In this historical account of the air wars, General Curtis LeMay is pitted against Carl Norten, the Dutchman who almost singehandedly developed a bombsight, that aimed to allow precision accuracy bombing of enemy targets in daylight from 30,000 feet. In contrast, the carpet bombing of broad areas of cities without discriminating civilians from military targets, advocated and employed widely by LeMay was justified in his mind because it would end the war faster. The best examples of the devastation wrought by this is the Allied bombing of Dresden and LeMay’s B-29 bombing of Tokyo in 1945 which killed more civilians in one night than did the atomic bomb of Hiroshima.
Although LeMay’s indiscriminate bombing was not morally justified by today’s standards, he was widely praised, and reliable precision targeting only became a reality much later, with radar, heat sensing and GPS guided bombs, the horrors of all wars is starkly outlined in this book, and Carl Norton has never been adequately acknowleged for his efforts.
This is not the best of Malcolm Gladwell’s books nor the worst. It will be of interest mostly to military historians and planners.
3.5/5
The Passionate Reader 