Bomber County
eBook - ePub

Bomber County

The Poetry of a Lost Pilot's War

  1. 316 pages
  2. English
  3. ePUB (mobile friendly)
  4. Available on iOS & Android
eBook - ePub

Bomber County

The Poetry of a Lost Pilot's War

About this book

An exploration into a grandfather's World War II military service reveals the history between aerial combat and poetry.

In early June 1943, James Eric Swift, a pilot with the 83rd Squadron of the Royal Air Force, boarded his Lancaster bomber for a night raid on Münster and disappeared.

Widespread aerial bombardment was to the Second World War what the trenches were to the First: a shocking and new form of warfare, wretched and unexpected, and carried out at a terrible scale of loss. Just as the trenches produced the most remarkable poetry of the First World War, so too did the bombing campaigns foster a haunting set of poems during the Second.

In researching the life of his grandfather, Daniel Swift became engrossed with the connections between air war and poetry. Ostensibly a narrative of the author's search for his lost grandfather through military and civilian archives and in interviews conducted in the Netherlands, Germany, and England, Bomber County is also an examination of the relationship between the bombing campaigns of World War II and poetry, an investigation into the experience of bombing and being bombed, and a powerful reckoning with the morals and literature of a vanished moment.

"Of all the books about war that I have read—all war, not just the bombing war—this is among the most moving and telling." — Salon

"What begins as a personal story of loss quickly evolves into a broader consideration of the complex aesthetic, cultural and moral legacies of the air war." — New York Times Book Review

Frequently asked questions

Yes, you can cancel anytime from the Subscription tab in your account settings on the Perlego website. Your subscription will stay active until the end of your current billing period. Learn how to cancel your subscription.
At the moment all of our mobile-responsive ePub books are available to download via the app. Most of our PDFs are also available to download and we're working on making the final remaining ones downloadable now. Learn more here.
Perlego offers two plans: Essential and Complete
  • Essential is ideal for learners and professionals who enjoy exploring a wide range of subjects. Access the Essential Library with 800,000+ trusted titles and best-sellers across business, personal growth, and the humanities. Includes unlimited reading time and Standard Read Aloud voice.
  • Complete: Perfect for advanced learners and researchers needing full, unrestricted access. Unlock 1.4M+ books across hundreds of subjects, including academic and specialized titles. The Complete Plan also includes advanced features like Premium Read Aloud and Research Assistant.
Both plans are available with monthly, semester, or annual billing cycles.
We are an online textbook subscription service, where you can get access to an entire online library for less than the price of a single book per month. With over 1 million books across 1000+ topics, we’ve got you covered! Learn more here.
Look out for the read-aloud symbol on your next book to see if you can listen to it. The read-aloud tool reads text aloud for you, highlighting the text as it is being read. You can pause it, speed it up and slow it down. Learn more here.
Yes! You can use the Perlego app on both iOS or Android devices to read anytime, anywhere — even offline. Perfect for commutes or when you’re on the go.
Please note we cannot support devices running on iOS 13 and Android 7 or earlier. Learn more about using the app.
Yes, you can access Bomber County by Daniel Swift in PDF and/or ePUB format, as well as other popular books in Social Sciences & Military Biographies. We have over one million books available in our catalogue for you to explore.

Table of contents

  1. Title Page
  2. Epigraph
  3. Table of Contents
  4. Prologue: A Refusal to Mourn
  5. Chapter 1. Five Minutes after the Air Raid
  6. Chapter 2. It was Not Dying
  7. Chapter 3. B is for BOMBERS
  8. Chapter 4. England and Nowhere
  9. Chapter 5. The Most Beautiful City in the World
  10. Chapter 6. The Sadness of Soldiers
  11. Chapter 7. Bomber Poets
  12. Epilogue: Icarus
  13. NOTES
  14. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
  15. SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY
  16. Copyright Page