HELLBIRDS: The Story of the B-29's in Combat

From the perspective of fifteen years, Morrison takes us back to the closing months of the Pacific War and the teamwork of the 20th Air Force. This B-29 bomber command, responsible for many of the important strikes that flattened Japanese industry, earned the name Hellbirds when they mastered the technique of the straight-in bomb run under the command of Gen. Curtis LeMay, of whom a quick but perceptive picture is given. Morrison's book will never take a prize as great literature. Nonetheless, he comes across with a kind of composite picture of the hard-driving, fast-moving, and occasionally thoughtful men who even in the thick of combat, physical hardship, and homesickness managed to understand the war and contemplate the meaning of the peace they were helping to win. If, since 1945, others have had the right to extol the exploits of several dozen similar fighting units, we concede Morrison the right to give the Hellbirds their book too.