The willingness and dedication required to write a book that aims to explain W.W.II aerial warfare, technology and sociology and promote it to an audience that has had little to no ‘formal’ education in the subject is laudable. Indeed, to some extent it’s also a thankless task as there’s a fair chance the finished product will be read by the ‘converted’, who are ‘programmed’ to react to such things on bookshelves, and fall on deaf ears elsewhere. To stand any chance, however, means what is recounted needs to be accurate and the author really needs to be on point with regard to knowledge and understanding. Of Sons and Skies presents a lot of information, but its delivery tends to dilute the impact somewhat.
Written in a clippy, irreverent style, it is clear who the intended audience is as the author (using a nom de plume) invites the reader to embark on a journey with him. From pre-war RAF efforts to modernise, through to the many early failures, several early victories and a focus on the eventual behemoth that Bomber Command became, the narrative is largely built around period newspaper headlines with contextual discussion and clarification weaved in by the author.
It is a courageous effort and gets the point across with regard to the massive investments and resources consumed, and never forgets, reinforces even, the sacrifices made by thousands. However, as broad as the subject seems, the book’s focus is quite narrow. It rarely leaves Europe. Other theatres are mentioned in passing and, when they are, the details are incorrect. Japan invading Burma in 1940 is mentioned twice, Yamamoto was intercepted off the ‘Pacific coast’ and the Cocos (Keeling) Islands are in the South Pacific.
Many aspects of aerial warfare are discussed, including minutiae like tyres etc, but the narrative is all over the place as a result. At one stage, it switches from a quality, sobering assessment of the bombing of Sheffield to aircrew clothing to flak.
Aviation knowledge is a bit light on too, with baling out at 500 feet being ideal, Ford being responsible for the Liberator, ‘Quantas’, and the Lancaster, besides being in 99% of all BC vignettes (the Halifax is mentioned twice in one paragraph and the Mosquito is mentioned several times, otherwise, from what I remember and noted, it’s all Lancasters), being particularly tricky to fly because it had a tendency to swing on take-off (like all tail-draggers i.e. every other primary bomber type used extensively by Bomber Command during its more than five year war). On top of all that is the fact that the style is just too irreverent. For example, the Germans made “quite a mess” of Coventry, Goebbels is referred to as “PGG” (“Propaganda Guru Goebbels") and at one stage Hitler puts on his “master-race jimjams”. It’s clear the author is trying to keep things light and moving, but there’s just some things, unless you're writing something akin to ‘Dad’s Army’ or ‘Allo Allo’, where everything is a caricature or stereotype, where the effort to make them amusing is a waste of effort and bordering on misleading. Doing so loses some of the gravity in the narrative and of the subject.
There is a lot of detail here, and considerable graft, although no index or photos, but it would be a far more effective read if there was less effort spent on trying to be clever for the reader.
ISBN 978-1-9998944-2-9
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