Customer Reviews

Those Who Fall

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I have read this book numerous times since I first purchased it ten years ago. The emotion of the author is felt each time I read it. A very honest and realistic portrayal. My favorite book on the subject You will not be disappointed.

I have read this book several times since it was published in the 1980s. It remains one of my favorite first person accounts of WWII. The book contains much excellent writing - I think the author was something of a poet and a philosopher, in addition to being an excellent observer. It was interesting to read about the 15th Air Force in Italy for a change, as so much has been written about 8th Air Force in England. I found the author's descriptions of flying to be very accurate and evocative, and the descriptions of friends he flew with to be vivid and interesting.
Recently I saw " Those Who Fall " included in a list of the ten best war narratives to come out of WW II. It doesn't surprise me a bit.

The author was a B17 pilot in the Italian theater (and points east), and waited roughly forty years to write his memoirs. He's had a lot of time to think about his experiences, and so the fairly prosaic "and so then I set engine #3 to run lean and descended to 7,000 feet" passages are liberally seasoned with much more meditative, thoughtful, but sometimes frankly over-written pieces.

The meditative pieces are sometimes over-written and amateurish, but sometimes beautiful and elegaic - there are some passages that I would re-read three or four times before proceeding, some that I've clipped for my wall - a very rare thing for me.