In submitting this review I must disclose that I am a complete novice about any and all the topical matters that were covered in this very scholarly presentation. Were I more experienced in reference to the subject matter, I may well have chosen to give it a 5-Star rating, rather than the 4-Star+ that I've given. The subject matter of this book relates to events that took place when I was a small child, unaware of the totality of the events accompanying WWII, although I was certainly aware of the fact that the U.S. was engaged in a momentous conflict against Germany and Japan.
I found it necessary to reread segments of the book primarily to be sure I understood the technical aspects that were being covered by the author.
My interest in this book arose because I wanted to learn more about how a first cousin had been killed in this war. At the time all the information was censored and since that time some of the information has been lost. I did find the exact account of my cousin's last flight within this book and I must say that the author covered the incident (a B-24 Aircraft Crash) in great detail, thereby answering many lingering questions that I've had throughout the nearly 69 years since his death. The entire book is very well documented; the reader should be advised to reference the annotated notes while in the process of reading the text, in order to gain the maximum benefit from the information presented.
Throughout the book the names of aircraft crew members are generally omitted, unless that individual is the aircraft commander/or commander of a vessel. Included as part of the documentation are 9 appendices plus 3 pages listing abbreviations (or acronyms) used by the author pertaining to both the U.S. and British military organizations that were directly involved in the campaigns being reported upon. There are some rudimentary map illustrations, but I did feel that I would have benefited from a somewhat more comprehensive group of maps, insofar as these campaigns took place in a part of the world that I've never visited (off the coast of Great Britain and off the coast of North Africa).
In summarizing I would suggest that portions of this book would probably only excite a reader with a keen interest in engineering, while other portions of the book would certainly engage the curiosity of the psychologist and the historian.
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