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Daring Young Men: The Heroism And Triumph Of The Berlin Airlift-June 1948-May 1949 (2010)

by Richard Reeves(Favorite Author)

3.7 of 5 Votes: 3

ISBN

1416541195 (ISBN13: 9781416541196)

languge

English

genre

History & Biography

publisher

Simon & Schuster

review 1: An interesting read of an often forgotten time. This book had some strong points and some weaknesses. It did good job of explaining the politics of the airlift and surrounding events from both sides. In that way it showed that the airlift could really be considered the opening salvo of the Cold War. It's weakness seemed to be in the way it was organized. The chapters were chronological, but still seemed all over the place, and some times repetitive. This may have partly been due to the nature of the airlift though. That said, it was a very quick and compelling read though it seemed to drag in parts. That's to be expected I guess in a long book on a complicated issue that nonetheless spanned only 11 months, roughly a quarter of the time frame of the World War that ... morecame just before, and yet the feats of daring described were just as big if not more amazing then some things in the war. Over all a compelling read.
review 2: I'd say 3.5 stars. Good niche story on classic Cold War milestone. If you were only going to read one book on this event, I think one fits the bill for general coverage but also with some helpful details and vignettes. Enjoyed the background information on the logistics and political machinations. The logistics on rounding up pilots, packing flights in, recruiting recent Luftwaffe mechanics out of necessity... Tunner was a logistical genius (not surprising given he had a previous gig apparently of doing an airlift over the Himalayas) The participation of the British in the event is also remarkable given the country was also under food rations at that point. The Candy Bomber story is heartwarming. "No man's mind is free when his body receives less than 800 calories. There is no morality on less than a 1000 calories a day. There is no government on less than 1200 calories a day". Not sure if Walter Cronkite had this truly sourced but it's an interesting point nonetheless.If someone made another movie out of this, you could do worse than this for a closing sequence "The time of General Clay's departure was not announced but word got around and more than a half a million Germans stood silently in tribute along the route as the general's car drove the five and a half hours to the airport." less

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