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Air Battle of the Ruhr (Airlife's Classics S.)
VC's of the Air (Airlife's Classics S.)
Lightning Strikes: English Electric's Supersonic Fighter in Action
Civil Aircraft Recognition
The Pendulum Years: Britain and the Sixties
The Illustrated History of the Civil War: The Soldiers, Generals, Weapons and Battles of the Civil War
Fallen Eagle: The Last Days of the Third Reich
Flesh Inferno: Atrocities of Torquemada and the Spanish Inquisition
The Essential Guide to Genealogy: The Professional Way to Unlock Your Ancestral History
We, of Our Bounty: A History of the Sheffield Church Burgesses
British Royal Yachts: A Complete Illustrated History
American Volunteers' Group Colours and Markings (Osprey Aircraft of the Aces S.)
The Goalkeeper's History of Britain
The "Guardian" Year
The Great Hedge of India
Bonaparte (Wordsworth Military Library)
A Brief History of the Boxer Rebellion (Brief Histories Series)
The New Rights of Man
Bloody Mary's Martyrs: The Story of England's Terror
Out of Eden: The Peopling of the World
Consultancy and Innovation
With Britain in Mortal Danger: Britain's Secret Army
Media, Monarchy and Power
The Nightmare Years 1930-1940
The Mons Star

The Valley of the Shadow of Death: An Account of the Royal Air Force Bomber Command Night Bombing and Minelaying Operations Including 'The Battle of the Ruhr March 5th/6th to July 18th/19th, 1943

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The Valley of the Shadow of Death: An Account of the Royal Air Force Bomber Command Night Bombing and Minelaying Operations Including 'The Battle of the Ruhr March 5th/6th to July 18th/19th, 1943
J. Alwyn Phillips
Manufacturer: Air Research Publications
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

English (British) | Dictionaries & Thesauruses | Reference | Subjects | Books

THE AIR BATTLE OF THE RUHR: RAF OFFENSIVE MARCH TO JULY 1943.

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THE AIR BATTLE OF THE RUHR: RAF OFFENSIVE MARCH TO JULY 1943.
Alan W. Cooper
Manufacturer: Wrens Park
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: 0905778626

Air Battle of the Ruhr (Airlife's Classics)

Average customer rating:

A fairly easy target in this case
Decent Account of a Deadly Air Campaign

Air Battle of the Ruhr (Airlife's Classics)
Alan Cooper
Manufacturer: The Crowood Press Ltd
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Aviation | Military | History | Subjects | Books

General | Military | History | Subjects | Books

Customer Reviews:

A fairly easy target in this case.......2005-10-29

Air Battle of the Ruhr by Alan Cooper describes the RAF's battle against the Ruhr from March thru July of 1943. Mr. Coopers book provides a thumbnail sketch of each of the raids that made up the Battle of the Ruhr. His descriptions includes; weather conditions, planes participating in the raid (total numbers and types, sometimes how the waves were put together), bomb load (total mission weight, occasionally what an individual plane carried), the defenses encountered, and occasionally the altitude the aircraft attacked the target (very surprising to learn that most British bomber crews were bombing from less than 20,000 ft at this time period. Very different when you consider most American raids were 25 - 35,000 feet). All raids do contain descriptions from survivors, some of the more interesting ones are from individuals who evaded capture. While the text describing the Battle of the Ruhr is sparse (137 pages of main text, 91 pages of extra material), great additions include the pictures and the appendices where Mr. Cooper tells us about the fate of all of the crews that were downed during the battle and what brought their aircraft down. Of particular interest is the air crews reporting describing the German defenses and their efforts to avoid them. I didn't realize how bad the bomber crews viewed the German search lights nor the violent maneuvers they'd put their aircraft thru.

Mr. Cooper's writing style is direct and to the point. At times, the dryness makes for a long 137 pages. Because of this, I can really only recommend this book as a 3 star book on the Amazon scale of 1 to 5 stars, no half stars. For personal use, I view this as a 3.5 star book. If you're highly interested in the Battle of the Ruhr or planning to study what occurred, the appendices could easily tip this book to a 4 star book.

Decent Account of a Deadly Air Campaign.......2003-05-06

Alan Cooper's book, 'Air Battle of the Ruhr' offers the reader, in 137 pages of narrative, a concise account of the Royal Air Force's Bomber Command campaign against German industry situated in the Ruhr during 1943. This is by no means an in-depth account of this terrible air campaign but it is a good book to get an overview of the battle and an idea of what those who fought it went through. The book is 228 pages in length with numerous Appendixes and some illustrations.

The author provides accounts of each major mission flown by Bomber Command against targets in the Ruhr from March to July in 1943. He outlines the mission target, the number of bombers allocated to the mission, the role of each formation and the results of the bombing. Intermingled with these are numerous first-hand accounts by pilots and aircrew involved on the missions with a few accounts from their German night fighter opponents.

At times it appears that the story is some what disorganised, you get a short account that does not seem to fit in with the narrative, this is only on one or two occasions but is still slightly off-putting. However the story is interesting and you get a very good feel for what the aircrew of the British bombers went through. The stories provided by the survivors are at times harrowing, sad and occasionally amusing. The numerous accounts of planes and their crews never being seen again or being found many years after the war are quite sad.

One major section of this book that makes it worth buying and gives you a better understanding of how deadly this campaign was is Appendix 2. Here the author has listed every single aircraft lost during this campaign. He provides details of the Squadron, aircraft type and identity, and what happened to it (crashed, hit by flak, shot down by night fighter, etc). Further, the author lists the names of the crew for each aircraft lost and what happened to them. It's quite depressing to read the number that were killed or 'washed up' later.

This alone makes this book worth having in my library and it gave me a better understanding of the terrible losses suffered by these young men, some as young as eighteen, who volunteered to fly in Bomber Command and who came from all around the Commonwealth. It may not be the best book covering the subject but it's one of the few currently available and well worth the time to read.

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