THE FALL OF FORTRESSES

by Elmer Bendiner ‧ RELEASE DATE: May 12, 1980

Looking back, author-navigator Bendiner tautly interweaves an account of his experiences aboard a WW II B-17 with a reappraisal of the Allied decision to bomb Schweinfurt in 1943. The idea was tempting: knock out the ball-bearing plants in Schweinfurt and the whole German war machine would come to a halt. But, Bendiner writes, the men in the briefing room had a ""more modest objective, survival."" Bendiner had worked for a Jewish refugee committee so he knew what was happening in Nazi-occupied Europe and sought an Air Corps berth. Commissioned and assigned to a Flying Fortress, ""Bennie,"" like the other members of the crew, fell in love with Tondelayo (""One B-17 is not like another. Each has its crotchets and its graces. . .""). Once in Britain, the bomber group was immediately declared ""fully operational,"" though Bendiner says he had never even fired his 50 cal. machinegun in practice. But that was only the beginning: in combat, the Tondelayo's pilot proved gun-shy and aborted one mission after another (he was eventually assigned to another crew as co-pilot). Other men, Bendiner recalls, removed their gloves and deliberately froze their fingers at 40 below zero in hopes of a medical grounding. Then, in August 1943, the group hit Schweinfurt for the first time. Because there were no long-range Mustang fighters available, the B-17s flew unescorted most of the way, encountering fierce resistance from the Luftwaffe and flak batteries. ""All across Germany, Holland, and Belgium the terrible landscape of burning planes unrolled beneath us. It seemed that we were littering Europe with our dead."" Thereafter, relates Bendiner, his group was good only for ""milk runs."" The second Allied attack on Schweinfurt made the first look like a picnic; and this time--though the ball-bearing works was seriously slowed, though another strike might have been decisive--there was to be no follow-up: still higher losses might have had a disastrous effect on American public opinion. Bendiner, who is Jewish, writes that after surviving his 25th mission (the end of a combat tour), he was congratulated by a non-flying officer: ""You made it all the way. Not many of your people stick it out."" A stark, sensitive memoir that makes a fine complement to Thomas M. Coffey's Decision Over Schweinfurt (1977).

Pub Date: May 12, 1980

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Putnam

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 1980

Categories: NONFICTION