Robert S. Ehlers Jr.

The author was a career staff officer in the United States Air Force and this is very much his brief for the continued importance of operational combined arms involving air, land and naval forces, using the example of Arthur Tedder, commander of the Royal Air Force in the North African theater of war in 1941-43, as a person who essentially wrote the textbook on what such a cooperative war should look like. If nothing else I finally understand the basis of the man's continuing fame. That's the good.

Less good is that I get a certain sense of casual sloppiness vis-a-vis the Axis forces, such as referring to Messerschmitt Me 109s instead of Bf 109s and using Italian Air Force instead of Regia Aeronautica as chronic examples, which is at the very least annoying and makes one wonder about Ehlers' depth of understanding. Also, pretty much everything else covered after the conclusion of the North African campaign feels like something of an afterthought (events post-1943 are barely a third of the narrative (if still relevant from a strategic perspective)). So read this book as an account of the "Benghazi Stakes" from an aviation-forward perspective and no more than that.… (más)

A really excellent analysis that essentially demonstrates how an OODA (Observe, Orient, Decide, and Act) Loop was established in regards to the air war over Western Europe in World War II, as a stepping stone on the way to demonstrating just what the Allied strategic bombing offensive contributed in terms of altering the course of the war. I have no great complaints with this book but the reader lacking some overall familiarity with the course of the war will probably just come away confused, as while Ehlers' prose is not heavy handed this book covers a great deal of ground, starting with the roots of strategic bombing in World War I.… (más)