single raid on the ball-bearing factories of Stuttgart that appears to have accomplished very little at all.As a colonial, my reading on WWII has mostly focused on the night bombing of the RAF, and as result it was a surprise to find out that the day bombing was carried out with about 1/3rd the aircraft - 330 odd, not the possible 1000+ the RAF could manage on occasion - and with each aircraft carrying only half the bomb load of a Lancaster, although the trade-off was a heavy defensive armament. Its also clear from reading that the USAAF needed escort fighters to operate successfully, and the reason for the introduction of the chin turret on the B-17G is made clear (the raid was carried out in B-17F's, and was subject to frontal attack accordingly).That's all background - its not spelt out, but its there between the lines. Its clear that the raid was a mixture of bravery and foolishness, and that circling the target three times was perhaps the height of this. There is no doubt about the bravery of those who carried out the mission, but there is some heavily implied criticism of the commanders who ordered it, and Gen Travis, who flew with the mission, is not immune.Really though, this is about the few men who flew the raid and survived - and those who died in the air, or were captured by Nazis, or somehow escaped back to England with the help of the Resistance. One plane even made it home, heavily shot up. Another diverted to Switzerland and its crew were interned. This is their story, and its well told. From it you can draw inferences about the wider war, but that's not what the book is about. This is not an analysis of the bombing campaign over Germany: it's a tiny piece of the puzzle, and its value lies in the up close and personal stories of some of those brave young men who flew in it, and those who never came home.