Reaching for the Stars: A New History of Bomber Command in World War II [Paperback]

Mark Connelly (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 1860648053 | ISBN-13: 978-1860648052 | Publication Date: September 6, 2002

This book shows why Bomber Command, in one of the largest and bloodiest campaigns of World War II, with 55,000 aircrew lost and more officer fatalities than in World War I, has received so much attention and yet is still a "lost and black sheep" among British wartime glories. This book provides a new and revisionary narrative of the campaign and is both a military history and an investigation of how the modern image has come about.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

The British Bomber Command logged 55,000 of its own dead before the war's end, and had killed over 500,000 German civilians and destroyed 3.37 million houses in the process. In Reaching For The Stars: A New History of Bomber Command in World War II, University of Kent media and propaganda history lecturer Mark Connelly further examines the beleaguered reputation of the Command, and delves into its construction and bases. He places the Command's actions in the context of the bombings of London and Coventry, and speculates that without the use of the force, Churchill would not have survived as Prime Minister.

Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

--This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

From Booklist

This surprisingly good thing in a small package is the best introduction to Britain's Bomber Command's World War II operations to appear in some time. Beginning the war with inadequate equipment, training, and tactics, the command was obliged in 1942 to resort to night area bombing as the only way it had of striking back at Germany. The new tactics exacted a high toll in civilian lives but inflicted much more visible damage. For the rest of the war, Bomber Command committed its increasingly sophisticated resources to the area-bombing campaign, valuably contributing to the Allied effort, even if not as greatly as it might have. Wartime propaganda concealed first the early raids' ineffectiveness and later the human toll of successful area bombings. Subsequent revelations induced a postwar backlash against the command, which has denied due credit to its aircrews, more than half of whom were lost in combat. A serious contribution to World War II aviation history. Roland Green
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 208 pages
• Publisher: I. B. Tauris (September 6, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1860648053
• ISBN-13: 978-1860648052
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.2 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,727,448 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Competently done, focused on media and image issues, June 18, 2009

By 

M. Broderick "mikebinok" (Oklahoma City, OK USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Reaching for the Stars: A New History of Bomber Command in World War II (Paperback)

Probably the quickest way to convey the focus of this history is to tell you that the author is a Professor of Media Issues and Propaganda at a British university. As you might expect, he is heavily focused on public perception and the media image of Bomber Command, and in particular on how the public viewed the campaign of area bombing of German cities (which was the only offensive option available to Bomber Command, and indeed to Britain for most of the war). Forget about any suspicions you may have that this is either a left-winger out to demonize bombing and the military or an apologist who wants to whitewash the bombing of civilians. The author gives a balanced view, and appears to be genuinely sympathetic with and admiring of the men who flew the missions, while explaining that one of his mother's earliest memories is of being shoved into an air raid shelter as a small child while RAF bombers droned overhead (in other words she was a child in Germany during the war who was placed in very real danger by the bombing). Naturally the author covers the men who lead Bomber Command and the RAF also. I believe he dealt with them fairly, and seems to understand the point of view they were working from, but he is more reserved in admiring the brass hats than the lowly pilots and gunners.

The book has the weaknesses you might expect from this. Technical detail or explanation is almost nonexistent, and even the operational details are fast and a bit glossy. This is especially true of the later years of the war. I felt like I went from late 1943 and the raids on Berlin to the end of the war almost in the blink of an eye. As compensation for this light touch, we get an exhaustive analysis of public comments on the Bomber Offensive at various stages of the war, and a fairly detailed look at how the view of bombing and the men involved changed over time after the war. This isn't limited to print media, speeches are covered and there is a fair amount of detail on cinema--Mostly propaganda or "public information" movies during the war, and conventional entertainment that contributed to the image of Bomber Command in the years after the war.

I enjoyed the unique focus of the book, and I believe that anyone who is an avid student of air combat in this period will find it interesting also. I do not recommend this book as the only history of Bomber Command that might be read, anyone but a media specialist will want more depth and information. For its unique focus, the book is readable, fair, informative, and clearly the result of a great deal of work.