Daring Young Men: The Heroism and Triumph of the Berlin Airlift---June 1948-May 1949 [Audiobook, CD, Unabridged] [Audio CD]

Richard Reeves (Author), Johnny Heller (Narrator)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 25, 2010

The Second World War had been over for three years when pilots, navigators, and air traffic controllers all over America were recalled to active duty to rescue Berlin. They were there within days and weeks, flying tired planes filled with food, coal, medicine, and mail. Many had bombed the place to rubble in 1944 and 1945. Now they and the British airmen were bringing it survival. Drawing on hundreds of interviews in the United States, Germany, and Great Britain, bestselling author Richard Reeves tells the stories of these civilian airmen, the successors to Stephen Ambrose's "Civilian Soldiers," ordinary boys called to extraordinary tasks.Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin had ordered Berlin blockaded, betting that the Americans, the British, and the French would abandon the city. Many of President Truman's advisers wanted to retreat; others wanted to risk war with the USSR. Truman ordered the Berlin Airlift, neither retreat nor confrontation. It ended only when West Germany was established by the three powers and NATO was born. The Soviets did the backing down. Led by Generals Lucius Clay and Curtis LeMay, the first battle in the Cold War was won. The young men came home again, some of them trying to remember where they had left their cars.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Starred Review. Re-evaluating what has been called the first battle of the cold war, noted presidential biographer and syndicated columnist Reeves (President Kennedy) takes a closer look at the courageous young American and British pilots who, in order to bring food, fuel, and medicine to a Berlin blockaded by Russia, flew aging cargo planes into Soviet airspace in the fragile post-WWII years. Vying with the West for control of Berlin and Germany , Stalin choked off the defeated German capital with 400,000 Red Army soldiers, and the Washington hawks called for war with Moscow. But Truman, whom Reeves calls a hero for persevering against skeptics, pursued the airlift instead. Using diaries, letters, and government documents, Reeves shows the suffering of the vanquished German people, the calculated coldness of Soviet officials, and the individual pilots who risked their lives to save their former enemies. This probing book reveals the intricate talks that led to the unraveling of Stalin's demands, the partitioning of Germany, and the creation of NATO. Reeves gives us a mesmerizing portrait of America at its best when challenged by Russia's tyranny. 16 pages of b&w photos. (Jan.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Bookmarks Magazine

Richard Reeves's journalistic instincts shine in the hundreds of interviews he conducted with key players in the Berlin Airlift, as well as in his extensive digging in Allied and Russian archives to uncover previously unpublished documents. The author's goal in Daring Young Men is to highlight the sacrifices and courage of a country already stretched to the breaking point by World War II and to bring back into our history the effort's potent (and ironic) humanitarian message: "This time [the soldiers] were supposed to free the people they had been trying to kill, and who had been trying to kill them, only three years earlier." If Reeves focuses more on the individual stories than the larger political and historical context, he nonetheless succeeds admirably, relating important history well and with passion. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Audio CD
• Publisher: Tantor Media; Unabridged,Library - Unabridged CD edition (January 25, 2010)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1400144027
• ISBN-13: 978-1400144020
• Product Dimensions: 6.8 x 6.5 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (27 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #4,607,233 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Richard Reeves is the author of presidential bestsellers, including President Nixon and President Kennedy, acclaimed as the best nonfiction book of the year by Time magazine. A syndicated columnist and winner of the American Political Science Association's Carey McWilliams Award, he lives in New York and Los Angeles.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

41 of 42 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars New View of An Old Topic, January 18, 2010

By 

David W. Overton (Vermont) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Daring Young Men: The Heroism and Triumph of The Berlin Airlift-June 1948-May 1949 (Hardcover)

This is an excellent book. As Tom Brokaw suggests on the dust cover, it is highly readable. It is also important history that has been covered in quite a few other books, but, remarkably, there seem to be many people who are unfamiliar with that history or prone to confuse it with the much later building of the Berlin Wall.

The author is able to mingle important events with some very engaging miniportraits of participants at all levels in the crisis. The German residents of Berlin are given voices, and the German airplane loaders and mechanics are real people here. His book is also unlike other works by American writers by giving more space and detail to the British/Commonwealth contribution to the airlift.

I feel I am a good test of the book's merits because I lived in Berlin during the blockade as an American dependent and joined many others in watching the American planes land at Tempelhof and the occasional British Sunderland land on Wansee. I have also read many other books on this topic. Without taking anything away from a fine piece of work, I would suggest that there are a few places where the proofreading left a little to be desired. For example, the General Clay I remember lived around the corner from us in a district called Dahlem, not Darmstadt as the author suggests at two points.

Overall, a fine contribution to the literature.

21 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Absorbing history written by a superb writer, January 24, 2010

By 

John E. Drury "jedrury" (Washington, DC United States) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Daring Young Men: The Heroism and Triumph of The Berlin Airlift-June 1948-May 1949 (Hardcover)

To Richard Reeves, the Berlin Airlift was more that an eleven month heroic effort to supply the beleaguered Berliners; it was the true beginning of the Cold War, the pre-launch for the ultimate unification of Germany, and the beginning of the modern air cargo transport business. Reeves skillfully weaves together airmens' tales, Berliners recollections and the histories of the likes of Harry Truman, Ernest Bevan, Willy Brandt, Lucius Clay, William Tunner and others to give the reader a complete, satisfying and often wry recounting of heroism, extraordinary generosity and human kindness. This is a wonderful book for World War II history and aviation buffs alike.

22 of 24 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great Read!, January 19, 2010

By 

Jason Saltoun-Ebin (Los Angeles, CA) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Daring Young Men: The Heroism and Triumph of The Berlin Airlift-June 1948-May 1949 (Hardcover)

Great read! I highly recommend this book to anyone interested in World War II/Cold War history or aviation history.

The book is easy to read and fun as well -- it really reads like a novel. Plus, as an American, it is great to read about our armed forces doing the impossible -- keeping a city alive through only air support. The human side was also really touching as the pilots making the airlifts -- now called "angels in uniform" by the Berliners -- were many of the same pilots who made the devastating bombing runs just a few years before.