Masters of the Air
America’s Bomber Boys Who Fought the Air War Against Nazi Germany
Failed to add items
Add to Cart failed.
Add to Wish List failed.
Remove from wish list failed.
Follow podcast failed
Unfollow podcast failed
Audible Standard 1-month free trial
Masters of the Air
Buy Now for $33.76
-
Narrated by:
-
Joe Barrett
-
Written by:
-
Donald L. Miller
Summary
Soon to be a major television event from Apple TV, Masters of the Air is the riveting history of the American Eighth Air Force in World War II, the story of the young men who flew the bombers that helped bring Nazi Germany to its knees, brilliantly told by historian and World War II expert Donald Miller.
Masters of the Air is the deeply personal story of the American bomber boys in World War II who brought the war to Hitler’s doorstep. With the narrative power of fiction, Donald Miller takes you on a harrowing ride through the fire-filled skies over Berlin, Hanover, and Dresden and describes the terrible cost of bombing for the German people.
Fighting at 25,000 feet in thin, freezing air that no warriors had ever encountered before, bomber crews battled new kinds of assaults on body and mind. Air combat was deadly but intermittent: periods of inactivity and anxiety were followed by short bursts of fire and fear. Unlike infantrymen, bomber boys slept on clean sheets, drank beer in local pubs, and danced to the swing music of Glenn Miller’s Air Force band, which toured US air bases in England. But they had a much greater chance of dying than ground soldiers.
The bomber crews were an elite group of warriors who were a microcosm of America—white America, anyway. The actor Jimmy Stewart was a bomber boy, and so was the “King of Hollywood,” Clark Gable. And the air war was filmed by Oscar-winning director William Wyler and covered by reporters like Andy Rooney and Walter Cronkite, all of whom flew combat missions with the men. The Anglo-American bombing campaign against Nazi Germany was the longest military campaign of World War II, a war within a war. Until Allied soldiers crossed into Germany in the final months of the war, it was the only battle fought inside the German homeland.
Masters of the Air is a story of life in wartime England and in the German prison camps, where tens of thousands of airmen spent part of the war. It ends with a vivid description of the grisly hunger marches captured airmen were forced to make near the end of the war through the country their bombs destroyed.
Drawn from interviews, oral histories, and American, British, German, and other archives, Masters of the Air is an authoritative, deeply moving account of the world’s first and only bomber war.
©2006 Donald L. Miller (P)2023 Blackstone PublishingYou may also enjoy...
-
The Pacific
- Hell Was an Ocean Away
- Written by: Hugh Ambrose
- Narrated by: Mike Chamberlain
- Length: 23 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall10
-
Performance10
-
Story10
The New York Times bestselling official companion book to the Emmy Award-winning HBO miniseries. Look for The Pacific miniseries, now available to stream on Netflix! Between America's retreat from China in late November 1941 and the moment General MacArthur's airplane touched down on the...
-
-
It’s alright
- By Cole REYNOLDS on 2025-07-08
Written by: Hugh Ambrose
-
We Were Soldiers Once... and Young
- Ia Drang - The Battle That Changed the War in Vietnam
- Written by: Harold G. Moore, Joseph L. Galloway
- Narrated by: Jonathan Davis
- Length: 16 hrs
- Unabridged
-
Overall79
-
Performance68
-
Story67
In November 1965, some 450 men of the First Battalion, Seventh Cavalry, under the command of Lt. Col. Hal Moore, were dropped by helicopter into a small clearing in the Ia Drang Valley. They were immediately surrounded by 2,000 North Vietnamese soldiers. Three days later, only two and a half miles away, a sister battalion was chopped to pieces. Together, these actions at the landing zones X-Ray and Albany constituted one of the most savage and significant battles of the Vietnam War. How these men persevered makes a vivid portrait of war at its most inspiring and devastating.
-
-
WOW, Exceptional
- By Gerald Lefebvre on 2022-10-18
Written by: Harold G. Moore, and others
-
Mosquito Mayhem
- de Havilland’s Wooden Wonder in Action in WWII
- Written by: Martin W. Bowman
- Narrated by: Nigel Patterson
- Length: 12 hrs and 19 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall12
-
Performance10
-
Story11
The Mosquito was probably World War II's most versatile combat aircraft. This book contains hundreds of firsthand accounts from many of the two-man crews who flew in them; pilots and navigators. It portrays the dramatic experiences of flying in its many roles as pathfinder, night fighter, reconnaissance aircraft, precision bombing, and low-level ground attack aircraft. It describes many of the RAF's most audacious raids on prime, but difficult, targets where carpet bombing by heavy bombers was likely to be ineffective and cause unnecessary casualties to civilians.
-
-
Terrible Book!
- By RobertE on 2026-03-28
Written by: Martin W. Bowman
-
The First World War
- A Complete History
- Written by: Martin Gilbert
- Narrated by: Roger Clark
- Length: 33 hrs and 34 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall55
-
Performance45
-
Story46
It was to be the war to end all wars, and it began at 11:15 on the morning of June 28, 1914, in an outpost of the Austro-Hungarian Empire called Sarajevo. It would officially end nearly five years later. Unofficially, however, it has never ended: Many of the horrors we live with today are rooted in the First World War. The Great War left millions of civilians and soldiers maimed or dead. It also saw the creation of new technologies of destruction: tanks, planes, and submarines; machine guns and field artillery; poison gas and chemical warfare.
-
-
Eye opening
- By Xyo on 2022-07-25
Written by: Martin Gilbert
-
No Easy Day
- The Firsthand Account of the Mission That Killed Osama Bin Laden
- Written by: Mark Owen, Kevin Maurer
- Narrated by: Holter Graham
- Length: 6 hrs and 50 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall136
-
Performance114
-
Story113
The #1 New York Times bestselling first-person account of the planning and execution of the Bin Laden raid from a Navy SEAL who confronted the terrorist mastermind and witnessed his final moments. From the streets of Iraq to the rescue of Captain Richard Phillips in the Indian Ocean, and from...
-
-
Action packed!
- By Chris Smith on 2024-03-30
Written by: Mark Owen, and others
-
Things I'll Never Forget
- Memories of a Marine in Viet Nam
- Written by: James M. Dixon
- Narrated by: Malcolm Hillgartner
- Length: 9 hrs and 36 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall62
-
Performance52
-
Story52
Things I’ll Never Forget is the story of a young high school graduate in 1965 who faces being drafted into the Army or volunteering for the Marine Corps. These are his memories of funny times, disgusting times and deadly times. The author kept a journal for an entire year; therefore many of the dates, times and places are accurate. The rest is based on memories that are forever tattooed on his brain. This is not a pro-war book, nor is it anti-war. It is the true story of what the Marine Corps was like in the late 1960’s.
-
-
Great read.
- By Nick Smith on 2023-02-02
Written by: James M. Dixon
-
The Pacific
- Hell Was an Ocean Away
- Written by: Hugh Ambrose
- Narrated by: Mike Chamberlain
- Length: 23 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall10
-
Performance10
-
Story10
The New York Times bestselling official companion book to the Emmy Award-winning HBO miniseries. Look for The Pacific miniseries, now available to stream on Netflix! Between America's retreat from China in late November 1941 and the moment General MacArthur's airplane touched down on the...
-
-
It’s alright
- By Cole REYNOLDS on 2025-07-08
Written by: Hugh Ambrose
-
We Were Soldiers Once... and Young
- Ia Drang - The Battle That Changed the War in Vietnam
- Written by: Harold G. Moore, Joseph L. Galloway
- Narrated by: Jonathan Davis
- Length: 16 hrs
- Unabridged
-
Overall79
-
Performance68
-
Story67
In November 1965, some 450 men of the First Battalion, Seventh Cavalry, under the command of Lt. Col. Hal Moore, were dropped by helicopter into a small clearing in the Ia Drang Valley. They were immediately surrounded by 2,000 North Vietnamese soldiers. Three days later, only two and a half miles away, a sister battalion was chopped to pieces. Together, these actions at the landing zones X-Ray and Albany constituted one of the most savage and significant battles of the Vietnam War. How these men persevered makes a vivid portrait of war at its most inspiring and devastating.
-
-
WOW, Exceptional
- By Gerald Lefebvre on 2022-10-18
Written by: Harold G. Moore, and others
-
Mosquito Mayhem
- de Havilland’s Wooden Wonder in Action in WWII
- Written by: Martin W. Bowman
- Narrated by: Nigel Patterson
- Length: 12 hrs and 19 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall12
-
Performance10
-
Story11
The Mosquito was probably World War II's most versatile combat aircraft. This book contains hundreds of firsthand accounts from many of the two-man crews who flew in them; pilots and navigators. It portrays the dramatic experiences of flying in its many roles as pathfinder, night fighter, reconnaissance aircraft, precision bombing, and low-level ground attack aircraft. It describes many of the RAF's most audacious raids on prime, but difficult, targets where carpet bombing by heavy bombers was likely to be ineffective and cause unnecessary casualties to civilians.
-
-
Terrible Book!
- By RobertE on 2026-03-28
Written by: Martin W. Bowman
-
The First World War
- A Complete History
- Written by: Martin Gilbert
- Narrated by: Roger Clark
- Length: 33 hrs and 34 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall55
-
Performance45
-
Story46
It was to be the war to end all wars, and it began at 11:15 on the morning of June 28, 1914, in an outpost of the Austro-Hungarian Empire called Sarajevo. It would officially end nearly five years later. Unofficially, however, it has never ended: Many of the horrors we live with today are rooted in the First World War. The Great War left millions of civilians and soldiers maimed or dead. It also saw the creation of new technologies of destruction: tanks, planes, and submarines; machine guns and field artillery; poison gas and chemical warfare.
-
-
Eye opening
- By Xyo on 2022-07-25
Written by: Martin Gilbert
-
No Easy Day
- The Firsthand Account of the Mission That Killed Osama Bin Laden
- Written by: Mark Owen, Kevin Maurer
- Narrated by: Holter Graham
- Length: 6 hrs and 50 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall136
-
Performance114
-
Story113
The #1 New York Times bestselling first-person account of the planning and execution of the Bin Laden raid from a Navy SEAL who confronted the terrorist mastermind and witnessed his final moments. From the streets of Iraq to the rescue of Captain Richard Phillips in the Indian Ocean, and from...
-
-
Action packed!
- By Chris Smith on 2024-03-30
Written by: Mark Owen, and others
-
Things I'll Never Forget
- Memories of a Marine in Viet Nam
- Written by: James M. Dixon
- Narrated by: Malcolm Hillgartner
- Length: 9 hrs and 36 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall62
-
Performance52
-
Story52
Things I’ll Never Forget is the story of a young high school graduate in 1965 who faces being drafted into the Army or volunteering for the Marine Corps. These are his memories of funny times, disgusting times and deadly times. The author kept a journal for an entire year; therefore many of the dates, times and places are accurate. The rest is based on memories that are forever tattooed on his brain. This is not a pro-war book, nor is it anti-war. It is the true story of what the Marine Corps was like in the late 1960’s.
-
-
Great read.
- By Nick Smith on 2023-02-02
Written by: James M. Dixon