Customer Reviews

A Real Good War

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Sam Halpert vividly describes the sheer terror faced by B-17 bomber crews flying over Germany during World War II. Indeed, dodging flak bursts and German fighter planes was only part of the horror. Flying in formations so tight that any given bomber was likely to crash and burn in each mission was another part. Mr. Halpert's striking account of such terror scared even me.

Mr. Halpert also does a wonderful job of putting into words the thoughts and feelings of those who flew the missions. From the early morning wake-up calls, to crazy off-base antics, few books or movies have allowed me such an intimate glimpse of the life of a World War II soldier. One such book that I recommend is "Rendezvous in the Coral Sea," by Randolph Chitwood.

And so I say thanks to Mr. Halpert for writing this story. Thanks for your sacrifice and for telling it like it was. And thanks to the men who didn't make it back.

This is one of the best WWII aviation books I have ever read. It focuses not only on the specifics of the missions, but gets deeply involved in the psycology of this navigator. Besides finishing it in two or three sittings (a record for myself), it is the first book that really scared me by revealing the true horrors of WWII aviation.

Although a novel, "A Real Good War" reads like a memoir. Halpert's biography indicates he survived 35 missions over Europe during WW2 and his expertise borne of that experience certainly makes itself felt throughout this book. The navigator's point of view feels authentic and he makes no bones about being scared from beginning to end which is not a theme or motif, but the point: fear MAY keep you alive; bravado certainly won't.

The book is strongest on the base (Bassingbourne) and when the 91st is in the air. Halpert lays out the routines used by both the brass and the fliers themselves to get from mission to mission...but strictly from the point of view of survival. There are no ruminations of the purpose of the war, or the reasons for death unless the latter's appearance is imminent. Then is feels random. There may have been no atheists in foxholes during WW2, but there were just as few political or moral philosophers in Flying Fortresses it would seem.

The narrator is 20 and besides the bombardier, his best friend is his bunk. American brass and German flak are his enemies. Most of his other "crewmates" (which are constantly in flux,) and German fighters put in appearances, but their presence is far sketchier than I would have imagined when I opened the book.

The book is written in a more or less terse, straightforward prose, but there are times when the dialogue runs too long. Between the allusions to what's happening in the war itself, (Battle of the Bulge) and the omnipresent mission count (i.e. 17 more to go...) we always know about where we are on the timeline. This stucture works, but "A Real Good War" doesn't have a deep story arc. It's a slice of life survival story, pure and simple, and therefore feels more memoir-like than fictive.

As a novel it's most frustrating when the crew is off base because Halpert develops subplots that ultimately go nowhere, like most wartime romances, the reader supposes. For the brief time we linger in bars and bedrooms the writing is evocative enough, but not so much in any tactile sense, as in the boy's guilelessness. For obvious reasons there are allusions to Rita Hayworth, Ida Lupino, Betty Grable, Ingrid Bergman and others, but their images are remote beacons. There is adolescent posturing, particularly at the outset, but the book depicts the '40s as a time before media saturation made adopting a specific attitude necessary. You only pretended to be Errol Flynn if you were actually leading the squadron.

If you want an insight into what it must have been like to be a B-17 navigator hanging on by the skin of your teeth for at least 35 attempts on your life, then this may be the book for you. As Yossarian points out in "Catch-22", "The Germans are trying to kill me," and this book never loses sight of that first person point of view, but neither does it climb to greater rhetorical or philosphical heights. It's a down to earth reminder that for those directly involved at the time, WW2 was a WAR first and "Good" only a very, very distant second. But hey, there's always a catch, right?

That's the question in my mind when I read this book. The descriptions of what it was like to fly B-17 combat missions will leave you wondering how they got up the next day and did it again. Thank God, guys like in this book, did. A great read grab this book today.

This is not an easy book to put down! If you think you know a thing or two about the WWII allied air campaign, this book will take you there. Sam fleshes out the experience of being navigator aboard a B-17 bomber through 35 missions into enemy territory, with vivid descriptions of everything from the precarious logistics of assembling hundreds of bombers into tight formation, to the paralyzing, palpable fear brought on by German flack and Focke-Wulfs at 25000 ft, to the hi-jinks and motley characters that make up life on the ground. packed with episodes that are by turn hair-raising, humorous, and often too strange for fiction, this is an altogether great read.

I just finished reading TALES OF WELLS FARGO , truley Wells Fargo is a symbol of the early pioneer West and were all over United States.It was first Published IN 1958. I will say it is one of the most Injoyble Series of short stories i have read.Starting from Billy the Kid, Bob Dawson, Belle Starr, Sam Bass and many others, these are the eye witness accounts of the Special Agent of the Wells Fargo Jim Hardie.Which became a Television Series by the same name starring Dale Robertson. It is on the same line as another TV Series which came called LEGENDS of the OLD WEST starring Jim Davis as Matt Clark Railroad Detective.Frank Gurber is the man who writes in a way that when you read his stories you feel as if you are part of the story too.

Although fictionalized,Sam Halpern's book is a vivid account of what it must have been like to be a member of a B-17 bomber crew in 1943-44. The characters and their experiences seem very true to life. As the story unfolds one finds oneself altering opinions about various players in this extraordinary drama of bravery, fear, anger, craziness, cynicism, and fatalism. Most compelling is the main character's evolution as he seeks a way to deal with the randomness of death, the loss of close buddies, and his own survival. My father was a B-17 bomber pilot stationed at Bassingbourn during the same time period of the book and about the same age as Halpern's main character, although he stayed on to fly 52 missions and survive. He rarely talked about his war-time experiences, and after reading Halpern's book I can see why he would choose not to share such memories with his daughters. I recommend this book highly and thank its author for reminding us of the grueling constancy and extraordinary heroism of those brave young men whose wings signalled glamor, but whose experiences brought them daily terror.

A Real Good War took a couple of chapters to lock me in but once it did I found the book a real challenge to put down. Halpert's "less is more" style is a refreshing pause from some of the painfully detailed (is skimming cheating?) bestsellers I've read recently. It is impossible for us to really share the living nightmare of a B-17 crew mandated to fly 35 missions ("the magic number") into Hell and back before they can go home. But A Real Good War brings me real close to imagining what it felt like for those thousands of seemingly expendable American boys.

What an amazing account of a day in the life of a WWII B-17 soldier. The details are what make this book great. You really feel what the soldiers feel. It not only covers the missions but the day to day life and thought processes of the soldier. A truly amazing book!!!

Can't wait for the movie :-)

The characters in this book are not nearly as fleshed out as you'd expect from good fiction (many of them, in fact, seem flat and interchangeable), but anything to do with a B17 is captivating, and for these scenes this book's a worthwhile read for anyone interested in the details and fine texture of what it was like to have bomber duty in Europe. I found the number of slangy forties expressions annoyingly excessive. It felt like the author had compiled every idiomatic phrase he could think of and substituted them for dialogue containing substance. And several expressions clanged as being closer to the 80's than the 40's. If this aspect of WWII interests you, I strongly suggest that you also read the well-written and thoroughly engaging memoir "The Fall of Fortresses" by Elmer Bendiner.