My copy of this book is one of the first in my "grown up" library as it was one of the books I got with the then-new Military Book Club "5 books for 25 cents" offers back in the early 1970's. When new, it had a beautiful full color dust jacket photograph of a Fortress taking off at dawn. Nowadays the dust jacket is long gone, the spine is busted up a bit, the pages are dirty and stained, and the cloth cover is frayed and worn. It has been years since I read Jablonski's work, and I thought I would dive into it once more, this time with a more experienced eye.

Author Edward Jablonski was an Army veteran of World War II who studied journalism after the war, probably with the help of the GI Bill. Although not a prolific author (he is credited with some 15 titles), Jablonski focused his writing on only two themes--aviation history and American music. "Flying Fortress", among the first of his published works, appeared in 1965, some 20 years after the end of the Second World War and a fertile period for histories of that conflict.

The book runs for a total of 362 pages in my copy. In addition to a preface, note to the reader, and a prelude, Jablonski incorporates six parts and an extensive appendix (called a supplement in this instance). The first part, The Flying Fortresses, contains Chapters 1-4 and describe the origins of the aircraft through its debut in the hands of Great Britain's Royal Air Force. The second part, From the Land of the Rising Sun, covers the B-17's early combat history in the Pacific Theater in Chapters 5-7. The third part, Action of the Tiger, spans Chapters 8-11 and follows the Fortress's entry into combat in both the European and North African Theaters.

The fourth part, Ballad of the Bloody Century, is a brief, two-chapter treatment of the notorious 100th Bombardment Group (H), illustrating 8th Air Force combat operations through the lens of its most lengendary group. The fifth part is Festung Europe, which uses Chapters 14, 15, and 16 to respectively discuss the 15th Air Force's bombardment missions out of Italy, the saga of the Fortress crews forced to bail out over occupied Europe to become PoWs, and the tales of the fighter escorts, the "Little Friends" that sought to protect all of the 8th's bombers. The final part of the book, Sunset, returns the Reader to the Pacific Theater to relate the Fortress's saga in the Aleutians under the command of the 11th Air Force. This part also delves briefly into the tale of the B-17's younger brother, the B-29 Superfortress. Jabonski ends his text with an epilogue, inspired by postwar German writer suggesting the inhumanity of American precision daylight bombardment and British area bombardment at night. Jablonski's reply, as might be expected at such a hypocritical treatment, concludes that the American program of bombardment, though costly in terms of both aircrews and the German population, helped end the war sooner than other means.

The Supplement provided at the end of the book begins with an expose into the lifecycle of a typical 8th Air Force bombardment mission though a sequence of photographs. There is a brief, but very informative, design analysis of the aircraft, as well as pages from a variety of B-17 manuals illustrating aircraft systems and crew procedures for flying and operating the Flying Fortress. The book ends with a bibliography and index.

Written in a crisp journalistic style that keeps his readers moving swiftly through the pages, Jablonski does not dwell on the technology associated with what was an advanced aircraft for its day, albeit an evolutionary design rather than a revolutionary one. Once the reader is through the first part of the book, the author recounts the many war stories associated with the men and this fabled warbird. There is much quoting from official accounts and reports, with some of the accounts clarified by interviews conducted by the author. This is no scholarly work, though. Jablonski follows the early post WWII historian tradition of not using foot/endnotes, so anyone trying to follow up on his writing will have to blaze the trail anew. However, I think most readers will not hold this against the author and will just enjoy the ride. Jablonski's style places his reader inside the fuselages of the Boeing aircraft for some of the most harrowing air missions flown by any combatant during the war. The resulting human drama is most worthy of remembrance. ( )

The later corrected 2014 edition includes corrected material based on Edward Jablonski s handwritten notes in his file copy of the original publication (ISBN: Paperback 978-1-62654-904-3 and Hardback 978-1-62654-867-1).
Renowned throughout the world for its strength and destructiveness, the Flying Fortress was one of the greatest fighting airplanes of all time. In this comprehensively documented biography, Edward Jablonski tells the story of the Flying Fortress Boeing B-17, America s legendary long-range bomber. From the B-17's near death in infancy to the emergence of its successor, the Superfortress, "Flying Fortress" captures the exhilarating career of the B-17 with thrilling accounts of the exploits of these planes and their pilots. In this unforgettable history, Jablonski details the Fortress s role in the strategic and tactical issues of air war, and chronicles the B-17 s roles in famous raids including Regensburg, Marienburg, Munster, Schweinfurt, Dresden, and Berlin, along with its part in great battles, such as D-Day.
Masterfully written, "Flying Fortress" is a classic in aviation literature with over 400 illustrations (many unpublished action photos) in addition to a section on the design of the Flying Fortress, which includes a number of detailed cutaway drawings. Approximately 60 pages from the Flying Fortress s Piloting Manual are also featured herein. Find out why the Flying Fortress ultimately redefined the concept of war.

Probably the best history of B-17s with the least blather. ( )

Time has afforded us some perspective since Californians rejected then Governor Schwarzenegger's special election pet propositions in 2005. Since they said no to surrendering control of the state budget to the whimsy of the executive branch; no to unaccountable gerrymandering; no to silencing the voice of the working class; no to making it even more difficult for our best and brightest to choose teaching as a profession.

The swaggering, accented, tough-talking machismo disappeared, remade overnight, not unlike the application of a Hollywood tan, into a coalition-building, olive branch-extending, centrist who only had the best interests of the state and its people at heart. A people that turned out in low numbers, typically an advantage for Republicans, to vote in the most expensive election, special or otherwise, in the state's history.

Soon gone, too, was the lofty 65% approval rating enjoyed by the governor, which right-wing pundits dismissed as not maintainable, yet which in its time served as the impetus for corporate and far-right elements to pen the aforementioned cynical legislation under that banner of all things just and good in governance, mandate. It echoes still in the Wisconsins and the Minnesotas of 2011.

Still, California is on the margin of national politics, where President Bush's agenda was, likewise, suffering setbacks. We heard of rumors that the simple, plain-talking Texan had grown sullen; that he was more likely to direct frustrated anger rather than the good-natured slap on the back to any number of nicknamed underlings. And he, too, attempted, in the wake of failed policies, to remake himself.

The Bush 43 administration repackaged Manifest Destiny v2.0, proposing that they weren't the only ones that thought Iraq was out to get us. We could finally embrace France, Russia, and the United Nations in this: that Saddam Hussein was going to send anthrax through the mail and shower various biological agents on us from converted crop dusters and fly nuclear-tipped remote controlled airplanes into our bedrooms unless we acted quickly, no matter preemptively. No matter the foreign powers mentioned refrained from invasion themselves. No matter nothing resembling weapons of mass destruction were ever found. No matter innocents suffered and died for a lie.

Neither George W. Bush nor Arnold Schwarzenegger ever went to war, yet both owe their careers to its application: Dubya springboarded into public service from a few passes over parades during the greatest conflict of his young life, and Arnold, perhaps working through the neuroses of his father's fascism, or perhaps exploiting our own watered down and distinctive stripe, dispatched assorted villains of the celluloid variety in his prime.

My great-uncle, however, did go to war, though I doubt very much he would think he benefited from it. He was a captain in the 8th Air Force and piloted numerous missions in a B-17 over Nazi-occupied Europe. He dropped lots of bombs. He saw friends lose their lives. He feared for his own. He was shot down and spirited back to England only to be put back in a plane and made to drop more bombs. Towards the end of the war, after the skies had been wiped clean of the Luftwaffe, he carried the no less lethal payload of military intelligence officers on his flights as they would survey the damage wrought on Germany by ceaseless formations of bombers. It was then that he learned of the bombs that missed their targets. Bombs that landed on schools and churches instead of factories and military positions. He was never worth a damn after he came back home, or so I'm told. I do know that he never had a job in all the years I knew him and he made his way, for the most part, through the kindness of family. All the same, I marveled at him during holiday gatherings and surrendered to his tales of adventure. He died from complications arising from an automobile accident in 2005, shortly after Veteran's Day.

Men like Bush and Schwarzenegger exhibit traits not altogether different than those of your run of the mill psychopath. They are men that don't, or won't, consider consequences when making a decision. They are 'big picture' types that can't be bothered with details or outcomes because, like greedy two-year-olds with unlimited resources, they must act. This is honored in our society as "decisiveness." And indeed, why should they be bothered? Their reality is made for them. Men like my great-uncle were rendered perpetually indecisive as a result of shaping that reality.

About the same time my great uncle was ferrying the brass over what had been Germany, in Japan, a whole city called Hiroshima was wiped from existence by one bomb. As Emperor Hirohito witnessed his reality collapsing, he retreated into the fantasy of ego, turning his attentions to preserving the cultural and religious icons that justified his monarchy -- assorted trinkets which supposedly dated from time immemorial and were scattered about his island kingdom in various temples -- rather than consider the terms of surrender put forth by the Allies. Another city would have to be sacrificed upon the altar of industrial warfare before he would convince his ministers to concede defeat.

And so we come to George Bush on November 11, 2005, when he chose to forego the tradition of placing a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier on the one day of the year dedicated to the men and women that would shape his reality, if only they could, for the sake of a poll-boosting pledge to amend the U.S. Constitution to ban the burning of the flag, that tangible icon of this American experience that binds our nation together, and, more precisely, to its figurehead, the president. He wrapped himself in the shroud of Old Glory and waited for political resurrection while my great-uncle withered and died, unknown to all but his family.


My great-uncle was piloting the B-17 you see in the upper left corner of this picture. It can be found on page 140, introducing the chapter titled 'Impious War.' ( )