The Bomber Mafia

Five hour podcast, or rather audio book. Picked it up as a physical book from the library, but the few pictures are not worth the paper in this case - better in audiobook form. Contains interviews and other audio clips from the principle characters, along with sound effects (mostly planes and ordnance).

I generally like Gladwell books - so why two stars? The first part focuses on a group with a doctrine of high altitude daylight precision bombing, just before World War II. It discusses the Norden bombsight, and also shows how the equipment was not up to the task at that time. This group pushed back against Churchill, because the indiscriminate bombing of civilians was not working to win the war.

In the second half, the tables are turned - the equipment still isn't up to the task, and LeMay switches to bombing of civilians (with napalm) and does win the war. No solid conclusions as to whether the stubbornness of the group helped or hindered in Europe. Some discussion of the ethics of firebombing Japanese cities, but no solid conclusion - just the oft repeated "Japan wouldn't have surrendered otherwise."

Finally, in the epilog, the time for the original idea has come. The equipment is up to the task of hitting a precision target, even one portion of a single building. The simple conclusion is that the bomber mafia was right, just ahead of their time. Did I want too much from this book? The history is good, but makes up less than half of the text. I'll settle with two stars, "it was okay" - and I'm very glad I didn't buy the book. Thanks local library!