Bomber

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There are numerous other characters who scheme, plot, fall in love, and experience life as normally as possible based on their situation. While reading Len Deighton’s Bomber (1970), I was reminded of Solzhenitsyn’s line – ‘To do evil a human being must first of all believe that what he’s doing is good. Before a single bomb falls, you must push through dozens of subplots, as these people make their unknowing journey to doom. Describing a single raid on the night of 31 June 1943 (a date calendar watchers will know never occurred), this is a comprehensive look at the kind of event that had taken on a near-ritualistic nature by this stage of the war.

Although he has written scores of novels, history and military history, and many cookbooks, Deighton is probably best known for the ten books about MI6 intelligence officer Bernard Samson. The book takes place in a time frame of 24 hours in the summer of 1943 when 600 British bombers go for Krefeld in the Ruhr. A short list of (the hundreds of) characters would include: Lambert and the men of Creaking Door, obviously; the unscrupulous Flight Lieutenant Sweet, who keeps plucking Lambert’s crew to fly on his own plane; Lambert’s wife Ruth, who serves in the auxillary; a dozen other men and women – pilots, crew, ground crew, townspeople – of the airfield at Warley Fen and its nearby village; August Bach, who commands a Luftwaffe radar station; Bach’s mistress, who lives in the town of Altgarten; the mayor, fire chief, and residents (including Jews) of Altgarten; and Victor Lowenherz, a German night-fighter pilot (along with the many other men of the base). It has been several days since I finished reading and I am still thinking about the characters and the final moments painted so vividly by Deighton. Luftwaffe Oberleutnant August Bach, commander of radar station “Ermine” who falls in love with his young housekeeper.Len Deighton was born in 1929, and is perhaps most famous for his novel The IPCRESS File, which was turned into a film starring Micheal Caine in 1965. It is the fictionalised account of "the events relating to the last flight of an RAF Bomber over Germany on the night of June 31st, 1943", [1] a deliberately non-existent date, in which an RAF bombing raid on the Ruhr area of western Germany goes wrong. In the dark, with the kind of rudimentary bomb aiming gear that they had, that was incredibly difficult to do, as well as bad news for the people underneath, many of whom were in villages short of the target. On the one hand, the detail is mind-boggling in its rigour, whether it be the exact cost of a Lancaster bomber, the colour of the dashboard lights on a German night fighter or the arrangement of sewage pipes in a German town. His spy novels chart the twists and turns of Britain and the Cold War in ways which now give them a unique flavour.

You can unsubscribe from our list at any point by changing your preferences, or contacting us directly. Deighton continuously points to the experiences of German soldiers and aviators on the eastern front which creates a great deal of sarcasm and anti-Nazi commentary among those who survived Stalin’s armies.The book has recently been reissued depicting an RAF Squadron in devastating detail over a 24 hour period, June 31, 1943, a date the author created. Deighton obviously has done his homework in showing how one massive,confused attack on a German town in the Summer of 1943 devastates everyone involved from the British RAF planners and pilots, politicians, and even more the German civilian home front, not to mention just about everyone else on the German side,from the SS,Luftwaffe, to the totally innocent on the ground. It’s driven on (as your life would be, if you were part of that crew) by this remorseless determination to join the bomber stream; to evade, if possible, the attentions of the gunners and the night fighters; to plant your bombs as close as possible.

Deighton does well in creating background biographies for all the major characters he introduces which provides insight into their emotions and reactions to the war, air combat preparations, and human relationships. set in a Cornish tin mine, and although he modestly referred to it as a whodunit he had inserted the description “a psychological study in depth of the mind of the criminally insane” into the publisher’s blurb. Near Fine condition book, no markings, no spotting or browning, spine ends a little pushed, in Very Good Plus jacket which is moderately faded to the spine and has a little rubbing at the extremities. Maybe this is Len Deighton's supreme achievement, and if so it's no wonder that Amis and Burgess should have shown this novel such high regard.

As the raid reaches its climax, Deighton erases that distinction, and switches rapidly between the bombers and the bombed. Himmel steals the results from an experiment and sends copies to other officers including Hermann Göring; he is sure that the Reichsmarschall will stop such disgraces to the air force's honour once he learns of them, although Löwenherz doubts that that will happen. By subscribing to Pushkin+ or purchasing an audiobook, you are agreeing to be bound by Pushkin’s Terms of Service and Privacy Policies and to be added to Pushkin’s mailing list.

The bombing of civilians during wartime and the concept of “collective guilt;” particularly today with events in Gaza is very controversial. Could possibly be considered by some to be an anti-war book since it shows the folly of the fictitious raid and the horrible cost in human sacrifice - to what end? When that tension is finally released, it does so by way of some of the most harrowing descriptions of combat you’re likely to read. The bombs are loaded into the Lancasters, the German radars "warm up", and the fighter pilots adjust their night vision. Though there is no glory in war, the book is filled with individual acts of selflessness and heroism that elevate the participants above the slaughter.

spine bumped, top edge pink, fore edge toned with scattered spotting, very good in Raymond Hawkey dust jacket with several edge chips and one closed tear; 494 pages. The rest of us will regard [Len Deighton’s thrillers] as carefully crafted literary fiction — intelligent books packed with grit, wit, sharp dialogue, and well-drawn characters, books that explore geopolitical tensions, class division, and the human capacity for secrecy and subterfuge while maintaining high levels of intrigue and suspense. Deighton creates an enormous cast that includes airmen, soldiers, firemen, nurses, doctors, wives and civilians of all descriptions which lends itself to an intricate plot despite the fact that the story is developed within the confines of one day. Should be mandatory reading for anybody who claims to have an interest in improving the lot of humanity… politicians, I’m looking at you.