Fortress Without a Roof: The Allied Bombing of the Third Reich by Wilbur H. Morrison

Fortress Without a Roof: The Allied Bombing of the Third Reich by Wilbur H. Morrison. This book tries to do 2 different tasks. The first is to be a history of strategic bombing against Nazi Germany from the American perspective. The second is to further the American argument that daytime precision bombing was more damaging to the German economy than the British nighttime attacks on German cities. Unfortunately this second task makes the book rather polemic in places. Part of Morrison's argument is that Germany could have been defeated through bombing alone without the cross Channel invasion. This seems quite fanciful considering that the German leadership was unwilling to admit defeat until Berlin had been taken and the linkup between the Allied armies had taken place.

The history of the 8th Air Force is decent enough. Descriptions of heroic actions are sprinkled into the narrative of bureaucratic infighting. If an individual supported daytime precision bombing they are complemented if not they are criticized. This gets rather tiresome after a while. I get the idea he could have made the book about 100 pages shorter and not lost any of his argument.

Recommended for its perspective on the bombing but not as a history.

Is available through Abebooks.