A Look at the Bombing of Hitler’s Hometown
BOOK REVIEW: Bombing Hitler’s Hometown
By Mike Croissant / Citadel
Reviewed by: LCDR Mark Parcell, USN (Ret.)
The Reviewer — Mark Parcell is a retired naval aviator, former commercial test pilot, and Travis County Texas Shock Trauma Air Rescue chief pilot. He retired in 2020 and currently resides in Georgetown, Texas. In addition to continuing his research on the air campaigns during both World Wars, he is currently writing two books, his memoirs and a novel.
REVIEW — With more than forty-three years of aviation experience, including twenty-two years as a naval aviator, it is safe to say that aviation has been my life. Upon military retirement, I spent the next two-plus decades as a Sikorsky test pilot and then flew as a rescue pilot and chief pilot for Travis County STAR Flight in Austin, Texas. Dating back to my youth, I have studied extensively the air war over Europe and have personally visited many of the airfields that were home to the Eighth Army Air Force in England. I have also flown into Grottaglie, Italy, while patrolling in the Adriatic Sea for the United States and Spanish Naval Forces. To further my understanding of the air war, I visited the town of Schweinfurt to study the first unescorted long-range bombing mission into Germany, flown in 1943. I am exceptionally familiar with both the B‑17 Flying Fortress and the B‑24 Liberator, having flown in both aircraft several times. I tell you all of this so you will know I am well versed on the subject matter in Mike Croissant’s just-released book, Bombing Hitler’s Hometown.
Adolf Hitler was raised near the town of Linz, Austria, which was the site of one of the last major Allied bombing raids of the Second World War. I share the author’s deep interest in the Linz mission, as well as the two great missions of August 1st and 17th, 1943. These were the low-level raids on the oil fields of Ploesti, Romania, and the bombing of the ball‑bearing/fighter-production plants in Schweinfurt and Regensburg, Germany.
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In Bombing Hitler’s Hometown, the author does a superlative job of conveying the entire experience of an airman of the United States Army Air Forces during World War II—from initial training and selection for duty in bomber aircraft of the day, to assignment in the Fifteenth Air Force as combat-ready crews. Refreshingly, the author does not concentrate only on the pilots who flew these great aircraft; he also delves into the other crew positions, including the gunners, bombardier/toggliers, radio operators, navigators and flight engineers. He covers (in detail) the B‑24 aircraft, as well as the Fifteenth Air Force in the Mediterranean theater, neither of which have garnered the attention that the B‑17 and her crews from the Eighth Army Air Force in England have enjoyed throughout the years.
But the author does not stop there; he gives an in-depth review of Linz and the plans that Hitler had for his city. He also cites, in detail, the plight of the people who lived and worked in Linz and what it was like for them to be victims of the Allied bombing campaign.
With the mission over Linz as the main thrust of the story, the reader rides along in a jump seat, on several different aircraft, from takeoff to the bomb run over the city. To make the experience richer, Croissant brings to life several B‑17 and B‑24 crews and what each of them personally experienced—from safely returning to their home base, to crash landing their crippled bomber, to being blasted from the sky. I do not believe there could be a much more harrowing experience than trying to extricate oneself from a dying aircraft that is coming apart at 20,000 feet in a sky filled with hundreds of aircraft, flak, and tens of thousands of machine-gun rounds.
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Bombing Hitler’s Hometown reminds me of a book written by George C. Kuhl titled Wrong Place, Wrong Time: The 305th Bomb Group & the 2nd Schweinfurt Raid. That book chronicles Mission 115, or the second Schweinfurt mission of 14 October 1943. Kuhl’s outstanding narrative of the second Schweinfurt mission is from a different viewpoint than Croissant’s book, emphasizing the mistakes made in planning and executing this massive and very difficult mission deep into Germany, including detailed accounts of every one of the sixty bombers that were shot down that day. Kuhl, however, did not go into as much gritty detail of the Schweinfurt mission as Croissant does in describing the Linz mission. In Bombing Hitler’s Hometown, the reader is right there beside the ball-turret gunner who is desperately trying to escape from his stricken bomber and survive the descent, by parachute, back to earth—only then, minutes later, to find himself dodging pitchfork thrusts by angry Austrian townspeople.
This book encompasses, in great detail, every aspect of the air war over Europe—from the creation and issuance of a field order, down to those captured and taken prisoner of war. This is an outstanding read that should not be overlooked.
I suggest you cinch your harness tight and know where your parachute is—you are sure to need it!
Bombing Hitler’s Hometown earns a prestigious 4 out of 4 trench coats
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