HELL IN THE HEAVENS

Tavel recounts his experience as a combat pilot during World War II in this posthumous debut memoir.

The author writes that he was infected by the “flying bug” when he was a teenager, and in 1941, when he was around 20 years of age, he started taking formal flight lessons. With war raging in Europe, he applied for aviation cadet training and was accepted into the U.S. Army Air Corps, the first step toward his own entry into the war. After serving as a pilot instructor and receiving combat training, he was finally deployed overseas, trained to operate a B-24 Liberator, a notoriously difficult and dangerous plane to manage. Tavel flew his first combat mission in 1944—an attack on a German command post in Italy, which was the first of many daring missions that he describes straightforwardly but thrillingly in these pages. The author’s military career was an impressive one; he rose to the rank of a lieutenant colonel and was awarded both the Silver Star and the Distinguished Flying Cross. Tavel died in 2010, and his memoir is edited by his cousin, Morton, who provides additional biographical and historical commentary as well as photographs from the war, and his prose is unembellished but also thoughtful. For example, while reflecting on the practice of mass bombardment, he wonders, “Do the ends justify the means? Even more problematic however, is the related question: can we even predict what ends to expect from such violence?” However, for readers with even a cursory familiarity with the World War II era, this book covers very well-traveled territory. The author’s experience was extraordinary and heroic, but his memoir is less notable, especially given its unadorned prose style. He states that he wrote this memoir for his family’s perusal, and despite its virtues, it’s unlikely to find a wide audience beyond that circle.

A forthright personal memoir that will appeal most to the author’s loved ones.