Customer Reviews

Daring Young Men: The Heroism and Triumph of the Berlin Airlift---June 1948-May 1949

5 star:		(17)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

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.

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.

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.

Richard Reeves writes an historical account that reads like a novel. You can really see everything with his ability to form pictures with his words. Reading this is like listening to my father and his old brown boot army buddies; I felt like I was back there years ago listening to these men tell of their problems and triumphs. He has captured their spirit and stories, in his descriptions of Clay, of the stoppages of trains and convoys into Berlin as the crisis grew. Even glide ratios are given and technical details are made interesting and blended into the narrative
The book is amazingly complete; no where else have I read the stories of the `lost wives' club, how the families of the pilots and ground personnel ordered into service had to leave their wives and families and the problems they experienced. It is so good to have recorded the stories of the enlisted men, which so many historians overlook. There is much written about Lt. Gail Halvorsen who became renowned as the candy bomber.
As someone who flew into Templehof in the 70's and stayed in Berlin; I can attest to the fact that no where else in Europe were Americans more loved and respected than in Berlin. Everyone had personal stories that they loved to tell
The stories of the problems and triumphs are all told; including the crashes and loss of life. The airlift was not all wonderful; the frustrations are presented, the bone weariness and low morale are described as well as the elation of a mission accomplished. This is an unbelievable true story that should not be forgotten and this book has presented its' history in a well done chronicle worth reading.

I've read both and "The Candy Bombers" by Andrei Cherny is a MUCH better book on the same subject. I was somewhat familiar with the Berlin Airlift and thought I knew the story but after seeing press coverage of both books, I decided to read both. I would have thought that Richard Reeves' book would be better since I really liked his book about JFK (and had never read Cherny's previous book) but there really is no comparison. "Daring Young Men" is OK, but "The Candy Bombers" is one of the best books I have ever read and I read dozens of non-fiction and fiction books each year. If you don't believe me, do your own comparison but if you're at all interested in the Berlin Airlift or the era after WWII or the beginning of the Cold War or Harry Truman and American political history, "The Candy Bombers" is the book for you.

Last major big effort by "The Greatest Generation," I served as a U. S. Navy Radar air traffic controller, with a controller who was in Berlin. John never talked of the experience, sure had a tough task, they all did.
Realy struggled holding the tears for the first three chapters. What a response by our country. Wonder if we could respond again with the effectiveness?
MUST READ, for any who have doubts concerning the strength potential in our National reservoir. Not neglecting the sharing of energy, for those we had been fighting just four years before. World changing event. Again President Harry Truman, proved his strength, and potential for the future of our great Nation.
Well written, Great research, and with many view points showing the World impact.
All that served around the World deserve a "WELL DONE."

In a footnote on page 14, Reeves repeats the jelly doughnut myth years after it was exploded, claiming that Kennedy said "I am a jelly doughnut" instead of "I am a Berliner" when he spoke in Berlin in 1963.

This perpetuates a myth and mars an otherwise valuable book.

The author David Emery at Urban Legends correctly wrote "This is truly The Gaffe That Never Was, notwithstanding reports to the contrary in venues as prestigious as the New York Times and Newsweek magazine. Experts say Kennedy's grammar was flawless when he uttered those words in German near the Berlin Wall on June 26, 1963. The phrase had been translated for him by a professional interpreter."

If anyone has any doubts, consider this: Kennedy rehearsed the speech and its two German phrases for an hour in the Mayor's office with his interpreter, and with Mayor Willy Brandt himself. Brant, a native Berliner, would never have allowed the American President to make such a mistake in a speech vital to the very survival of his city.

Yet Reeves seems unaware of the twenty years of scholarship that has discredited this chestnut.

Emery went on to write "Linguist Jürgen Eichhoff laid decades of misinformation to rest with a concise grammatical analysis of Kennedy's statement in the academic journal Monatshefte in 1993. "'Ich bin ein Berliner' is not only correct," Eichhoff wrote, "but the one and only correct way of expressing in German what the President intended to say."

Try it on any online translator. "I am a jelly doughnut" does not become "ein Berliner" and "Ich bin ein Berliner" is rendered as "a Berliner."

The myth originated with author Len Deighton in the novel "Berlin Game," and took on a life of its own.

Len was joking.

It may seem naive and sentimental,but this book tells of America and her Allies at their best in one of the Cold War's early conflicts between the West and the Soviets. A disagreement over currency issues in a divided Berlin a few years after World War Two,resulted in the Russians blockading West Berlin from East Berlin.(Berlin was split between the French,English, U.S. and the U.S.S.R., but it was deep within the Russian controlled section of post- war Germany) The result was an air lift of food and supplies to the people of Berlin by the Americans and the British. Some of the brave young pilots were veterans of the war. They flew missions for over a year in horrible weather conditions. Many of the pilots flew round the clock trips and spent part of their trip literally asleep. Richard Reeves does a marvelous job telling this story. His narrative includes not only the Allies but the Germans who they saved and who unloaded the planes and who often worked as mechanics on the planes. Many Germans could not believe that their former enemies were putting their lives at risk to save them from Soviet control.(The human cost of the air lift was 39 British dead, 32 American dead and 9 German dead) This is overall a story of bravery, but Reeves also tells of the ugly side of human nature as evidenced by a thriving black market smuggling operation during the episode. There are familiar characters in this study such as Harry Truman, Stalin and LeMay but there are also lesser known figures such as Lucius Clay (Commander of U.S. troops in Europe) and General William Tunner who deserve to be house hold names. But the true heroes of this narrative are the not so ordinary men and women who saved a city and helped to create a free Western Germany. They remind us of our best impulses and they inspire us all.

I saw Richard Reeves's discussion on the Charlie Rose show and decided to read it. The story is one of the great statements of American capability to do the right thing. Praise for President Harry S. Truman, a president who does not get the accolades he earned with good decisions and courage.

Reeves had the story, but his writing is not as good here as it is in other places. A splendid compilation of vignettes of individual American commitment and daring, but it is disjointed and lacks thematic integration. His exploration of the politics of what was going on in a divided Germany moving towards democracy, one of the goals for which our boys were fighting, is weak. His stories of what our former enemies were willing to do to survive are well done.

All in all, a magnificant story that deserved better writing.

HAC

Every American between the ages of 15 and 55 should read this book. It presents an important part of American history that is almost never mentioned in today's revisionist world. It is a story of individual valor and heroic devotion to duty by men who were just beginning to get their civilian lives back in order and who only 2 years prior were fighting in WWII against the very country that they now,by 1948, were risking their lives to feed and clothe and rebuild. It also gives the reader a glimpse into the courage of President Truman and the utter evil of the Soviet Union. If I had the money I would send a copy of Daring Young Men to every high school in the USA so our children could be made aware of this incredible story. Hopefully, someone will have the financial backing to bring this story to the big screen> What a glorious movie this would make as these heroes dedicated themselves to crashing through the Iron Curtain providing relief to Germany.