Bombing raids were long drawn out affairs, quite often just hours of tedium interspersed with moments of shear terror. How would you build it up,
Not that I’m Mr Deighton’ s literary agent or anything, but he manages to keep the interest going through the entire book by telling the story from the perspective of the RAF crews, their Luftwaffe counterparts and the Civilians of Altgarten. He spares no-one in portraying the suffering of aircrew (of both sides) and civilians.
He provides background stories for the major protagonists as well as going into the technicalities that went into planning a raid. In the book you also hear a lot more about the interpersonal relationships – Lanbert (main character and bomber pilot) and his wife, Lambert and his flight commander, the crew themselves and the lives they touch – same for the Germans.
One very interesting part is the last chapter which updates us with what happens after the raid to the town and the individuals concerned through to the present day
It’s a very densely written book – perhaps a little too complicated for Hollywood with no message other than war is suffering and a total lack of overplayed heroics (that’s not to say the crews aren’t heroes), there is no automatic black/white, good/evil – just people caught up in affairs beyond their control
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