Longlisted for the Samuel Johnson Prize for Non-Fiction 2011.
Longlisted for the Guardian First Book Award 2010.
The author’s grandfather flew a Lancaster bomber in the Second World War and was shot down on a mission to Holland. The author looks in to the history of these raids but as a literature teacher is also interested in why the WWII did not seem to produce poetic works such as those of Owen and Sassoon from the first. An interesting alternative look at this period of history.
In early June 1943, James Eric Swift, a pilot with 83 Squadron of the Royal Air Force, boarded his Lancaster bomber for a night raid on Munster and disappeared. Aerial bombardment was to the Second World War what the trenches were to the First: a shocking and new form of warfare, wretched and unexpected, and carried out at a terrible scale of loss. Just as the trenches produced the most remarkable poetry of the First World War, so too did the bombing campaigns foster a haunting set of poems during the Second.
| Primary Genre | History |
| Recommendations: |
In early June 1943, James Eric Swift, a pilot with 83 Squadron of the Royal Air Force, boarded his Lancaster bomber for a night raid on Munster and disappeared. Aerial bombardment was to the Second World War what the trenches were to the First: a shocking and new form of warfare, wretched and unexpected, and carried out at a terrible scale of loss.
Bomber County features in the following genres: History, Debut Books of the Month, eBooks of the Month, History and Archaeology, Recommendations
Paperback, Hardback. Not Available.
Bomber County was written by Daniel Swift and published by Hamish Hamilton Ltd an imprint of Penguin Books Ltd
