Battle of Hamburg: Allied Bomber Forces Against a German City in 1943 [Hardcover]

Martin Middlebrook (Author)

Product Details

• Hardcover: 424 pages
• Publisher: Encore Editions; 1st Ed. (U.S.) edition (March 1983)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0684167271
• ISBN-13: 978-0684167275
• Product Dimensions: 8.1 x 5.7 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #810,901 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Viewing the Maelstrom, July 3, 2002

By 

R. Tiedemann "Sunnye" (Bellevue, NE USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Battle of Hamburg: Allied Bomber Forces Against a German City in 1943 (Hardcover)

This story of the Allied bombing of Hamburg, Germany begins 30 years before the actual attack with a description of the origin of stategic bombing. The book narrates the development of the technology that culminated in that nightmare of firestorm and destruction. It is also the story of the Allies's attempt to end the war by annihilating certain German cities.

On the night of July 28, 1943, a firestorm occurred, the result of the British "area bombing" method used in the attack on the city. The center of the storm, which covered a 4-square-mile area, is estimated to have reached a temperature of 800 degrees Centigrade. Survivors said the storm sounded "like the Devil laughing."

Middlebrook includes eyewitness accounts.American and British flyers described what they saw, heard and felt. German survivors describe the horrors they endured.

The author is a conscientious researcher and compassionate historian. He confronts issues that affect the political relationships of the USA, Britain and Germany; the bitterness that some Germans still harbor because of the bombing of residential areas, and the anger that victims of the Reich still have against the Germans. This book studies all viewpoints.

Books like THE BATTLE OF HAMBURG add valuable pieces to the puzzle of historical perpsective that we all need when we make political decisions at the ballot box.

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Recognizes the Polish Contribution to the War Effort, September 11, 2003

By 

Jan Peczkis "Scholar and Thinker" (Chicago IL, USA) - See all my reviews
(TOP 1000 REVIEWER)   

This review is from: Battle of Hamburg: Allied Bomber Forces Against a German City in 1943 (Hardcover)

This book provides much detail about the bombing of Hamburg. For instance, those German civilians who went to basements all perished in the main firestorm area. But those who went to shelters with gas and smoke-tight doors had a good chance of survival. As an American of Polish descent, I appreciate the fact that Middlebrook recognizes the skill of Polish pilots and mechanics. He also notes the fact that the Poles were not to return to a free Poland, thanks to (western-permitted) Soviet domination.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars In Praise of Area Bombing, October 3, 2000

By 

R. A Forczyk (MD, USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Battle of Hamburg: Allied Bomber Forces Against a German City in 1943 (Hardcover)

Martin Middlebrook does his usual thorough research job, which includes excellent Order of Battle information, planning and operational details. Excellent diagrams for each raid shows where each aircraft was downed and where bombs were dropped. This is the story of four RAF and two USAF bomber raids on Hamburg between 25 July-3August 1943, in the first example of "round the clock bombing". This is also a useful case study to examine the British concept of night area bombing versus American daylight precision bombing. A total of 100 British aircraft were lost, as well as 552 airmen killed and 65 captured. The USAF lost 17 bombers in Hamburg raids, with 46 killed and 114 captured. The RAF dropped about 8,300 tons of bombs on Hamburg, the Americans about 300 tons.

These raids were unique in several respects. The first British raid used "Window" to successfully disrupt the German night-fighter defense. The second British raid created a firestorm that killed over 40,000 civilians in Hamburg. The two American raids were hampered by cloud cover and inflicted only minor damage on the U-Boat construction yards in the city. The Luftwaffe lost more than 13 aircraft defending the city and the defenses improved considerably in the course of just one week. Although the raids failed to disrupt U-Boat construction or erode German morale, Middlebrook feels that the raids did help to "grind" Germany down and force them to devote more resources to the defense of their cities. I find that Middlebrook's claims for the RAF bombing campaign somewhat exaggerated; they rarely bombed within 3 miles of their target and their bombers were shot down fairly easily (with few survivors).

There is a tremendous amount of detail in this volume which makes it well worth reading, even if aviation history is not one's primary interest. The full, ugly face of aerial bombing is also revealed, probably in more stark contrast than other works, since Middlebrook spends as much time describing civilians faced with firestorms as bomber crews going down. At the end, Middlebrook asks whether area bombing - specifically targetting civilian housing - was justified. His answer, that it was consistent with the mores and circumstances of the Second World War are somewhat questionable.