Since 1945, few aspects of World War II have attracted more attention than the struggle for Europe’s skies. Thousands of books have been published on the subject. A few stand out as pillars of the subject’s historiography.
No study of the Eighth Air Force can be undertaken without Roger A. Freeman’s body of work. Roger’s devoted, detailed, and massive output on the Eighth has set the standard for future generations of historians. The Mighty Eighth, The Mighty Eighth War Diary, The Mighty Eighth War Manual, The Mighty Eighth in Color, and Fighters of the Mighty Eighth were all indispensible research aids for this book.
Jay A. Stout’s The Men Who Killed the Luftwaffe (November 2010) offers a fresh and brilliant new look at the USAAF’s victory over the German Air Force. This is a book not to be missed. Eric Hammel’s The Road to Big Week is another excellent account of the 1942–1944 stretch of the strategic bombing campaign.
There are countless memoirs and biographies from veterans of the Eighth Air Force. Zemke’s Wolf Pack, by Hub Zemke with Roger Freeman, stands out in a crowded field. Staying Alive by Carl Fyler is a gem of a book that provides insight into the experience of the bomber crews. Jimmy Doolittle’s memoir, I Could Never Be So Lucky Again, is an entertaining and useful resource.
To Command the Sky: The Battle for Air Superiority Over Germany, 1942–1944 by Stephen L. MacFarland and Wesley Phillips ranks as one of the best of the new perspectives on the air war. For a more general look at the USAAF and strategic bombing, The Rise of American Air Power by Michael S. Sherry is the best single-volume account available.
Since the early 1970s, some terrific accounts of the German experience in the air war have been published. Williamson Murray’s Luftwaffe ranks as the best general work on the German Air Force. Six Months to Oblivion by Werner Girbig provides a detailed look at the Luftwaffe’s last stand as it was overwhelmed by the Allies in the final half year of the war. Alfred Price’s The Last Year of the Luftwaffe is another valuable resource on the subject. JG-7: The World’s First Jet Fighter Unit by Manfred Boehme has been one of the most important works to emerge in the past two decades. Boehme debunks many of the myths surrounding the ME-262 and provides ample research to show how those myths developed after the war. For any serious student of the air war, Boehme’s book cannot be missed, if for anything than to provide a counter-balance to Adolf Galland’s The First and the Last. Interesting personal memoirs of men who fought against the bomber streams include I Fought You From the Skies by Willi Heilmann.
The RAF side of the air war is well covered, starting with Francis K. Mason’s Battle Over Britain, a staggeringly detailed book. Derek Dempster and Derek Woods’ classic, The Narrow Margin, still rates as one of the great works on the Battle of Britain and is a must read. John Terraine’s A Time for Courage provides an excellent account of the RAF in World War II. Max Hasting’s Bomber Command remains one of the single best books on the RAF’s nocturnal offensive.
Excellent personal accounts of the air war can be found in C. F. Rawnsly and Robert Wright’s Night Fighter. Tale of a Guinea Pig by Geoffrey Page is a particularly poignant account of one member of the Few who stopped the Luftwaffe, at a terrible personal cost.
The books mentioned here represent a fraction of the sources I used for Bombs Away and which are available on the subject, but are the ones that I have found most useful or powerful over the years.
Back in 1977, as a nine year old, I found Herbert Molloy Mason Jr.’s Duel for the Sky and spent a good portion of that summer floating in my parents’ pool reading and re-reading it. It spurred my interest on the European Air War, and I’ve been collecting books on the subject ever since. This past week, as I moved my office into the old USAF air defense command center’s plotting room at Camp Adair, Oregon, I came across my well-worn copy of Mason’s book. It now sits on my son’s bookshelf in hopes that he will pick it up soon and find a rekindled passion for a subject that has already captivated two generations of Brunings. If it can be found, Duel for the Sky is the perfect introduction to World War II in the air for a young reader.