Bomber (novel)
Encyclopedia
Novel
A novel is a book of long narrative in literary prose. The genre has historical roots both in the fields of the medieval and early modern romance and in the tradition of the novella. The latter supplied the present generic term in the late 18th century....
written by Len Deighton
Len Deighton
Leonard Cyril Deighton is a British military historian, cookery writer, and novelist. He is perhaps most famous for his spy novel The IPCRESS File, which was made into a film starring Michael Caine....
and published in the UK
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
in 1970. It is the fictionalised account of the events of 31 June [sic
Sic
Sic—generally inside square brackets, [sic], and occasionally parentheses, —when added just after a quote or reprinted text, indicates the passage appears exactly as in the original source...
], 1943 in which an RAF
Royal Air Force
The Royal Air Force is the aerial warfare service branch of the British Armed Forces. Formed on 1 April 1918, it is the oldest independent air force in the world...
bombing raid on the Ruhr
Ruhr
The Ruhr is a medium-size river in western Germany , a right tributary of the Rhine.-Description:The source of the Ruhr is near the town of Winterberg in the mountainous Sauerland region, at an elevation of approximately 2,200 feet...
area of western Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
goes wrong. In each chapter, the plot is advanced by seeing the progress of the day through the eyes of protagonist
Protagonist
A protagonist is the main character of a literary, theatrical, cinematic, or musical narrative, around whom the events of the narrative's plot revolve and with whom the audience is intended to most identify...
s on both sides of the conflict.
Plot summary
Sam Lambert is an experienced RAF pilot based at an East AngliaEast Anglia
East Anglia is a traditional name for a region of eastern England, named after an ancient Anglo-Saxon kingdom, the Kingdom of the East Angles. The Angles took their name from their homeland Angeln, in northern Germany. East Anglia initially consisted of Norfolk and Suffolk, but upon the marriage of...
n bomber station. He has been flying missions over Germany since the start of the war and as he nears his tour's end, he is developing stressful exhaustion. The stress of flying missions is exacerbated by a plot device similar to that found in Here to Eternity. Lambert is an expert cricket bowler and the station commander needs his participation to assure victory against a rival. Lambert's refusal to do put him at odds with the station commander and an ambitious and unscrupulous flight lieutenant
Flight Lieutenant
Flight lieutenant is a junior commissioned rank in the Royal Air Force and the air forces of many Commonwealth countries. It ranks above flying officer and immediately below squadron leader. The name of the rank is the complete phrase; it is never shortened to "lieutenant"...
who seeks to force Lambert out of flying by taking his best crewmen and replacing them with poor performers (this hearkens to another war movie, Twelve O'clock High
Twelve O'Clock High
Twelve O'Clock High is a 1949 American war film about aircrews in the United States Army's Eighth Air Force who flew daylight bombing missions against Nazi Germany and occupied France during the early days of American involvement in World War II. The film was adapted by Sy Bartlett, Henry King ...
). At the same time, his crew revere him and believe that he is the one factor that will ensure their survival. RAF Bomber Command
RAF Bomber Command
RAF Bomber Command controlled the RAF's bomber forces from 1936 to 1968. During World War II the command destroyed a significant proportion of Nazi Germany's industries and many German cities, and in the 1960s stood at the peak of its postwar military power with the V bombers and a supplemental...
is organizing a large air raid on Krefeld
Krefeld
Krefeld , also known as Crefeld until 1929, is a city in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It is located northwest of Düsseldorf, its centre lying just a few kilometres to the west of the River Rhine; the borough of Uerdingen is situated directly on the Rhine...
tonight. We join the bomber crews at rest and in preparation for the ordeal. The men, their planes, weapons, responsibilities, attitudes, thoughts and fears are described to us in great detail with minute historical accuracy.
There are frequent references to weather conditions, meteorological phenomena and forecasts that add to the foreboding in the plot.
Meanwhile across the Channel
English Channel
The English Channel , often referred to simply as the Channel, is an arm of the Atlantic Ocean that separates southern England from northern France, and joins the North Sea to the Atlantic. It is about long and varies in width from at its widest to in the Strait of Dover...
in northwest Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
the small market town of Altgarten goes about its daily business, its residents and wartime guests aware of the war's progress but curiously untouched by it.
We follow Oberleutnant
Oberleutnant
Oberleutnant is a junior officer rank in the militaries of Germany, Switzerland and Austria. In the German Army, it dates from the early 19th century. Translated as "Senior Lieutenant", the rank is typically bestowed upon commissioned officers after five to six years of active duty...
August Bach returning from leave in Altgarten to his duties at a Freya radar
Freya radar
Freya was an early warning radar deployed by Germany during World War II, named after the Norse Goddess Freyja. During the war over a thousand stations were built. A naval version operating on a slightly different wavelength was also developed as Seetakt...
installation on the remote Dutch coast looking out towards England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
. Bach is a World War I veteran now serving as commander of a radar station charged with detecting and tracking the Tommi Terrorflieger on their night-time raids against the Fatherland and guide by radio Luftwaffe Nachtjäger (nightfighters) to intercept and attack them. The holder of the Pour Le Merite
Pour le Mérite
The Pour le Mérite, known informally as the Blue Max , was the Kingdom of Prussia's highest military order for German soldiers until the end of World War I....
for heroism, he is symbolic of a more genteel and decidedly non-Nazi background. The counterpoint to this is his son's membership in a Waffen SS unit serving in Russia. He is a widower with a second younger son, looked after by a state provided caregiver.
Back in Altgarten the Bürgermeister (German: "mayor") finalises preparations for his own birthday banquet. It is to be held in a cosy restaurant located in one of the timber-built houses surrounding the medieval town square. We are introduced to the Altgarten TENO
TENO
Technische Nothilfe was a German organisation. It was established by members of Technische Abteilung of the paramilitary Freikorps Garde-Kavallerie-Schützen-Division.-History:The TN was founded on September 30, 1919 by Otto Lummitzsch with the stated purpose to protect and maintain vital...
(Technische Nothilfe or "Civil Defence") engineers who regularly work heroically in the nearby Ruhr
Ruhr
The Ruhr is a medium-size river in western Germany , a right tributary of the Rhine.-Description:The source of the Ruhr is near the town of Winterberg in the mountainous Sauerland region, at an elevation of approximately 2,200 feet...
cities following air raids, and the local fire crew, adequate for a small country town but useless against what is to come.
The bombs are loaded into the Lancasters, the German radars are allowed to "warm up", the aircrews adjust their night vision and everyone sits and waits and waits. Superstitions, rites and rituals are respected as the combatants ready themselves. Meanwhile Altgarten's people continue with their day-to-day routines.
Eventually the raid gets under way. The British bomber stream
Bomber stream
The bomber stream was a tactic developed by the Royal Air Force Bomber Command to overwhelm the German aerial defences of the Kammhuber Line during World War II....
forms up and navigates its dogleg course avoiding known flak concentrations and searchlight
Searchlight
A searchlight is an apparatus that combines a bright light source with some form of curved reflector or other optics to project a powerful beam of light of approximately parallel rays in a particular direction, usually constructed so that it can be swiveled about.-Military use:The Royal Navy used...
batteries. As the bombers are pinpointed by German nightfighters, we discover in the minutest detail how tiny pieces of shrapnel from an 88 mm anti-aircraft shell can destroy one of 750 Lancasters, each costing more than £42,000 at 1943 prices.
Despite the meticulous planning, things go wrong immediately: A Lancaster almost crashes on take-off; a Junkers fighter crashes into the sea after hitting birds over the IJsselmeer
IJsselmeer
IJsselmeer is a shallow artificial lake of 1100 km² in the central Netherlands bordering the provinces of Flevoland, North Holland and Friesland, with an average depth of 5 to 6 m. The IJsselmeer is the largest lake in Western Europe....
; another is shot down by a friendly flak-ship. A pathfinder
Pathfinder (RAF)
The Pathfinders were elite squadrons in RAF Bomber Command during World War II. They located and marked targets with flares, which a main bomber force could aim at, increasing the accuracy of their bombing...
Mosquito
De Havilland Mosquito
The de Havilland DH.98 Mosquito was a British multi-role combat aircraft that served during the Second World War and the postwar era. It was known affectionately as the "Mossie" to its crews and was also nicknamed "The Wooden Wonder"...
is downed and its marker bombs explode south east of Altgarten; with little flak and clear bombing conditions, Christmas Tree marker pyrotechnics are placed over the marker bombs with unusual accuracy. Creepback
Creepback
Creepback is the tendency of bomber aircraft using optical bombsights to release their weapons aimed at target markers before time, leading to a gradual spread backwards along the bombing path of the concentration of bombing...
ensures that the entire town of 5,000 inhabitants is carpet-bombed
Carpet bombing
Carpet bombing is a large aerial bombing done in a progressive manner to inflict damage in every part of a selected area of land. The phrase invokes the image of explosions completely covering an area, in the same way that a carpet covers a floor. Carpet bombing is usually achieved by dropping many...
by a force designed to destroy a city: a firestorm
Firestorm
A firestorm is a conflagration which attains such intensity that it creates and sustains its own wind system. It is most commonly a natural phenomenon, created during some of the largest bushfires, forest fires, and wildfires...
results.
The author maintains a clinically distanced vantage point, understating and implying the horror of the characters' situations. Even so, the protagonists' injuries and deaths are described in the same detail as the airmen's tactics. Each successive event is clinically dissected and analysed almost as though in slow-motion. As is the case with virtually all of his works, the author does portray some characters' actions as counter-productive to their own cause. By the time the raid is over, Altgarten is destroyed; many of the main characters are dead or have lost those close to them. Despite the attack going terribly wrong, there are no punishments meted out. Lambert - for not playing cricket - is banished from flying, an indignity that he views with mixed emotions.
The book ends with an epilogue which gives details of the later lives of the major characters, some of whom are purportedly still alive at the time of the book's appearance.
Viewpoints
- The crew of RAF LancasterAvro LancasterThe Avro Lancaster is a British four-engined Second World War heavy bomber made initially by Avro for the Royal Air Force . It first saw active service in 1942, and together with the Handley Page Halifax it was one of the main heavy bombers of the RAF, the RCAF, and squadrons from other...
bomberBomberA bomber is a military aircraft designed to attack ground and sea targets, by dropping bombs on them, or – in recent years – by launching cruise missiles at them.-Classifications of bombers:...
, nicknamed "Creaking Door", particularly its pilotAviatorAn aviator is a person who flies an aircraft. The first recorded use of the term was in 1887, as a variation of 'aviation', from the Latin avis , coined in 1863 by G. de la Landelle in Aviation Ou Navigation Aérienne...
, Flight Sergeant Sam Lambert - August Bach, the commanding officer of a LuftwaffeLuftwaffeLuftwaffe is a generic German term for an air force. It is also the official name for two of the four historic German air forces, the Wehrmacht air arm founded in 1935 and disbanded in 1946; and the current Bundeswehr air arm founded in 1956....
radarRadarRadar is an object-detection system which uses radio waves to determine the range, altitude, direction, or speed of objects. It can be used to detect aircraft, ships, spacecraft, guided missiles, motor vehicles, weather formations, and terrain. The radar dish or antenna transmits pulses of radio...
station on the Dutch coast - Oberleutnant Victor Löwenherz, an aristocratic Luftwaffe night fighterNight fighterA night fighter is a fighter aircraft adapted for use at night or in other times of bad visibility...
pilot and his fellow crew members - Bach's housekeeper/mistress, Anna-Luisa, and his young son, Hansl, at their home in Altgarten, a small German village close to the Dutch border
- Altgarten's burgomaster, fire chief, civil defence (TENOTENOTechnische Nothilfe was a German organisation. It was established by members of Technische Abteilung of the paramilitary Freikorps Garde-Kavallerie-Schützen-Division.-History:The TN was founded on September 30, 1919 by Otto Lummitzsch with the stated purpose to protect and maintain vital...
) engineers and residents
Legacy
Bomber is regarded well in some circles, Kingsley AmisKingsley Amis
Sir Kingsley William Amis, CBE was an English novelist, poet, critic, and teacher. He wrote more than 20 novels, six volumes of poetry, a memoir, various short stories, radio and television scripts, along with works of social and literary criticism...
rated Bomber one of the ten best books of the 20th century and Anthony Burgess
Anthony Burgess
John Burgess Wilson – who published under the pen name Anthony Burgess – was an English author, poet, playwright, composer, linguist, translator and critic. The dystopian satire A Clockwork Orange is Burgess's most famous novel, though he dismissed it as one of his lesser works...
, in Ninety-nine Novels
Ninety-nine Novels
Anthony Burgess's book Ninety-Nine Novels: The Best in English since 1939 — A Personal Choice covers a 44-year span between 1939 and 1983. Burgess was a prolific reader, in his early career reviewing more than 350 novels in just over two years for the Yorkshire Post...
, cited it as one of the 99 best novels in English since 1939.
In 1979 Motörhead frontman, Lemmy, dedicated the band's 3rd album Bomber
Bomber (album)
Bomber is the third studio album by the British heavy metal band Motörhead. It was recorded in 1979, the same year as Overkill. The album reached number 12 on the UK charts and brought some of Motörhead's most popular songs, like "Bomber", "Dead Men Tell No Tales" and "Stone Dead...
to Len Deighton, as it was his novel that had inspired the title-track.
Adaptation
In 1995 the BBC's Radio 4 broadcast a "real time" dramatisation of Deighton's documentary novel Bomber, covering the novel's action following RAFRoyal Air Force
The Royal Air Force is the aerial warfare service branch of the British Armed Forces. Formed on 1 April 1918, it is the oldest independent air force in the world...
Lancaster
Avro Lancaster
The Avro Lancaster is a British four-engined Second World War heavy bomber made initially by Avro for the Royal Air Force . It first saw active service in 1942, and together with the Handley Page Halifax it was one of the main heavy bombers of the RAF, the RCAF, and squadrons from other...
bomber O-Orange's take-off in 1943, life in the German town that was its allocated target, the bombing raid and the plane's return at night. The drama threaded through the station's unchangeable schedule of news and current affairs from early morning to midnight http://www.northwestvision.co.uk/page/crew-of-the-month/adrian-bean. It starred Tom Baker
Tom Baker
Thomas Stewart "Tom" Baker is a British actor. He is best known for playing the fourth incarnation of the Doctor in the science fiction television series Doctor Who, a role he played from 1974 to 1981.-Early life:...
as the narrator, Frank Windsor
Frank Windsor
Frank Windsor is an English actor, mainly on television.He attended Queen Mary's Grammar School, Walsall. He began his career on radio and made an appearance in a 1953 film of Henry V...
as Air Marshal Harris, Samuel West
Samuel West
Samuel Alexander Joseph West is an English actor and theatre director. He is perhaps best known for his role in Howards End and his work on stage. He also starred in the award-winning play ENRON...
as Lambert, Emma Chambers
Emma Chambers
Emma G. Chambers is an English actress. Her work includes the role Alice Tinker in the BBC comedy The Vicar of Dibley and Honey Thacker in the film Notting Hill .-Early life:...
and Jack Shepherd and told how the raid had 'changed the lives' of many men and women – British and German.http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/0586045449http://www.bbcshop.com/invt/0563523557. Repeated on Radio 4 Extra on Armistice Day 2011.
External links
- Book review 2010