Product Description

A reissue of the acclaimed BBC Radio 4 dramatization of Len Deighton's story, recounting the horror unleashed by RAF bombers on a town in Germany in the summer of 1943. This edition is part of the BBC's range of modern classics.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #784666 in Books
• Published on: 1999-09-06
• Released on: 1999-09-06
• Number of discs: 2
• Format: Audiobook
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 2
• Binding: Audio Cassette

Customer Reviews

A valuable horror story
This book is as appropriate today as when it was first published. As an account of a single Lancaster night raid, it's without peer in portraying the lives of people enduring the horrors of war in any age. Deighton's skill at depicting characters has few matches, and the scope of this book, set in both Germany and England [as well as the skies above both] only enhances his writing abilities. Following the lives of bomber and night fighter crews as well as those living under bombardment, he shows how meaningless war is to the most hawkish adherents. It's not possible to read this book without being moved by how well Deighton sees into the minds and hearts of his characters. None of them are false or overdrawn.

'Strategic' bombing was implemented to maintain pressure on the Nazis in the hope of forcing sufficient discontent among the population. John Dos Passos once wrote on the futility of using 'terror' bombing to bring surrender of a people whose loved ones were killed and their homes destroyed. Bomber shows how barren this strategy truly was. It didn't work when London was blitzed. It certainly failed when even target cities were missed completely due to unforeseen circumstances. Deighton takes us step by step from the preparation of the aircraft and the defenses countering it through the raid and its aftermath. His portrayal of the 'military mind' is disconcerting when we reflect that the same attitudes prevail with little or no evidence of improvement. This book should be brought back on the active list and read by anyone seeing armed conflict as a mechanism of policy. [stephen a. haines - Ottawa, Canada]

A truly great book
Kingsley Amis called this one of the best ten books of the 20th century, and I'm not going to argue. Deighton normally writes agreeable spy and war fiction, but this is on a higher plane (no pun intended). The story of Creaking Door, Joe for King, The Volkswagen and all the other Lancasters flying out of Warley Fen seems to have tapped a deep root of emotion in Deighton, leading him to write a book that for sheer emotional engagement has few parallels. He writes above himself consistently, making the characters live - and die - for you in a way few if any writers could equal. The story is by turns amusing, interesting, and in the end horrifying. I find it hard to believe that anyone could read this without being deeply moved. If Deighton could write like this all the time, he would be acclaimed as one of the greatest novelists of the age; he never reaches such heights in any other work, but I for one am glad he did it once.

The audiobook of the 1995 BBC radio adaptation is (if possible) even better, being quite simply one of the finest examples of radio drama ever produced; Deighton's powerful story is interwoven with comments from real veterans of the bombing campaign (British and German) and the terrific acting, incredible atmosphere and superb adaptation combine into a solid gold masterpiece. Buy both book and CD, and enhance the quality of your library.

If audiobooks won prizes...
This really is the best dramatisation of a book I've ever listened to. At first I thought 'Another WWII tale - can there be anything here I haven't heard before'? Well, there was. Most people know of the horrendous suffering caused by bombing cities in WWII, but I hadn't realised until I listened to this what an ordeal it was to be in the bombers themselves. As one airman says, 'If my mother had known I'd go through this she would never have had me'. The story is gripping from start to finish, with just enough complexity to keep you interested, but not so much that you get confused. The characters, both English and German, are very well voiced, and the sound effects contribute to the story - it's one of those rare adaptations where having the story dramatised really adds something to it. Be warned though - this really should carry a '15' certificate as the descriptions of the effects of the raid, and the German attempts to shoot down the bombers, are almost unbearable to listen to - but you can't stop listening because you want to find out how it ends. At the beginning, Field Marshal Sir Arthur Harris, in charge of Bomber Command, states 'I will level the whole of Germany if it is necessary'. By the end, you still can't decide one way or the other if you agree with him or not, the dramatisation captures the utter pointlessness, cruelty and horror of war so well. Should one sympathise with the innocent German civilians - who support a vile regime experimenting on concentration camp victims? Or the allies, willing to sacrifice hundreds of young men and innocent civilians in order to secure victory? Listen to the tape and you'll see what I mean - it should be required listening for anyone studying WWII.