Mike Croissant is telling in this book the stories of the bomber crews that were participating in one of the last big bomber raids on the Austrian city Linz shortly before the war ended.
In great detail the reader is involved in the horror’s that the crews had to endure during the long flight to the target and back if they made it back. Many of them died as their bomber was hit by antiaircraft guns or were attacked by German fighters, burned, shot to death or were falling to death when they were unable to leave their stricken aircraft in its doomed final dive. We follow the raid with the crews when flying their B-24 Liberator or B-17 Flying Fortress to the target, a big marshalling yard near the centre of Linz, and what happened to them after their damaged plane was trying to get back to their home base or the nearest airfield controlled by the Russians.
You get insight in how the career of the individual crew members expired, their training, motivations, preparations and the course of action during that mission. Some of them came back and could tell us their horrifying stories were some died shot on the ground, in the air or were captured and had to endure terrible treatment and tortures by the Germans. Tortures were also done by the Russians were they hoped to seek refugee after they had to jump out of their plane or crash landed. Of course there are also stories as told by the German’s residents that were bombed and the German antiaircraft crews that fought against the massive bomber attacks.
The book gets rid of the heroism that is described in many books about the war. On the contrary you can feel the fear and panic of the terrified crews many of them not much older then 21 years. Although the title suggests just a story of a big bombing raid, there is much more in this book. The author has delved deeply into the personal life and experiences of the crew members that were involved and survived. An impressive story of what happened there and then!
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