Customer Reviews

STRATOFORTRESS: The Story of the B-52

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(1)
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Martin W. Bowman's STRATOFORTRESS: THE STORY OF THE B-52 (1844152340, $50.00) covers the Boeing Stratofortress, another highly notable US craft which was introduced in the late 1950s. It's been updated numerous times over the decades, and chapters follow its evolving design, concept, different models, and history, including source material accounts from pilots and military men who flew the plane in battles. Accompany the history and battle survey are many original photos taken aboard B-52 during a recent visit by the author to their American base, with details on production versions polished models.

This book is one of the most comprehensive B-52 books I have seen. A lot of never-before seen pictures and very comprehensive history of the B-52's role in Vietnam, Desert Storm, and Operation Enduring Freedom.

I liked this book because it delivers a good balance of old information, along with new and up to date info on current B-52 combat operations.The author also provided some rare pictures that I found interesting. Good job!

The B-52 is an amazing airplane, having been in service for such a long time that it has become legendary, and this book describes it beautifully. The text is very descriptive, and the photos well chosen.

Martin Bowman is an excellent author, and this is a very well done book on the history of the B-52, pretty much up to the present day, as far as major operational service. This book certainly brought back some memories.

As a participant in the Air Force Art Program in the 1970's and 80's, I was at Andersen AFB on Guam during the Linebacker II missions in December 1972. So I read with great interest the chapter "Linebacker and the Eleven-day War" on that part of B-52 history. I don't think at the time I was made aware (and rightly so) of the complete extent of the risks involved and aircraft losses that were being encountered. This is very well described in this chapter, and it was interesting to read about what I had experienced on Guam back then. The 3-ship "cells" were taking off, as I remember, every half hour all during the night, and sleep was a luxury, if you could get it.

Later, in 1981, I was very lucky to have an 8-hour training flight in a B-52G out of Castle AFB in Merced, California. We did the whole scenario: aerial refuelling over Oregon, then up into Idaho for low-level runs, up a hill and down into a valley, a fantastic flight (and a long one, but this is one of the B-52's great values, designed into it from the start, and a big reason why it has lasted so long). On my website at www.bauschdesign.com is a painting I did for the Air Force as a result of this flight. It depicts the low-level part of that flight.

Anyway, this is a very good book to have if you are interested in the B-52. I would consider it a necessity.

I have quite a few books by Martin Bowman, mainly about British aircraft, and am a fan of his writing. It was therefore somewhat of a disappointment that this B-52 book has a fair amount of text errors in it, mainly typographical, like it was not carefully proof read. I think Pen and Sword are a good publisher, and can do better (and they have, and they should). Martin Bowman deserves better!

I usually am always happy with my Aviation book choices but this one was not what I hoped for; too many stories and not enough facts; it was boring so I returned it to Amazon. Hopefully one day I will find the B-52 book I am looking for.