Masters of the Air: America's Bomber Boys Who Fought the Air War Against Nazi Germany

Masters of the Air is a history of the American Eighth Air Force in World War II, focusing on the young men who flew bomber missions against Nazi Germany. Donald L. Miller draws on recent interviews, oral histories, and archives from the United States, Britain, Germany, and other sources to tell this account. The book follows bomber crews fighting at 25,000 feet in conditions no previous warriors had faced. Air combat was deadly but intermittent, with periods of anxiety interrupted by bursts of combat. Unlike ground soldiers, bomber boys lived in relative comfort—sleeping on clean sheets and attending dances—yet faced higher mortality rates. The crews included notable figures such as actor Jimmy Stewart and Clark Gable. The air war was documented by Oscar-winning director William Wyler and covered by reporters including Andy Rooney and Walter Cronkite, who flew combat missions with the men. The Anglo-American bombing campaign was the longest military campaign of World War II and the only battle fought inside German territory until Allied soldiers crossed the border in the war's final months. Miller describes the fire-filled skies over Berlin, Hanover, and Dresden, the cost of bombing to German civilians, and the experiences of captured airmen in German prison camps and forced hunger marches near the war's end.