Out of the Italian Night: Wellington Bomber Operations, 1944-45 - Book Review

Air & Space Power Journal, Winter, 2003 by James Gates

Out of the Italian Night: Wellington Bomber Operations, 1944-45 by Maurice G. Lihou. Crowood Press/Airlife Publishing (http://www.crowoodpress.co.uk/780/index.asp), The Stable Block, Crowood Lane, Ramsbury, Wiltshire, United Kingdom SN8 2HR, 2003, 208 pages, $16.95 (softcover).

Bombers over Berlin: The RAF Offensive, November 1943-March 1944 by Alan W. Cooper. Crowood Press/Airlife Publishing, 2003, 320 pages, $19.95 (softcover).

Although the American air effort in World War II is fairly well known to those of us "on this side of the pond," we have less appreciation for the British night operations. Maurice Lihou's Out of the Italian Night and Alan Cooper's Bombers over Berlin, however, go a long way towards erasing that deficit. Although both books have been published in Britain, these 2003 printings by Airlife make them available in the United States for the first time.

As World War II recedes into the past and veterans of that conflict pass away, memoirs like Out of the Italian Night become even more valuable. Choosing to tell his story in third person, Lihou doesn't sugarcoat his actions or emotions. For instance, although he hoped to hit the cities he was tasked to bomb, the nature of technology and the inaccuracy of attacking at night inevitably led to civilian casualties. He juxtaposes his worry over hurting civilians with the absolute thrill he felt in combat, reveling in the excitement and danger of flying over hostile territory while subject to enemy flak and attacks from night fighters. British units encountered these problems and others as well--midair collisions and difficulties with nighttime navigation, for example.

Lihou begins his narrative with the departure flight from England to North Africa and proceeds chronologically until late in the war, when malaria strikes him down. Stuck in the hospital in Italy while his crew rotates home, the author uses dais pause in the narrative to flash back to his training days in Canada--a brilliant technique that makes reading the book very enjoyable.

Alan Cooper's Bombers over Berlin, which utilizes a more distanced view than does Out of the Italian Night, describes all 16 raids launched by the Royal Air Force's Bomber Command in the Battle of Berlin between November 1943 and the following March. Unlike Lihou, who managed to evade the dangers he faced in Italy, the pilots flying the Lancaster bombers from Britain fell victim to midair collisions, flak, mechanical failures, and German night fighters in an offensive that ultimately cost nearly 600 aircraft and 4,000 airmen. Cooper details each mission from the perspective of a few crews that returned and a few that did not.

Bombers over Berlin is among the best combat narratives available. The book's only possible shortcoming is its tendency to remain detached from the larger aspects of aerial warfare. For instance, Cooper's method of judging each raid's effectiveness according to the tons of bombs dropped per aircraft lost seems a poor indicator of whether or not one is winning the war. Although he does list the number of people rendered homeless and factories damaged, he fails to place these effects in the larger context of their impact on the German war effort. Cooper also terms the offensive a success even though many accounts judge it a failure. These criticisms aside, Out of the Italian Night and Bombers over Berlin provide valuable insight into Great Britain's effort in the Combined Bomber Offensive and, therefore, are well worth reading.

Maj James Gates, USAF

Washington, D.C.