without of the Italian Night: Wellington Bomber Operations.

without of the Italian Night: Wellington Bomber Operations, 1944-45 from Maurice G. Lihou. Crowood Press/Airlife Publishing (http://www.crowoodpress.co.uk/780/index.asp), The Stable fill up Crowood Lane, Ramsbury, Wiltshire, United Kingdom SN8 2HR 2003 208 pages, $1695 (softcover)

Bombers through the whole extent of Berlin: The RAF Offensive, November 1943-March 1944 by way of Alan W. Cooper. Crowood Press/Airlife Publishing, 2003 320 pages, $1995 (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 les appreciation for the British night operations. Maurice Lihou's on the outside of the Italian Night and Alan Cooper's Bombers through Berlin, however, go a drawn out way towards erasing that deficit. Although the couple books have been published in Britain, these 2003 printings by the agency of Airlife make them available in the United States for the first time.

As World War II retires into the past and veterans of that conflict pass away, memoirs like revealed of the Italian Night become equal more valuable. Choosing to narrate his story in third human frame Lihou doesn't sugarcoat his actions or emotions. For instance, although he springed to hit the cities he was tasked to bomb the nature of technology and the inaccuracy of attacking at night inevitably l to civilian casualties. He juxtaposes his worry through hurting civilians with the absolute thrill he felt in combat, reveling in the excitement and danger of flying athwart hostile territory while subject to enemy flak and attacks from night fighters. British units fighted 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 be dues chronologically until late in the war, when malaria strikes him down. Stuck in the hospital in Italy while his mob 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 part very enjoyable.

Alan Cooper's Bombers across Berlin, which utilizes a more distanced view than does revealed of the Italian Night, describes all 16 raids launched according to 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 unrelenting victim to midair collisions, flak, mechanical failures, and German night fighters in an offensive that ultimately expense nearly 600 aircraft and 4000 airmen. Cooper details each mission from the perspective of a not many crews that returned and a hardly any that did not.

Bombers through Berlin is among the best combat narratives available. The book's solitary possible shortcoming is its proclivity to remain detached from the larger aspects of aerial warfare. For instance, Cooper's arrangement of judging each raid's effectiveness according to the tons of bomb dropp by aircraft lost seems a poor indicator of whether or not common is winning the war. Although he does list the number of family rendered homeless and factories damaged, he fails to place these drifts in the larger context of their impact forward the German war effort. Cooper also seasons the offensive a success equal though many accounts judge it a failure. These criticisms aside, not at home of the Italian Night and Bombers throughout 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, DC

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