Military History Club Podcast · Saul David

Patrick Bishop on 'Bomber Boys'

·36 min·2 clips

125,000 airmen passed through Bomber Command, 55,000 were killed, and the true figure may be close to 65%.

1. Military History Club Podcast talks with Patrick Bishop about Bomber Boys and the British air war over occupied Europe. 2. Saul David hosts Patrick Bishop, the historian and author of Bomber Boys and Fighter Boys, because Bishop wrote the book under discussion. 3. The episode asks why Bomber Command stayed marginal in British memory and what its bombing campaign actually achieved. 4. Bishop says he opened Bomber Boys with a Beyond the Fringe sketch to show how Bomber Command could be turned into a joke. 5. He recalls Tony Iverson, a 617 Squadron fighter pilot, reacting uncomfortably to the sketch because real bombing missions were “a pretty grim business.” 6. Bishop says he found “50 Perkinses” across Bomber Command, including two who were killed over Bremen. 7. The conversation returns to the casualty figures: 125,000 airmen passed through Bomber Command, 55,000 were killed, 8,400 were wounded, and almost 10,000 were taken prisoner. 8. Bishop says the true fatality rate is probably closer to 65% because many men never completed training. 9. He links those losses to the postwar sense that a lot of young men died “for not much.” 10. Bishop says German cities were left as skeletal ruins, and he cites at least 600,000 civilian deaths. 11. Saul David notes that Churchill later tried to “massage history” after Dresden, and Bishop agrees Bomber Command was pushed to the edge of the victory narrative. 12. Bishop describes Bomber Command as a diverse and meritocratic environment with Brits, New Zealanders, Australians, Canadians, and mixed ranks inside crews. 13. He says many airmen had wanted to be fighter pilots, while bomber flying involved long stretches of routine broken by moments of “sheer terror.” 14. Bishop explains that the strategic bombing doctrine came from interwar air theory promoted by Giulio Douhet, Billy Mitchell, and Hugh Trenchard. 15. He says early British bombers had poor navigation and that the Buck report in 1941 showed only about 10% of aircraft dropping bombs within 10 miles of the target. 16. He adds that G, Oboe, and onboard radar improved accuracy, but by then the campaign had shifted toward area bombing of cities and civilian morale. 17. Bishop says the tone of bomber crews was pragmatic and superstitious, with rituals, lucky mascots, and even urinating on the rear wheel before operations. 18. The interview is conversational, detailed, and debate-driven, with Saul David repeatedly testing Bishop on morality, memory, and military effect. 19. Listeners interested in Bomber Command, RAF history, and wartime memory will get the most from it. 20. Listeners wanting only battlefield chronology or air-combat spectacle may skip it.

As heard by us

A sober discussion of bomber crews, strategic air power, and uneasy wartime memory.

Patrick Bishop's Bomber Boys frames a careful discussion of British bomber crews, the strategic air campaign, and the uneasy place Bomber Command held in British wartime memory.

Read the full review in PlayNext →

Why you'd press play

You want Bomber Command explored through crews, doctrine, and the way Britain remembered those airmen after World War II.

Read the full recommendation in PlayNext →

Listen to the show on

Apple Podcasts Spotify

Play clips from this episode More from Military History Club Podcast