Night After Night New Zealanders in Bomber Command.

AuthorMcGibbon, Ian
PositionBook review

NIGHT AFTER NIGHT New Zealanders in Bomber Command

Author: Max Lambert

Published by: HarperCollins, Auckland, 2005, 459pp, $50.

The costly Allied bombing campaign against Germany in the Second World War has always been controversial. At the time, claims by its proponents that it might bring rapid victory proved overblown, though there can be little doubt that it was a major factor in Hitler's eventual defeat. Ever since the war a debate has swirled around the moral issues raised by the deliberate bombing of enemy cities, designed to de-house enemy workers and disrupt their war effort. As Max Lambert suggests, this may be one reason why New Zealand's part in this campaign, which lasted more than five years, has been largely ignored in New Zealand in recent times. Land battles such as Crete, Cassino and El Alamein have received much attention, with veterans taking part in commemorations attended by government ministers, but the air war has been given comparatively little attention.

Lambert sets out to remedy this in Night After Night, his lively account of the experiences of the roughly 6000 New Zealanders who served in Bomber Command. This is about the same number as took part in the Boer War or the Korean War, but, in terms of casualty rates, these were picnics by comparison. Nearly a third of the New Zealand airmen (1850) lost their lives. A quarter of the men did so while serving in 75 (New Zealand) Squadron, which flew more than 8000 sorties during the course of the war; the rest were spread through ordinary RAF bomber squadrons. About the same number have no known grave, having been obliterated in explosions or crashes or lost at sea. Some 500 were taken prisoner of war when their planes came down over enemy territory.

This dramatic story has not gone unrecorded: three volumes of the official war history dealt with New Zealanders who served in or were attached to the various commands, including Bomber Command, in the Royal Air Force. However, these books, published in the 1950s, are no longer readily accessible to the public. Night After Night provides a lively alternative.

Lambert sets the New Zealand effort in the context of New Zealand's contribution to the overall air war, noting the establishment of the Empire Air Training Scheme to provide a flow of Dominion personnel to the RAF. He does not engage with the controversy over the use to which these men were put in the bombing campaign. His focus is instead on the experiences of the...

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