(British Lancaster Bomber)

The bombing of civilians during wartime and the concept of “collective guilt;” particularly today with events in Gaza is very controversial.  The moral dilemma and the psychological component are aptly portrayed in Kurt Vonnegut’s work, SLAUGHTERHOUSE FIVE as well as in non-fiction offerings such as historians Richard Overy’s THE BOMBERS AND THE BOMBED: ALLIED AIRWAR OVER EUROPE, 1940-1945; Frederick Taylor’s  DRESDEN: TUESDAY FEBRUARY 13, 1945, AND COVENTRY NOVEMBER 14, 1940; Jorg Friedrich’s THE BOMBING OF GERMANY 1940-1945; and Keith Lowe’s INFERNO:THE FIERY DESTRUCTION OF HAMBURG 1943.  These accounts are accurate and extremely impactful.

Four decades ago, probably the most precise novel dealing with the air war over Germany was Len Deighton’s BOMBER.  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.  It focuses on an RAF attack on a German city of Krefeld that went wrong resulting in the bombing of the village of Altgarten and the German pilots who met them in the air.

The main characters are RAF pilot, Sergeant Sam Lambert, one of England’s best pilots, and German ace, Oberleutnant Baron Victor von Lowenherz.  Deighton develops these fictional characters very carefully integrating their private lives, members of their squad, and their views about the war.  Deighton’s detail is exceptional, from the Operations room, mental and mechanical preparations of the pilots, strategies, aircraft design and capabilities.  Deighton goes as far as charting the arc of survival for pilots based on the number of missions flown, in addition to factoring the cost of each bomber that was launched on June 31.  In all areas the author’s diligence and knowledge of air campaigns is remarkable as is his precise depictions of planes, weapons, and behind the scenes war strategy.

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. A number stand out including Sergeant Simon Cohen, Flight Sergeants Battersby and Digby all members of Lambert’s squad.  Christian Himmel, a twenty-two year old experienced German pilot who steals and leaks information concerning “freezing” experiments of Jews at Dachau to assist German aviators who were shot down in freezing climates.  Flight Lieutenant Sweet, Commander of Lambert’s group who believes his underling is too pro-communist.  Johannes Iif, a fireman in Altgarten who experienced the fire-bombing of Cologne, an anti-Nazi who was an expert on British ordinance. Gerd Boll and Oberzugtuhrer Bodo Reuter who were in charge of damage control in Altgarten after the waves of British attack planes.  Luftwaffe Oberleutnant August Bach, commander of radar station “Ermine” who falls in love with his young housekeeper.  Willi Reinecke, Bach’s second in command, and lastly, Hansil, a German boy in the small market town of Altgarten.  There are numerous other characters who scheme, plot, fall in love, and experience life as normally as possible based on their situation.  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.

(British bombing of Dresden, 1943)

The author makes many insightful observations.  First, the social class component involving aviators and those that work with them.  Certain characters find it abhorrent that bakers, miners, milkmen, firemen, etc. can become pilots.  These individuals cannot accept the ranks members of the “lower class” achieve but are forced to work with them.  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.  He points out correctly that Hitler was running out of soldiers and teenagers from the Hitlergund were forced to fight in combat roles.  There are also observations pertaining to pilot attitudes toward the rear echelon bureaucrats who made strategic decisions far from the air war provoking aviator anger.  The pettiness of certain individuals is clear, i.e.; trying to force Lambert’s wife, Ruth to convince her husband to play cricket for the company team or he would be prosecuted for supposed leftist views.  These are just a few insights, there are many more.

Deighton compares Krefeld, the German city, which was the original target of RAF planes, a city known for heavy industry, textiles, light industry, communications in the Ruhr Valley, and Altgarten, the unfortunate victim of RAF error, a sleepy village made up of mostly wooden structures with no wartime industry.  As the 700 RAF planes are launched, Deighton focuses on the arial combat in a realistic fashion.  However, the German pilots are not able to prevent the disaster that was about to fall on the small German village.  Throughout the aerial scenes that Deighton develops, realism is the key allowing the reader to feel that they are aboard RAF or Luftwaffe aircraft.

The British strategy to send hundreds of planes, night after night, to bomb the civilian areas of German cities was based on the decisions of Arthur Harris, head of the RAF Bomber Command.  As Malcom Gladwell writes in his review of the reissuance of BOMBER; “Harris was resolutely unsentimental about his decision. He once wrote that it “should be unambiguously stated” that the RAF’s goal was “the destruction of German cities, the killing of German workers, and the disruption of civilized life throughout Germany … the destruction of houses, public utilities, transport and lives, the creation of a refugee problem on an unprecedented scale.” His nickname was “Butcher” Harris, a sobriquet employed with a certain grudging respect, on the understanding that butchers can be useful in times of war. Harris was a psychopath. Twenty-five thousand people in Cologne once burned to death, in one night, on his orders.” According to British novelist Vera Brittain the people of England acquiesced to his decision because they did not have the imagination to appreciate what those deadly bombing campaigns meant to those on the ground.*

I agree with Gladwell that Deighton’s BOMBER is perhaps the greatest antiwar novels that has  been written.  It may come across as a bit dated, but in reality it is a superb account of aerial combat and the people whose lives depended upon it.  For the author one of his goals was to convey the dehumanizing effects of mechanical warfare, a goal he clearly achieved.

*Malcom Gladwell, “Bomber” is one of the Greatest British antiwar novels ever written,” Wsahington Post, August 18, 2023.