Military Model Scene

Title: Bomb Group
Author: Paul Bingley & Mike Peters
Publisher: Casemate
ISBN: 978-1-61200-960-5

Sub-titled 'The Eighth Air Force's 381st and the Allied Air Offensive over Europe', this is a new book from Casemate Publishers. A 406-page hard-cover book, plus it is also available in digital format.
Starting from the formation of the unit in the US, their initial training in Texas and then their subsequent move to the UK and the new airbase at Ridgewell, this quickly gets into the heart of the topic, the individual stories of these young men and their B-17 aircraft, from arrival through to the end of the war in Europe. These were young men, very young for the most part, from a wide variety of backgrounds and different parts of America, who found themselves thrown together and shipped overseas for the first time and straight into a war. From their first missions they began to lose their friends. With 10-man crews, a loss of 4 aircraft meant 40 men whose bunks would remain empty that night. So many missions meant some aircraft not coming home, and even those that did would often be damaged and needing repair, and sometimes carrying dead or badly wounded crew members. With a target of 25 missions to complete a tour, a large percentage were unable to reach that number. Those that did could celebrate, and others getting close to that number would suffer from nerves and reliance on various good luck charms or routines. Early aircraft were the B-17F, over time replaced with the B-17G, which carried 2 x .50cal guns to combat the Luftwaffe tactics of head on attacks. Reading things like the briefings, you can easily imagine the groans when curtains were opened to reveal targets such as Schweinfurt, or Berlin. Intermixed with the various chapters are a number of 'intermissions', adding extra detail such as Bomb Group organisation, the Evolution of the B-17, Home Runs, Weather Gods and Safety in Numbers among others. At the end there is of course the excitement and relief when the war was finally over.
This is a collection with a host of stories. Among the many the two I think struck me most were of crewman Bud Owens, who had previously saved a groundcrew man after a B-17 exploded on the base, and his wounded radio operator on another mission, before finally losing his life in the cold of the Pyrenees, when he waited with a fellow evader trying to cross into Spain. Secondly, there is James Good Brown, the unit Chaplain. He is a recurring character throughout the book as he helped the men cope with their life on base, the waiting while a mission was in progress, and then the losses for those who did not return. Hard to imagine I think just how difficult that must have been for him. There are of course other stories which we can never know, those who never made it home. I know that today the Ridgewell base is gone, aside from a small museum dedicated to the men who once went to war from there. Most of the veterans that did survive have left us now as well. I think this is a great memorial to all those men who went to war from what is now a quiet corner of Essex. Definitely one I recommend to you.
Thanks to Casemate for the review copy.

Robin