Big Week: The Biggest Air Battle of World War Two

by James Holland

'James Holland is a master' BBC History

It was to be the battle to end the air war once and for all . . .

During the third week of February 1944, the combined Allied air forces based in Britain and Italy launched their first-ever round-the-clock bomber offensive against Germany. The aim was to smash the main factories and production centres of the Luftwaffe and at the same time draw the German fighter force up into the air and into battle. Officially called Operation ARGUMENT, this monumental air assault was very quickly became known simply as Big Week.

In the six months up to its launch, for the Allies, the bomber war was not turning out as planned. Raids by the US Eighth Air Force and the RAF deep into Germany were being decimated and falling far short of its purpose. With D-Day was drawing ever-closer, that was a massive problem. The Allies needed clear skies to invade. The clock was ticking inexorably.

Yet the Luftwaffe was also in crisis. Short of resources, of fuel, and on properly trained pilots, the strain on those still flying was immense, their losses severe. And despite the chaos of their leadership, they were achieving far more than should have been reasonably expected against the superior numbers of the Allied planes.

Big Week is the knife-edged story of bomber against flak gun and fighter, but also, crucially, fighter against fighter, as the stakes rose higher and higher. Following the fortunes of pilots, aircrew and civilians from both sides, this is a blistering narrative of one of the most critical periods of the entire war, one that culminated in the largest air battle ever witnessed. It is also one that has been largely forgotten, but which has been brilliantly brought back to life by award-winning historian, James Holland.

Genres: History, World War II, Nonfiction, Military History, Aviation, Military Fiction, War

432 pages, Paperback

First published August 16, 2018

About the author

Librarian note:
There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name

James Holland was born in Salisbury, Wiltshire, and studied history at Durham University. He has worked for several London publishing houses and has also written for a number of national newspapers and magazines. Married with a son, he lives near Salisbury.

Reviews

[Boudewijn · Rating 4 out of 5]

With this book, James Holland explores the biggest, and mostly forgotten air battle that paved the way for total Allied air supremacy

Big Week, or Operation Argument as it was officially called, was an Allied operation intended to lure the Luftwaffe in a protracted air battle in order to destroy its capability in waging an effective air assault during the Normandy invasion.

Both conducted by the British and the Americans, the operation broke the back of the Luftwaffe. From the 20th of February to the 25th of February, both The Eight Air Force during the day and RAF Bomber Command by night performed round-the-clock bombing missions on the German aircraft industry.

Although the damage to the German air industry was heavy, it only impacted the production for a few months. It was however the depletion of the pool of German experienced pilots that did the trick: after Big Week the Allies never would encounter a single German pilot that could match them in experience, tactics and superieur aircraft.

Although you might conclude that this book only covers the Big Week, it is actually a description of the air war from 1943 culminating in the Big Week itself. It explains the crisis of 1943, where the 8th Air Force had to come to the conclusion that the self defence concept, as thought out by the generals, was unsustainable, leading to dramatic losses during the Schweinfurt-Regensburg missions. Only after the arrival of the P-51 Mustang, with its Merlin motor, was the scale tipped towards the Allies.

By citing from diaries of both German and American and British fighter and bomber pilots, James Holland paints a vivid tale of destruction, death of comrades and the quest for reaching the 25 missions total, after which the pilots were able to complete their tour.

This is another excellent book in James Holland’s fine collection and one certain to read.

[Jonny · Rating 4 out of 5]

The story of the build-up to the joint Operation Argument, the round-the-clock series of raids in mid-February 1944 that broke the back of the Luftwaffe and proved the U.S. strategy of drawing out German fighters using their bomber force for destruction.
The deficiencies in all three air arms are laid bare, with the Luftwaffe coming off worse, at the sharp end of design deficiencies, a broken supply chain and unable to effectively train new fighter crews.
The run up to the campaign is covered in detail, with the failing fortunes of the Mighty Eighth in the autumn of 1943 and the turnaround as a result of a change of management being well documented, as are the raids of the titular week, from the point of view of all the forces concerned.
Sympathetically told thorough the stories of a number of the participants, from all sides, including the oft-ignored U.S. Air Forces in Italy, it's a well written account of an important, overlooked period of the European air war.

[Numidica · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.4 stars. While a lot of this book is quite interesting, the author's approach of telling the story of the air war in Europe via the personal histories of a handful of the airmen only works to a point. That is because the stories, no matter how tragic, or heroic, or godawful become, after the umpteenth iteration, repetitive. How many times can one hear about the twisting and turning of fighters in the skies over Germany and not think, yes, I've heard this before. That does not for a minute diminish the bravery of those who fought those battles, and by the way, my uncle was shot down over France, and my father trained B-24 crews, and flew observer missions with the Eighth Air Force, so I get what a monumental effort it was to defeat the Luftwaffe.

Holland does a good job putting the eponymous Big Week in context, and he explains how crucial it was to the success of D-Day, and that's all to the good. He also describes Hap Arnold's belated realization that the key to winning the air war was to destroy the German fighters by drawing them out with bombing raids. Jimmy Doolittle understood that instinctively, and Tooey Spaatz likewise understood it sooner than most. Arthur Harris never really did understand it, and continued night bombing right to the end, with questionable effect on the German war effort, but dramatic effects on German cities like Dresden. While certainly area bombing affected German industry to a degree, it was the daylight bombing by the Americans, combined with long range fighters (the P-51) which ultimately reduced the Luftwaffe to a shadow of its former self, mainly by killing off the experienced German pilots. Because of the actions of the Eighth Air Force and Bomber Command from January-May 1944, Allied forces landed at Normandy with air superiority, which was absolutely essential to the success of the invasion. After August of 1944, it is difficult to make the case that bombing Germany had much effect on the outcome of the war, other than attacks on the oil production infrastructure.

Holland also highlights the disarray of the German command, with Hitler repeatedly inserting himself into military decisions, always to the detriment of the German air effort. Hitler caused resources to be dispersed and frittered away on things like developing a heavy bomber, or the V-1 and V-2 missiles, or by witholding the ME262 jet fighter from use as a fighter because he thought it should be a bomber. Thank goodness for the typical incompetence of autocrats. And the book also highlighted the diminishing resources of the Reich in 1943-44, especially of oil, which meant that by 1944 German pilots could not be allowed adequate time to train in their aircraft before being thrown into combat. American fighter pilots were better trained because the US could afford the fuel to train them much longer, at least twice as long as German pilots entering service in late 1943 and after.

As I read this, I kept thinking how the book would have benefited from from a few pages of tabular data to present relative aircraft losses by the Allies versus the Germans, or available aircraft by type by month, etc. Nonetheless, many of the anecdotes were poignant, and worth reading. Most ETO airmen eventually experienced the same sad realization that combat infantrymen do: phase 1 - "I can't get killed"; phase 2 - (after having been shot at) "Wow, I could get killed, and I better be more careful"; phase 3 - (having had repeated near-death experiences, and having seen friends die) "I AM going to get killed, and it's only a matter of when - the only way to avoid death is to get out of here". As the missions piled up, men knew that their luck was going to run out, and it was hard for them to hold it together, psychologically. I empathised completely with the feelings of relief described by the British pilot who had to bail out of his burning plane over Germany, thinking "thank God, now I'm out of it, and I'll be a POW, but not a coward who failed to do his duty". Because he'd been feeling on the verge of being unable to keep flying, and this was a man who was on his 51st mission, who had done far more than his share. And yet, if he had asked to be sent to non-flying duty, he would have had "Lack of Moral Fibre" (LMF) stamped in his personnel file, the British acronym for cowardice, a career-ending finding which marked a man for life.

All in all, a worthwhile read which brings home the terrible cost of the air war, but with parts missing. Very little mention of the terrible, and often unnecessary destruction wrought on civilians, and zero mention of the horrors wrought by the Germans on occupied countries and the Jews. And as mentioned above, some numerical story telling would have helped. I did love the stories about USAAF Colonel Jimmy Stewart, who was as good a man as I always thought he was.

[Gram · Rating 5 out of 5]

An exhaustive account of the background to and execution of "Operation Argument", which took place during the third week of February 1944, as the combined Allied air forces, working from airbases in Britain and Italy, launched their first round-the-clock bomber offensive against Nazi Germany. This operation is better known in the USA's 8th Air Force official history as "Big Week".

By means of interviews, diary extracts and official records, historian James Holland provides a wealth of historical detail along with fascinating personal histories of many fighter and bomber pilots, ground crews and senior staff from the Luftwaffe as well as Britain and the USA's air forces. The part played by Germany's anti-aircraft defences the growth of its radar capabilities is given prominence and he also documents eyewitness accounts of the suffering of German civilians, as thousands of tons of bombs reduced their towns and cities to rubble.
For example, in a single night, RAF bombs killed almost as many people as died in the 8 months of the Luftwaffe's Blitz on London.

While the Allies' initial aim was to cripple German aircraft production, their long term plan was not only to draw the Luftwaffe into committing its resources in defending German military/industrial targets, but also to allow them to gain air supremacy over Western Europe - a plan which was critical to the success of "Overlord", the landing of Allied troops in Occupied Europe in June 1944. This book details in depth, missions carried out by both American and British bomber and fighter pilots and numerous air battles fought by the Luftwaffe. The reader is given unique insights into the thoughts of the people involved in the bid for that supremacy and the incredible hardships suffered by aircrew on both sides.

In the months prior to "Big Week", the Allied bomber war was not turning out as planned. Daylight raids by the US Eighth Air Force and night-time bombing by the RAF deep into Germany had led to large numbers of planes and pilots being decimated and allied objectives falling far short of their targets. As D-Day drew closer, skies which were clear of enemy aircraft were vital to ensure the invasion's success and time was running out.

But, Germany's Luftwaffe was also in crisis, with severe shortages of fuel and a lack of properly trained pilots. With Luftwaffe pilots going into active duty with far less flying hours than their British and American counterparts, the strain on those still flying was immense. To add to their burden, Luftwaffe pilots had far less time off to recuperate than their Allied counterparts. Despite success on the Eastern front, the Luftwaffe had suffered crippling losses, particularly in the Mediterranean theatre. Despite these obstacles, German fighter pilots were achieving far more success than they should have against superior numbers of Allied planes.

Adolf Hitler's constant interference in aircraft production, particularly his insistence that it include giant bombers as well as fighters and that priority be given to his "Vengeance" weapons (the V1 and V2 rockets), hindered far more than it helped.
An even bigger problem was the breakdown of the relationship between Adolf Galland, the former fighter ace who was the general in command of all of the Luftwaffe's fighters in Europe and Reichsmarschall Hermann Göring. In 1943, their disagreements about how best to combat the Allied bombing of Germany culminated in Galland asking to be dismissed from his post and sent back to his unit. Göring accepted, but then changed his mind and apologised. Galland continued in his post, but this truce was not to last.

The Allies too faced problems such as long running arguments between senior British and American airforce officers on how the bombing campaign should be conducted, with the former determined they should be independent from the ever growing presence of American aircraft at British airfields. There was also the realisation, for many too long in coming, that to wage successful bombing campaigns, an even more pressing priority was the need for long range fighters to escort the massive bomber forces to and from their targets in Germany. Finally, the arrival of new aircraft - particularly the American long range P-51 Mustangs - and the adoption of superior battle tactics, began to give them the upper hand.

All these factors culminated in the largest air battle ever seen. Many believe this vital part of the Allied war effort has been forgotten, but Holland's book, which shows that "Big Week" should be considered one of the main turning points for the Allies in World War II, will go a long way to rectifying that situation.

My thanks go to the publisher, Grove Atlantic, and Netgalley for the chance to read this book in exchange for an unbiased review.

[Michael Burnam-Fink · Rating 5 out of 5]

Big Week is a fascinating multilevel study of the Allied bomber offensive over Nazi Germany from 1943 to the titular 'big week' at the end of February 1944, which saw the defeat of the Luftwaffe. Holland uses interviews and diaries with flight crew to great effect, putting you in the cockpit above Berlin, and showing the heroism of protagonists, while also pulling back to the big picture of the role of strategic airpower in World War 2.

1943 saw the Allies gearing up for a planned invasion of France. Until troops got their feet on the beaches, the only way England and America could materially effect the war was through bombing. The two allies had different theories about how strategic bombing worked. The British, lead by General Arthur "Bomber" Harris, were classical Douhetians. The role of the bomber was to break civilian morale through massive destruction. In part, this was due to technological limits inherited from 1942, where the limited numbers of British heavies would have no chance over the Reich during the day, so they bombed at night. Technical developments in radio-direction finding, radar-mapping, and the use of elite Pathfinder units to mark targets with flares allowed the British to hit a city-sized target, which they did to devastating effect in Hamburg. While the British could smash cities, killing tens of thousands and rendering hundreds of thousands homeless, as the Blitz proved, civilian morale is surprisingly resilient under bombardment, and the Nazis were not beholden to popular opinion in any case.

The Americans had developed a different doctrine based around "precision" day bombing using self-escorting formations of B-17s and B-24. I use "precision" in quotes, because while in peacetime tests the Norden gyroscopic bombsight was theoretically able to hit a pickle barrel, in actual combat American bombers matched the "somewhere in the city" accuracy of the British. The dream of knocking out key war industries from the air was a fantasy.

Both versions of strategic bombing doctrine had their limits, and worse the bomber force was taking unsustainable casualties throughout 1943. Nazi nightfighters using Wild Sow tactics and Schräge Musik upwards pointing cannons were taking a heavy toll on the British. American formations were vulnerable to cannon-laden FW-190s and Me 110s destroyers firing rockets from outside the defensive range of their .50 caliber turrets. The odds of an Allied pilot making it through their required 25 missions was infitesimal.

The Nazis were under similar stress. While bombing wasn't decisive, it was having an effect on aircraft production. More relevant was the fuel shortage, which had German pilots going into combat with 110 flying hours, while American pilots had at least 750 hours before their first combat mission. The baroque and divided Nazi command structure was another weakness, along with Hitler's continual demands for offensive operations against Britain which diverted resources from fighters. The Nazi were still using the Me-109 and FW-190, good designs for their time, but increasingly outdated against the latest Allied fighters, with the jet-powered Me-262 still too far off. And finally, the Nazi experten system concentrated offensive power in a handful of elite pilots. Just twelve pilots accounted for over 1100 kills in 1943. With no leave and no rest, inevitably these pilots would burn out and make a mistake or simple find their luck run dry and get killed, with only novices to replace them.

While strategic bombing couldn't win the war on its own, air superiority was a necessary prereqisite for the Normandy landings. As 1943 turned to 1944, the Allies sought a clear week of weather for a continuous assault that would draw up and defeat the Luftwaffe, using the newly arrived P-51B Mustang. Big Week closes out the book, as American and British bombers focused on an achievable target and ripped the guts out of the Luftwaffe. While operating over the Reich after the Big Week would never be safe, it was no longer the sure doom that is was in 1943.

This is one hell of a history, and highly recommended.

[Dick Reynolds · Rating 5 out of 5]

Put yourself into this scenario. It’s Saturday, February 19, 1994, the first day of the Big Week. You’re at a base in England and ready to take part in your first combat mission over Germany as a gunner on a B-17 Flying Fortress. The next day’s target is Berlin and your plane is part of a giant armada of some 400+ aircraft so you feel moderately safe. Once you’re airborne at 22,000 feet you realize the temperature inside the unpressurized aircraft is way below zero but you’re wearing a flight suit that is wired for heat so the cold is not a problem. When your flight is airborne you’re joined by many fighter aircraft such as the P-51 Mustang, also known by the bomber crews as Our Little Friends.
After several hours of flying you approach the target area and German anti-aircraft cannons begin filling the air with flak. Some of it hits other bombers but not yours. As your plane gets closer German fighters such as the Messerschmidt 120 attack the formation and the P-51s help drive them away. But the Nazi aircraft have some success and several B-17s are hit and go down as well as some of the P-51s. Your fear is lessened when you hit one of the German fighters and see it going down in flames.
Your plane reaches the target, bombs are away and the pilot turns the plane towards the English Channel and home base. Only when you cross the channel do you feel totally safe and you mentally chalk this mission up as a success and think: only twenty-four missions to go and then I’m heading stateside.
This is the kind of action author James Holland shares with the reader during the seven big days starting on February 19th along with many photos. The massive bombing of various parts of Germany was only one of the strategic actions taken by Allied forces in preparation for the invasion in June 1944.
Many well known military leaders are featured in the book, both American and German. On the Allied side we have Jimmy Doolittle, Nathan Twining, and Hollywood personality Jimmy Stewart. Major Stewart came to the UK in November 1942 and took command of the 703rd Bomb Squadron that flew B-24 Liberators. On one difficult mission Stewart’s plane was seriously damaged but he managed to get it back home. However, in trying to land safely, the plane broke in two. Stewart and his crew leapt out of the plane and, upon seeing that everyone was safe he remarked to his sergeant, “Somebody sure could get hurt in one of those damned things.”
As a postscript to this review I’m referring back to two newspaper clippings from my own military scrapbook. The first is from a 1966 Marine Corps Base, Quantico, VA paper which showed a photograph of two recent graduates of Marine officer candidate school. Second Lieutenant Ron McLean, Brigadier General Jimmy Stewart’s stepson, shares the stage with Second Lieutenant Lewis B. Puller, Jr., the son Lieutenant General Lewis B. “Chesty” Puller USMC of Chosin Reservoir fame, as both pairs of parents look on proudly. A second photograph taken several years later pictures a sad and mournful Jimmy Stewart at a military funeral when his stepson, killed in Vietnam action, is laid to rest at a Glendale, CA cemetery. I believe that I have a small understanding of how he felt since I also have lost a son.

[Cropredy · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a typical James Holland history. He takes a historical event during World War II, introduces us to several participants (on all sides - British, American, and German), and then follows those participants through the event while weaving in campaign narrative and analysis.

In this example, Holland covers a specific week in 1944 when the Allied Air Forces made a maximum bombing effort against the German industrial base with a goal of goading the Luftwaffe to defend and thus making them subject to Allied fighter escorts. If successful, a serious blow to German air power in the immediate months before D-Day would be achieved.

Most of the book covers the months before "The Big Week" when Allied bombing raids were savaged by German day and night fighters. Some raids had 25% casualties - unsustainable. It wasn't until the Mustang was added to the day raids (as it could fly all the way to the target) did losses diminish and German losses mount.

Drawn primarily from the memoirs of the participants and secondary sources, the book is a pleasant read without being terribly compelling. Beach reading for history buffs (I read it on a cruise boat on the Rhine River).

By the time Holland gets to the Big Week, the stories of the various raids have become repetitive and lost their drama (the drama of the planes that made it back to England versus those that were shot down). The "big week" reads like a foregone conclusion (which perhaps it was). I think the story would have been more interesting if Holland hadn't chosen to follow his participants over the course of 6+ months rather than weaving in more participants into the actual "big week". That is, as a reader, I was more interested in the "big week" as a historical event than the handful of individuals and their careers.

For sheer narrative force of a specific air raid, I recommend Ploesti -- a truly gripping read.

[Matt Collard · Rating 4 out of 5]

James Holland provides an extensively detailed account of Operation Argument, otherwise known as Big Week, which was an all-out offensive from the combined Allied air forces in February 1944 with the objective of definitively crushing the Luftwaffe and gaining air superiority in the lead-up to D-Day. Achieving this objective was critical and Big Week played an extremely important part in the success of D-Day and the eventual liberation of Europe by the Allied forces.

Holland has a great way of drawing the reader in by focusing on a few particular people who fought in the war and following their stories while also providing fresh and deeply interesting analysis on operational, technological and political aspects of the war. It’s a style that has made Holland one of my favourite authors and results in a book where you will at the very least either learn something new, rethink what you previously thought or be entertained following the plight of the people who were involved as if they were at the pub telling you their stories themselves - or you will experience all three.

The majority of this book actually outlines the months leading up to Big Week, with the actual event taking up only a small portion of the book. This is not an overly big deal as the build-up is definitely essential in providing the context, but it did take away some of the narrative intensity of Big Week itself as the danger of the missions the pilots undertook had been described numerous times already.

[Doug Phillips · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very good work covering the air battle over Europe. In parts, the book reads like an exciting war story told by those who were there. I appreciate the effort that Holland made to share the background leading up to the Big Week and then providing follow-up details on his focused key players.

[Yuri Sharon · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Big Week was the third week of February 1944, when Operation ARGUMENT was mounted by the combined US and British air-forces. James Holland argues that that air battle deserves greater recognition than it has previously received, and I think he makes his case. Attacking German aircraft production facilities, the exercise was also intended to use the superiority of Allied fighters – notably the US Mustang – to draw up and destroy German fighters; to thereby gain air superiority over Europe before the upcoming D Day invasion. By and large, the action worked – the German air defence was broken and could not be re-established.
Much of the book concerns the months before the Big Week, giving the reader very graphic accounts of what it was like to fly bombers and fighters, day and night, on both sides of the battle. Holland also sketches what it was like to be living in those German cities on the receiving end of the bombs.
The different policies and practices of the RAF and the US forces are examined and well explained, with the author insisting that the Americans had a clearer idea of what was needed than did the British.

[F.R. · Rating 4 out of 5]

I don’t have any interest in World War Two planes. To be honest, I couldn’t tell a Spitfire from a Messerschmidt; and was once dragged around the RAF museum, where I wore a bored expression throughout. But I like Holland’s writing and so, although it took me longer than usual, I eventually found myself caught up in the narrative.

[Alistair Edwards · Rating 3 out of 5]

This books was passed on to me by a friend who knows I share an interest in flying in the Second World War.

It certainly told a story that (regardless of my interest in related topics) I did not know. It also explained some things that I had not thought about. For instance, in the latter part of the War, the Luftwaffe was in a very poor shape, largely due to shortage of fuel (and Göring's incompetence, and Hitler's desperation). Defeat of the Luftwaffe was paramount so it appears that bombing raids on Germany not only had the obvious roles of destroying lives, property and morale, but also got the Nazi aircraft into the air, to be destroyed.

The emphasis is on the large scale, on the strategies implemented to defeat the Luftwaffe and Third Reich, but the author has also been clever in telling the small, personal stories. He recounts details of the careers and missions of individual pilots – from both sides. That makes me admire the effort and work that must have gone into finding out about those details – as well as the big picture.

In the end, though, it is a history book; it tells an important story, but it was not particularly entertaining to me.

[Simon Mee · Rating 3 out of 5]

Big Week, set in February 1944, covers the Bombing War carried out by Allied air forces over Europe and primarily Germany.

James Holland is a very good author of World War Two, with a focus on the individuals. There's a clear narrative as always and he generally does well with the emotional impact on the characters.

However, the subject has been traversed many many times before, and there's nothing surprising. All the expected touchstones are there (introduction of the Mustang, the Luftwaffe's shortage of oil, issues over bombing accuracy).

The title is also misleading, as Holland goes for a long lead in to the particular week, which is covered off in less than a third of it. Context is obviously important, but I wonder if the ballsier approach would have been to have started "in the action." By the time of "Big Week" I felt the narrative peak of the book had already passed.

If it was a torch bearer of the subject it would be easily be 4+ stars. Consider it a harsh 3 stars for churning over well trodden ground, albeit in a entertaining manner.

[Casey · Rating 4 out of 5]

A good book, providing a history of the Allied Strategic Bombing of Nazi German in a bit different perspective than other works. Rather than concentrating on the slow demise of the Nazi state’s infrastructure and morale through the relentless bombing campaign, the author makes the strong argument that the attrition of the Luftwaffe by early 1944 was the major success of the bombing effort, allowing freedom of action in many other areas. Starting with Bomber Command’s slow beginnings and through the 8th Air Force’s difficult year of 1943 the author points out the ever growing material and tactical advantage accruing to the Allies. While conversely the steady demise of the German’s defensive air strength is explained and demonstrated. Both trends are shown taking place in an environment of acerbic and short-sighted leadership having shifting stated objectives. All culminated in Big Week, 20-25 February 1944, when, in a series of massive multi-target coordinated raids, the British and American bombers, escorted by masses of experienced and well-trained fighter groups, broke the Luftwaffe’s ability to inflict heavy losses on Allied bomber formations. Mostly told through a well-suited cross section of the combatants, from both sides and across all the various positions (bomber crews, fighter pilots, support personnel, and leadership), the book provides a level of personal connection which is missing in some of the denser tomes on this same time and place. My one quibble is that, having built up the story line of the Allied march to air dominance which culminated in Big Week, the author than covers the end result and the period afterwards in a postscript rather than in a more detailed manner, denying the reader the full details of his thesis. But, even with that, it is a good book and great for those wanting to know more about the air battle portions of the combined strategic bombing campaign.

[Venky · Rating 5 out of 5]

While the whole word extolls the exploits of Normandy, waxes eloquent about the siege of Stalingrad and gasps collectively at the recollection of the Battle of the Bulge, there are a few battles - which even though, indispensable in influencing the final outcome of the War itself – have been relegated to the confines of obscurity. One such battle is OPERATION ARGUMENT. Popularly known as ‘Big Week’, the operation had at its cornerstone a relentless round-the-clock pummeling of German armament factories and strategic manufacturing bases. Targeting locations at Leipzig, Berlin, Schweinfurt, Hamburg and many others, the very gestalt driving this strategy was breaking the spine of an already demoralized Luftwaffe and thereby giving the Allies, a definitive air superiority. Mr. James Holland in his riveting book, “Big Week” recreates the exploits, endeavours and enervation surrounding OPERATION ARGUMENT.

Mr. Holland’s marvelous recreation of the deadly dog-fights in mid-air between the Messerschmitt and the Mustangs, B-17 Fortresses and B-24 Liberators makes for some hair raising and horripilation inducing reading. Sitting within the confines of a claustrophobic interior, the brave pilots, co-pilots, navigators, gunners and bomb manning personnel boarded their flying beasts, with neither complaints nor consternations. It might not have been a comforting thought for these courageous airmen to learn that their birds were also commonly termed “Flying Coffins.” Braving the deplorable English weather, which made visibility a mere hope inducing icing on the instruments, warding off annoying German fighters and having to contend with the intransigence, insouciance and inchoate decisions of the people commanding the Allied Air Forces, Mr. Holland’s airmen are deserving of more than just platitudes.

The U.S. Eighth Air Force by the third week of February 1944, was engaging in flying missions over the Continent from bases in Britain. Mr. James Holland pieces together a very interesting piece of contrast in relation to the bombing sorties. While the preference of the British was nighttime area bombing, the American philosophy rested on daytime bombing. The American logic being such a strategy would lead to better precision and assured destruction of the designated enemy targets. But it could not be denied that this option also exposed the Americans to the rabid German defenders. As Mr. Holland painstakingly details, in the initial phase of the battle for Ariel ascendancy, protection for both British and American bombers was provided by fighter escorts. Known as “little friends” these fighter aircraft would however only escort the bombers only part of the way. This was because of a severe limitation in flying range that plagued the fighters. Once bereft of escorts, the beleaguered bombers, attracted the attention, ire and fury of the German fighters like bees attracted to honey. The bombers were hounded, pounded and tormented till such time the escorts came back to their rescue. This situation however underwent a dramatic shift with the advent of the Mustang aircrafts. With an enviable range capable of escorting the bombers all the way to their target and back, the Mustangs titled the scales definitively in the favour of the Allies, and in the process stubbing out the last vestiges of German hope.

Yet another significant landmark point of inflection was attributable to Brigadier General Jimmy Doolittle. Brig. Gen. Doolittle who was at the forefront of the post-Pearl Harbour raid, completely reinvented the role of the P-51 Mustang. Cutting to shreds the accepted notion that the role of the P-51 was to act as escorts to the bombers as the latter went on their bombing raids, Doolittle conceptualized the P-51 going full tilt and all fury in taking the Luftwaffe head on and decimating them both in the air and on the ground. This decisive decision ensured that while the P-51s ran riot rampaging the enemy, the Luftwaffe’s morale was all but incinerated (along with their hapless and ill-trained pilots). Taking recourse to personal notes, diaries and detailed interviews, Mr. Holland provides a memorable, heart-warming and at times heart wrenching account of the extraordinary emotions swirling around the airmen as they readied for battle.

When the dust finally settled on OPERATION ARGUMENT, the final chapters in the fading book of the Luftwaffe’s must vaunted history had determinedly taken shape. The Luftwaffe lost over 500 German fighters and nearly as many irreplaceable pilots. “In total, some 3,300 bombers from the Eighth, over 500 from the Fifteenth Air Force, and some 2,750 from Bomber Command had attacked the main German aircraft industry targets outlined in POINTBLANK. Together, they had dropped some 22,000 tons – 4,000 tons more than had been dropped on London by the Luftwaffe during the entire eight-month Blitz.”

“Big Week” is an indispensable addition to the collection of every World War II aficionado. The interlacing of personal accounts with professional detachment is the telling feature of this book. The supreme sacrifices made by the indomitable warriors on both the warring factions makes one muse, philosophise, rant, rave and introspect about the futility that is war. Some of the notable protagonists meriting mention in Mr. Holland’s book include the Oscar winning actor and bomber captain Jimmy Stewart, German ace Heinz Knoke, and Donald Blakeslee, Acting Flight Lieutenant and the recipient of a plethora of distinctions, including, two Distinguished Service Crosses, two Silver Stars, Legion of Merit, eight Distinguished Flying Crosses, eight Air Medals and a Distinguished Flying Cross (United Kingdom).

OPERATION ARGUMENT has been tended to be generally overlooked when compared with the attention given to some of the fierce battles in the European theatre of operations. But Mr. Holland decisively, firmly and flamboyantly ameliorates this dichotomy with “The Big Week.” The bravery of the remarkable airmen and their sacrifices should never have gone unheeded and with the publication of “The Big Week”, never will. For this we all need to join together in thanking Mr. James Holland for his yeoman service.

[Peter Grant · Rating 3 out of 5]

Reading this book made me start to question a lot of modern history books, and gave me the uncomfortable feeling that a lot of modern writers like James Holland are recycling existing material into their very readable prose. I was slightly wary of the author having seen his participation in the bonkers Hunting Hitler TV show - more like Carry on Adolf. That said though, he does do a good job of drawing many threads together to tell a more or less coherent story - in fact, there were often too many threads and I often found myself getting lost in all the characters. Then, in came the character of Heinz Knoke whose book 'I flew for the Fuehrer' I read a while ago and found absolutely gripping. So I could see that Holland just chose a few tidbits and seasoned his account with them. Is this history - nicking other people's stories? Maybe it is - I just found the source material so much more compelling that the filtered version. Anyway, the book deals with 'big week' - a week in February 1944 when the USAAF and Bomber Command upped their bombing campaign to a new and coordinated level. The descriptions of the raids, the terrifying conditions faced by the bomber crews, the derring do of the fighter pilots and the deaths are all dealt with very well, but this is only for about the final quarter of the book which, given the title, was a bit odd. Finally, it must have been intimidating to have met a lot of the participants as all of them are described by Holland as having piercing eyes - just wondering how he researched that?

[William · Rating 4 out of 5]

Overall, a very good history of the Allied bombing campaign (the 8th, 9th, and 15th) over Europe that led to the air superiority needed for D-Day to be successful. I strongly agree with the author's conclusion that without said air superiority, the landings would have been at much higher risk of failure.

The good: following specific aviators (who the author obviously both interviewed and who kept reasonable journals, which made details about specific missions more accurate.) By following both sides, it gave a good overall view of the fight.

The... less good: for some reason (I suspect to generate a narrative) the author bounced around in time a little, and seemed to conclude many chapters by indicating that one side had gained the upper hand, only to contradict it with the starting sentence of the next chapter. (That might be a little strong, but it was my impression at times.) Also, the time shifts confused me at times. There's a timeline at the back of the book that I wish I'd known about, so I could reference it when that confusion hit me.

Final thoughts: at least as much as The Bomber Mafia this book drove home the criticality of air superiority in a war. It cannot be overstated.

Unrelated thought: I wasn't able to get this book on Kindle (I used Hoopla) - and I very much miss the integrated highlight -> quotes in GoodReads feature, enough that not having a Kindle edition available from a library will decrease my willingness to read a book.

[Ian · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is about the bombing campaign in the Second World War - not all of the bombing campaign but just a short period from autumn 1943 to early spring 1944, with the focus mainly but not entirely on the daylight bombing of the US air force. At the start of the period the German Luftwaffe was nothing like the all-conquering force it had been but it was still competitive in the skies of western Europe. This was a problem for the Allies as the success of the D-Day landings was dependent on achieving air superiority. The book looks at how the seeds of that air superiority were achieved, focusing on a devastating series of bombing raids in February 1944 that targeted German aircraft factories but also the German air force itself, with a combination of new tactics and the deployment of better aircraft allowing the Allies to break the Luftwaffe.

I found the early part of the book a bit of a trudge but it really picked up once the Big Week series of raids kick off. Overall I think this is an interesting book, which makes a good case for not seeing the bombing campaign in isolation but instead as something linked to the success of the war in the West generally, while also keeping to the forefront the human cost of the campaign.

[John Purvis · Rating 5 out of 5]

"Big Week: The Biggest Air Battle of World War II" eBook was published in 2018 (November) and was written by James Holland. Mr. Holland is author or co-author of 13 non-fiction books and nine novels. 

I received an ARC of this novel through https://www.netgalley.com in return for a fair and honest review. I categorize this novel as ‘R’ because it contains scenes of Violence. The book covers the air war in Europe from mid-1943 until mid-1944.

While the focus is on the overall strategy of both the Allies and Germans during this period of time, there are also several side stories of individuals from both sides of the conflict. It addresses how the large egos interfered with good decisions with both sides.  

Some time is spent looking at Hitler and his indecisiveness which prevented the German engineering establishment from developing new weapons in a timely manner. Germany entered the war with the ME-109 in 1939. It was still flying it in 1945. The Allies had developed and deployed a series of ever better fighters over that same period. During that same period, the German pilots were coming out of flight school with fewer and fewer hours compared to the American pilots. 

This all led up to the "Big Week" when Allied air forces bombed Germany day and night for a solid week. The biggest air battle of World War II that gave the Allies air superiority for D-Day. 

I thoroughly enjoyed the 12 hours I spent reading this 400-page non-fiction book. I found this book to be very readable, not just dry facts and figures. I certainly learned a few things about the air forces of both sides. I think that the cover art is well chosen. I give this novel a 5 out of 5.

Further book reviews I have written can be accessed at https://johnpurvis.wordpress.com/blog/. 

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If you are a student of the World War II era in history, you may find my pages "World War II Sources" (a collection of museums, websites, Facebook pages, and Twitter feeds with information on the World War II era in history) and "World War II Timeline" of interest.

[Noah · Rating 3 out of 5]

Amazingly, I’ve never read any of James Holland’s books despite him being a key pop-culture WWII historian. I can tell that, as per his podcast, his true love is the ground war, such that this book was not my favorite account of the conflict in the air. It’s somewhat dull and dry, which is amazing given that we’re talking about the Combined Bomber Offensive over Europe, one of the most violent campaigns in all of military history.

The highlights were looks at individual airmen on both sides, although these parts were little more than a collection of primary sources that, in many cases, I’ve read separately. Also unusual was the fact that it took until 2/3 of the way through the book to get to the notional title, the “Big Week” push of February 1944

All in all, a good daily-driver WWII history book, but I’ll take Masters of the Air by Donald Miller all day every day and twice on Sunday.

[Gretchen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Mr. Holland describes the February, 1944, week that helped prepare for the successful Allied invasion on D-Day which led to the liberation of Europe. He begins with the air battles in the fall, 1943, and the political machinations of the British and American leaders. Most importantly, he takes us into the cockpits with the flight crews who were risking their lives for freedom.
The author gives us detailed maps, the plane designs, hierarchies, and the various personnel who influenced the flights. Mr. Holland describes the mistakes in the build up and shows how they work through them to the climax of the big week.
I am a big fan of WWII histories and found this book fascinating because he used first person resources, memoirs, diaries, interviews and more.
I received BIG WEEK, The Biggest Air Battle of World War II through a goodreads giveaway.

[Ryan · Rating 4 out of 5]

James Holland hasn't let me down yet, this being the third book of his I've now read. I'm really floored by his versatility with WW2 subject matter. A lot of authors stick to one theater or one specific battle over and over. Holland is a master at leap frogging from one subject to another and still being totally believable in his knowledge of the matter. His work here is no less believable. He does a great job walking you through a brief history of each side's evolution in WW2 to the climatic air battles in 1944 that ultimately sealed Nazi Germany's fate. I recommend this to anyone interested in the air war of WW2 or those wanting to broaden their scope of the subject beyond the big ground battles that defined the war. This shouldn't be left out, it was certainly pivotal and especially harrowing learning about the ordeal these pilots and crews went through to secure victory for the Allies. Excellent read and really solidifies Holland as a modern master of WW2 in my book.

[Patrick Pillow · Rating 5 out of 5]

It is hard to add what others have said already; James Holland has a writing style not too dissimilar to James Hornfischer or the legendary Max Hastings. This sweeping narrative of the bombing missions over Germany in the autumn of ‘43 through “Big Week”, covers all aspects of the battle and those who took part. This is an engrossing book on a subject that has long needed its own story to be told. Bravo Mr. Holland.

[Marshall Snyder · Rating 5 out of 5]

Am outstanding book on the bombing campaign against Germany by the Royal Air Force and U.S. Army Air Force. Holland writes well, but also includes 16 pages of excellent maps and charts, something often not included in military histories.

[Nicholas Kokolakis · Rating 5 out of 5]

Killed it in a day. The stories of the tow bombs was fascinating.

[Jed Kirk · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting, historical recollections from air battles of WW 2. An insight into the pilot's lives.

[Brian DeVries · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm a sucker for WWII aircraft documentaries. This one was as good as any of the other hundreds of books out there.

[Emmanuel Gustin · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good but not great, this is a workhorse history of a WWII air battle. Robust, but a bit plodding.

On the positive side, this account has at its centre the people that lived through these events. It draws on interviews, memoirs and diaries, some of them well-known, others much less so. James Holland does not really have the writing skills to really convey these experiences to the reader, with the effect that at the end accounts of life-threatening danger become a bit repetitive and boring, but maybe that is for the better. It is anyway very hard for us to imagine the fear and stress these people went through, and sensationalism should be avoided.

But this personalised approach to history has its weaknesses, when it is not backed by other types of research. There is very little originality to this account, and even a tendency to repeat old myths. The author does not have in-depth knowledge of aviation history. When this shows in small errors such as mis-calculating the number of machine guns on eight P-47 Thunderbolts (it was 64, not 32), it doesn't really matter. But when this results in naive repetition of the myths surrounding the B-17, the Norden bombsight, or the Merlin Mustang, I have to think that this is a lost opportunity. It turns what could have been a very interesting book into an also-ran. Like a biplane making its first flight in 1938, it is obsolescent by design.

This is blow-by-blow history, with too little room for analysis, and barely any thought for the people at the receiving end of all those bombs. It fits neatly into the traditions set by (for example) Cornelius Ryan, but without the originality, and never quite reaching the same level of skill. Nevertheless the personal recollections that have been gathered on these pages are worth the read.

[Terence S · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5/5

TL;DR:
Big Week tells the story of the Allied bombing raids on Germany during WWII, and the Luftwaffe’s response to them, through the eyes and memories of the pilots and crews on the front lines. This makes for a story that is simultaneously well-researched and as thrilling as a war novel, but does mean that discussion of military strategy is brief (though quite well presented) and the experiences of civilians (or anyone who’s not a pilot, really) are little more than a short description.

The long version:
Big Week, by military historian James Holland, tells the story of Operation Argument, the titular ‘big week’ in 1944 when the British and American air forces focused their fighters and bombers towards the destruction of Hitler’s Luftwaffe. The book explores the planning, execution and aftermath of the operation through the eyes of the pilots, both Allied and German, and shows how Big Week fitted into the overall aerial bombing campaign.

Overall, Holland’s investigation of the events leading up to Big Week, the raids themselves, and their effect on the air war in Europe, is done well. His ample use of personal testimonies, gleaned from interviews and memoirs of pilots and crews on the front line are effective in bringing a more human perspective to the Allied bomber offensive than many other histories, which emphasise the mechanical might of air combat but rarely mention the crews, except as statistics. Holland’s writing style, not dissimilar to that of a military thriller, tells the story of the Allied bomber offensive through the eyes of the pilots, with his vivid descriptions of air combat, like “rockets … exploding in the middle of the formation, showering the bombers with blast and bits of shrapnel … bombers [getting] hit and explod[ing] midair, a truly shocking spectacle for any aircrew watching”.

Holland’s storytelling may resemble that of a war novel, but his research and explanations provide the evidence to back up the tactical developments and airborne heroics, both Allies and Axis, which he chronicles. This information, based on the aforementioned eyewitness accounts, as well as war diaries, historians and Holland’s own investigations, gives context to the air war, but doesn’t detract from the pace of the story or drown out the heroics and sacrifices of the people involved under a wall of statistics. For instance, he highlights that “in the last four months of 1943, 967 Luftwaffe pilots would be shot down over Germany by the Allies, but a staggering 1052 more [were lost] without any help from the enemy.” He explains that these losses were “in part…due to trigger happy and inexperienced anti-aircraft gunners, and in part due to inexperienced pilots with substandard training…Germany had long been fighting a war it could no longer afford.” Holland’s presentation of statistics and strategy is effective at presenting the facts without detracting from the story

However, this book does have its flaws. Although Holland has created a gripping and well-researched account of the Operation Argument raids, and of the Allied Combined Bomber Offensive in general, it’s almost all seen from the pilots’ perspectives. The strategic thinking and political forces that shaped the air war serve more as a way of adding context to the personal anecdotes of the pilots, and although Holland’s explanations of the factors that shaped the air war are done quite well, he often abandons in-depth discussion to give a detailed recount of some prosaic moment that, while helping to show some aspect of the aircrews’ personalities, ultimately has little bearing on the overall war.
That said, at least there is some explanation of strategy in this book. For the civilians who suffered or died from the bombings, or who saw their sons, brothers or sweethearts fly off and never return, this book devotes all of four pages - out of 350. Holland does point out that the pilots’ lives, tough as they were, were far preferable to “the exhaustion, terror and trauma caused [to the population] by the Allied bombing of Germany”, and relates the stories of two people - a nurse and a schoolboy - who witnessed the aftermath of the raids, but the lack of any proper discussion of what the civilians endured seems like quite a serious oversight in my view.

Overall, though, Big Week’s positives do a great job of making up for its limited perspective and lack of non-combatant viewpoints. Holland has managed to tell the stories of the pilots and flight crews who flew in the bombing raids on Occupied Europe, and of the often-overlooked aerial defenders of the Reich, with engaging detail, and almost always without turning to propaganda cliches or high-handed moralising when it comes to the facts. Although Holland’s focus on pilots’ stories makes the scope of this book both broader than the titular week (this book covers pretty much the entire Combined Bomber Offensive period) and too narrow to provide an overall look at all the aspects, and all the consequences, of the air raids on Europe, he has done a great job at creating a historical account of the raids from the perspective of those who were on the front lines, and brought the stories of the aircrews back to life.

[Chris Wray · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a tour de force from James Holland, and is exactly what I have come to expect from him: a thoroughly researched, compellingly written narrative history. A theme that runs through all of his books is the conviction that the way the Western Allies approached the war was essentially the right one, and was most likely to ensure their victory - but this is no one-sided hagiography. Holland's analysis is sharp, and he is unsparing in his criticism of Allied command, strategy or tactics where he feels it is justified. Another feature of his writing is his establishment of a cast of characters, whom he tends to follow and quote from throughout the book (and even across multiple books). This serves to humanise the events he is writing about, and is ultimately what keeps me interested in the subject of the Second World War - these are extraordinary events, but are being lived and experienced by ordinary people like you or I.

As he sets the scene in the first few chapters and introduces us to the USAAF, I was struck by the attitude and self-belief that suffused the young men who flew and crewed the bombers - they grown up in an increasingly technological society, and one that was growing in confidence as it emerged from the Great Depression. Additionally, the USA had the time and resources to invest in its young pilots, who typically joined their squadrons with several hundred hours of flying experience. All of this was both a product of and a contributor to the Allied strategy of 'steel not flesh'. Nevertheless, by 1943, all three of the main protagonists in the bomber campaign over Western Europe (the US, Britain and Germany) had encountered significant challenges in their attempt to decisively deploy air power in that theatre. The US had rapidly expanded their bomber force and was implementing its pre-war doctrine of daylight bombing. This was (theoretically) more accurate and utilised a strategy of heavy bombers that were heavily armed and armoured, and deployed in large formations to be self-defending. The compromise was that the American four-engine heavy bombers could carry only a modest payload compared to their British counterparts, who could drop five times the weight of ordinance using the same number of aircraft. For the British, the compromise for having a much greater bomb carrying capacity was that the British Lancasters and Halifaxes were much more vulnerable to enemy fire. British Bomber Command had also rapidly expanded since the start of the war, and focused on night bombing using a "bomber stream" strategy where aircraft operated independently but all followed the same predefined route to the target. Sir Arthur Harris, the uncompromising head of Bomber Command, insisted that his forces carry out a programme of area bombing against German cities to (in theory) fatally cripple German war industry and remove their ability to continue the war. While distasteful to modern sensibilities, thanks to improved technology and tactics (such as the Pathfinder Force), this approach to bombing was scarcely more indiscriminate than the daylight bombing pursued by the Americans. It was also militarily justifiable in the effort to hamper key war industries, particularly aircraft production. All in all, it is difficult to see how bombing could have been more accurate with contemporary technology, albeit that the American marketing of this was much more successful than Harris's bullish and cold blooded ruthlessness - but in both cases, Allied bomber forces were incurring significant casualties for relatively limited returns, with no conceivable end to the bombing campaign in sight. For the Germans, the main challenge was a perpetual shortage of everything: training, fuel, and modern aircraft. As Holland comments, "Germany simply could not compete with the industrial output, technological advances and vast global reach of the Allies, nor with the immense reserves of manpower and burgeoning war industry of the Soviet Union. By the autumn of 1943, Germany was short of just about everything, but especially of manpower, food and oil, the three requirements needed above anything else for a long attritional war."

As I mentioned above, the Allied bomber campaign was a striking example of the 'steel not flesh' approach to fighting the war. Holland points out that the Combined Bomber Command heavy bomber force put fewer men in the front line than a single infantry division, but with a destructive power many times as great. However, for those who were on the front line and who made up the crews, the casualty rates were horrifying. By the middle of 1943, the casualties among bomber crews had reached crisis point, and the US 8th Air Force commanders in particular were beginning to doubt their ability to sustain the offensive with continued mass bombing over Germany. Inflicting these casualties was the Luftwaffe, perpetually in disarray but still a formidable fighting force. By 1943, the Luftwaffe's main strength lay in fighters. This contradicted Hitler's insistence that they remain on the offensive (this would have required a significant heavy bomber force), but aligned perfectly with the air defence system that had been established, similar to Dowding's system during the Battle of Britain. Consisting of radar, observers, massed flak, and day and night fighters, German air defences couldn't stop the raids against German cities and industry but did have the ability to reliably interdict Allied bombers and inflict significant casualties. It had become clear that bombers were not capable of self-defence, and Holland notes that, "to wrest back the initiative from the Luftwaffe, they needed many more and better fighter aircraft than those of the enemy, flown by pilots with greater skill and experience and employing superior tactics, and, perhaps most important of all, with greater range. But in the dark days and nights of the autumn of 1943, bringing these six criteria together still seemed a long way off." A further challenge that the Allies' air commanders faced in 1943 was the emerging consensus that the Combined Bomber Offensive alone was not going to end the war. A cross-channel invasion was needed, and was committed to for May 1944. To allow this invasion to succeed, the Allies needed to secure air superiority over Western Europe, which in turn meant defeating the Luftwaffe fighter force in the air. Again, the Allied Bomber forces could not achieve this objective without a long-range escort fighter, something they did not have in 1943.

These two challenges, bringing the casualty rates under control and substantially degrading the Luftwaffe fighter forces ahead of OVERLORD, appeared to be an insurmountable problem - until the P-51 Mustang entered the fray. Holland argues that the P-51 is, perhaps, the most important aircraft ever built, and certainly the most significant aircraft of the war. It is undoubtedly a case of fortuitous timing in design, development and production, and the only tragedy is that the potential of this remarkable aircraft was not recognised sooner.

During Operation Pointblank, the USAAF had sought to defeat the Luftwaffe by crippling their means of production - aircraft manufacturing and assembly, ball bearing plants, and the like. This had resulted in the bombing raids deep into Germany which had led to the crippling casualties noted above, and had notably failed to fatally weaken the Luftwaffe. Now, in February 1944, the Allies were ready to launch Operation Argument - otherwise known as Big Week. This was a more focused and concentrated operation, involving both the 8th Air Force and RAF Bomber Command, which meant that bombing of key targets could take place both day and night, exhausting and overwhelming German air defences. The long-range fighter escort provided by the P-51 meant that, as well as bombing targets on the ground, the German fighters could be taken on and defeated in the air. Holland explains that, "Doolittle's and Kepner's new fighter tactics were bearing fruit and, with more long-range Mustangs on their way, the time was right for a much more concentrated and sustained assault on the German Air Force. No longer would bombers simply head to a target, drop their bombs and return; the bomber formations would also be used as bait to entice the German fighters into combat with the Allies' own increasingly large fighter force. Strategic air power had always been about bombers. Now, six months after the first deep-penetration bombing raids, that belief had been cast aside, because it had become widely agreed that even more important than the bombers were the fighters. Fighters piloted by men of superior skill and training. Fighter aircraft that had greater speed and agility than those of the enemy, and in greater numbers. Fighters that had greater endurance too, so that they could maraud deep into Germany, hammering the beleaguered enemy in the air and on the ground and destroying the enemy fighter force."

The results of Big Week were devastating, as Holland continues, "it was not so much the damage to the aircraft factories that really set the Luftwaffe back but more the catastrophic losses to their existing fighter defence. Nonetheless, the damage caused on the ground through the week's bombing had been considerable. In all, some 70 per cent of the aircraft factory buildings targeted were destroyed...The Americans had proved, conclusively, the value of bombing by day, but, more importantly, had demonstrated the ascendancy of the American fighter, and in this clash of arms the real weight of the victory should be judged. During Big Week, the Americans lost just 28 fighters, the Germans lost over 500: a ratio of 18:1...The most marked impact of Big Week was unquestionably, however, the Luftwaffe's loss of aircraft and particularly pilots."

Holland concludes, surely correctly, that Big Week is an essential part of the D-Day story, and one that deserves to be better known: "If Big Week is taken as one single battle, then it was the largest of the war, yet today it is largely forgotten, as is the importance of the epic clashes that took place in the air during the autumn of 1943 and early months of 1944. For both sides, this was a pivotal moment in the air war and that third week of February was the point at which the Allied plans for D-Day were saved. By April, the skies over western Europe were largely clear and the Allies had the all-important air superiority they so needed. It deserves to be better known and to be woven more clearly into the D-Day narrative, rather than consigned to the general history of the war in the air, which in turn is so often viewed in isolation rather than in its more important wider context." This is an excellent piece of narrative history and fills in a large gap in my knowledge and understanding of the war in the West. Highly recommended!