Customer Reviews

Fascinating and Moving Documentary - By: Eddie, 24 Jul 2007
There are plenty of books on this subject & this is the second which I have read, so I can't make any comparisons. My area of interest isin the experiences of those involvedin the war & Bomber Crew dealt with thisin a way which was easily digestible.

I believe that the book was an accompaniment to a TV series which attempted to recreate the experience of flying a Lancaster. I have no time for this kind of tosh: a serious & emotional subject presented as reality TV when a documentary would have been a far better option. Surely this speaks volumes about todays audiences. That aside, Bomber Crew represents that documentary. It is constructed with a well written & informative narrative which is heavily punctuated with contributions from veterans, taking the reader from training through to the end of the war. The contributions are remarkably honest, matter of fact & modest & dispel any notion that these men consider themselves heroes. Thisin itself is tremendously moving. The power of the written word over visual images is strong here as the imagination is the key instrumentin interpreting the book, although there are a few images present & sadly these are poorly reproduced. One however, stayed with me: silhouetted ground crew waving off a bomber against the late evening sky. A poignant & evocative image.

There are many poignant, moving, humorous & occasionally horrific momentsin the book. A crew member describes the ground crew swilling out the rear turret with a pump & hose: 'the water was running away pink. I looked at the guy doing the job & he looked at me, but neither of us spoke. I just carried on with what I was doing, but it gets to you a little bit'.

Reflect on that for a moment.

It got to me more than a little bit. Young men, barely out of their teens, flying outin a rattling Lancaster through flak & enemy fighters, simply not knowing whether they would end the night dead or alive & if it was to be dead, how? The spirit, comradeship & teamwork are explored here to great effect; it's powerful stuff & the book takes you to the heart of it. These men remain remarkable human beings, dead or alive.