The Wild Blue: The Men and Boys Who Flew the B-24s Over Germany 1944-45

The prologue to Wild Blue illustrates the constraints to flying a B-24. The very first sentence sets the stage, "The B-24 was built like a 1930s Mack Truck, except that it had an aluminum skin that could be cut with a knife" (p 21). Ambrose goes on to describe the lack of windshield wipers, heat, bathrooms, pressurization, kitchen facilities, or even room to move. Sometimes the airmen are too large for their assigned compartments and had to remove their parachutes in order to fit. Immediately upon reading this you sense the difficulties these airmen faced just flying these planes - never mind the additional dangers of flak, combat, even the weather. Chapter One introduces you to the men (in some most cases, mere boys) responsible for show more flying these dangerous machines. While Ambrose lists many different individuals, his main focus is on the pilots, bombardiers, navigators, radio operators and gunners. With the help of interviews with veterans like George McGovern, Ambrose takes you into the cockpit of every "Dakota Queen" McGovern flew. Subsequent chapters of Wild Blue take us through training, combat missions, D-Day, and the final mission of April 1945. There is a semi-Cinderella happy ending to Wild Blue that was almost too good to be true, but I believed it. show less

A rather weak and unworthy effort by Stephen Ambrose, barely comparable to his other books. This book suffers from truthiness and a lack of focus. Ambrose is invested in propagating the Greatest Generation myth. By omission and commission, he offers a wrong picture of history. True, the WWII soldiers were young boys - but so were the soldiers in any other war from the boy colonel in the US Civil War to the baby-faced tankers in the Iraq War. Ambrose's exceptional claim simply is no such thing. The same is true about the mix of the boys from coast to coast. Read any US Civil War account to get a similar picture. Ambrose also paints a too rosy picture about US officers. Can you really hold up Joseph "Catch 22" Heller's claim that there show more were no bad officers with a straight face? These are minor points.

The major distortion, Ambrose engages in, is propagating the effectiveness of strategic bombing. The bombs destroyed many lives and much property, but it didn't cripple the German war engine. Ambrose should have realized this, when he describes the effects on the air raids on Ploesti: Only the Soviet ground forces deprived the Germans of those crucial fuel supplies. The real value of the US airforce was its tactical ground support as flying artillery. This message clashes with Ambrose's intent on glorifying the strategic bomber pilots.

Ambrose further weakens his book by choosing George McGovern as its main protagonist. Through no fault of his own, McGovern enters active war only in the final months of 1944, when the war in Europe was all but over. Whether McGovern and his crew dropped their bombs or not on target, had no effect on the outcome of the war. Furthermore, McGovern's squadron was stationed in Italy, thus in a sideshow theater of war.

Published in 2001 for 26 USD, this book was bought remaindered for 5.34 USD in a Borders store in leafy Scarsdale, NY during 2003, crossed the Atlantic and ended up in a Zurich, Switzerland, used bookstore where I bought it in 2010 for 3.50 CHF/3.75 USD. After the quick plunge, the book manages to tenaciously hold on to its remaining value. show less

Crafty way Ambrose used George McGovern as a proxy for thousands of men who flew B-24s in WWII....personalizes the experience for all of us. The book comprises many small stories, all tied together in a way that makes the reader believe. It's all about the B-24 and the men who flew it. There are many people in the book and sometimes I found myself asking: "who is it, again?" There is some discussion of the argument between strategic bombing and tactical support of the Army--the reason we have a U.S. Air Force.

I finished Stephen Ambrose’s, The Wild Blue: The Men And The Boys Who Flew The B-24’s Over Germany. A short book of only 263 pages. The Title would indicate that this is a history of the use of B-24’s in Europe but it instead focuses on the George McGovern later a senator and presidential candidate who was part of 15th Air Force based out of Italy and his drive to complete his 35 missions so he could rotate home.

A nice niche history but not a big picture of either the 15th Air For e or the use of B-24’s use in Europe. A nice read that is worth your time but probably better to first read a larger history of the use of strategic air in Europe first.

I will rate it as a 4 * read for what the book is, not what it isn’t.

Stephen Ambrose has produced some excellent books - Undaunted Courage, an account of the Lewis and Clark expedition is outstanding - but this historical work felt 'put together', and somehow unconsidered. Still, a worthy tale and not without merit - particularly good description of wartime bombing missions.

Stephen E. Ambrose, acclaimed author of Band of Brothers and Undaunted Courage, carries us along in the crowded and dangerous B-24s as their crews fought to destroy the German war machine during World War II.…it is more a biography about George McGovern, U.S. Senator and Presidential Candidate… Very little time is spent with any of the other crewmen or the wider 741 Squadron…it’s hardly non-biased stuff. As Ambrose says in the author’s note: ‘I have been a friend and supporter of George McGovern for nearly three decades’.

The young men who flew the B-24s over Germany in World War II fought against horrific odds, and, in The Wild Blue, Ambrose recounts their extraordinary heroism, skill, daring, and comradeship with vivid show more detail and affection.

Ambrose describes how the Army Air Forces recruited, trained, and selected the elite few who would undertake the most demanding and dangerous jobs in the war. These are the boys—turned pilots, bombardiers, navigators, and gunners of the B-24s—who suffered over fifty percent casualties.

With his remarkable gift for bringing alive the action and tension of combat, Ambrose carries us along in the crowded, uncomfortable, and dangerous B-24s as their crews fought to the death through thick black smoke and deadly flak to reach their targets and destroy the German war machine. Twenty-two-year-old George McGovern, who was to become a United States senator and a presidential candidate, flew thirty-five combat missions (all the Army would allow) and won the Distinguished Flying Cross. We meet him and his mates, his co-pilot killed in action, and crews of other planes. Many went down in flames. show less

A well-focused little history. It gives a good overview of the B-24's significance and its contributions to the war in Europe, as well as a moving glimpse into the lives and stories of specific men and crews. The book centers on George McGovern, whose experiences as a bomber pilot were remarkable for a reader yet not unusual among his fellows. I emerged with respect and admiration for the man (as well as a wistful curiosity about what his presidency would have been like).

I've mostly read about the ground war in Europe (and heard about it from my grandfather) so this book was an intriguing look at a very different side of the war. It's a fairly quick read, not at all overloaded with aviation jargon, and full of interesting anecdotes and show more events that I was forced to immediately relate to my unwary friends and family. show less