Content area
Full Text
Courage and Air Warfare: The Allied Aircrew Experience in the Second World War. By Mark K. Wells. Portland, Ore.: Frank Cass, 1995. Illustrations. Bibliography. Index. Pp. xiv, 240. $40.00.
This is a remarkably well-documented study of how aircrew members in both fighters and bombers in the Eighth Air Force and RAF Bomber Command during World War II responded to the stresses imposed by air combat. The author asks what led some men to break and others to muster the strength to carry on? The stresses were many. Consider this appalling incident: a bomber pilot flying in tight formation, in itself a demanding effort, sees the plane just ahead of him explode when hit by flak. A body comes flying back into the number two propeller and is splattered all over his windshield. To see...