Book Review: "To Kingdom Come" by Robert Mrazek

To Kingdom Come: An Epic Saga of Survival in the Air War Over Germany by Robert J. Mrazek
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Amazon Book Description

On September 6, 1943, three hundred and thirtyeight B-17 "Flying Fortresses" of the American Eighth Air Force took off from England, bound for Stuttgart, Germany, to bomb Nazi weapons factories.

Dense clouds obscured the targets, and one commander's critical decision to circle three times through heavy fire would prove disastrous. Forty-five planes went down that day, and hundreds of men were lost or missing.

Sharing the first-person accounts of six of the B-17 airmen, award- winning author Robert J. Mrazek vividly re-creates the fierce air battle-and reveals the astonishing valor of the airmen who survived being shot down, and the tragic fate of those who did not.

A great read on the 8th AAF mission to bomb Stuttgart in September of 1943. The author introduces you to six of the B-17 airmen in different Bomber Groups and tells the story through first-person accounts from the time before, during and then after the catastrophic loss for the USAAF from the Stuttgart mission. This mission took place shortly after the devastating losses suffered over Schweinfurt in August 1943 and the loss of life and aircraft between both Schweinfurt and Stuttgart was what finally convinced General "Hap" Arnold that an enormous and immediate increase in fighter planes to accompany the bombers was necessary and dire if the Luftwaffe was to be brought down.
A great passage from the book comes from the wife of one of the B-17 pilots:
"I guess war has made us a very hardened and practical lot. You learn to be thrifty with your emotions. That's the hardest thing all of us Air Corps families have had to learn- to accept- not to question.....It's an awful easy thing to die but sometimes to live and do it gracefully is the seemingly impossible thing."- Braxton "Betsy" Wilken, page 252