Reviews for Daring Young Men: The Heroism and Triumph of The Berlin Airlift-June 1948-May 1949

The average rating for Daring Young Men: The Heroism and Triumph of The Berlin Airlift-June 1948-May 1949 based on 2 reviews is 4.5 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2013-06-07 00:00:00 Robert Gurley [ Herman did not know it, but French soldiers had surrounded the airport and nearby streets and were turning away both vehicle and pedestrian traffic. Then they cut the telephone lines to the Radio Berlin station and "detained" Soviet and German employees, including several Red Army soldiers. The French put them under guard in two buses that leisurely toured the city for a couple of hours and then dropped them off in East Berlin. The twenty American officers assigned to the new field had been called to a small reception organized by the French commandant in Berlin, General Jean Ganeval-in fact, they were locked in, too. At 10:45, they were shaken by the same explosion that moved Herman's plane. They rushed to the windows and saw the twin radio towers near the end of the runway crumpling to the ground in a huge dark cloud of smoke. The French had blown up the broadcast towers of Berliner Rundfunk, Soviet-controlled Radio Berlin. Thirty French engineers had enclosed the tower legs in bags of plastique explosive, which had been flown into Tegel the day before by an American, Lieutenant Harold Hendler. "You will have no more trouble with the towers," said Ganeval, raising a glass of champagne to his American guests. Captain Herman and his crew climbed back into their plane and flew out over the smoking wreckage. Within three hours, an outraged response arrived in the person of the city's Soviet commandant, Marshal Alexander Kotikov. "How could you do that?" was the French version of Kotikov's opening line. Ganeval's answer, so they said, was: "Tre simple. Avec le dynamite!" (hide spoiler)]

Review # 2 was written on 2011-03-04 00:00:00 Delbert Kershner An interesting read of an often forgotten time. This book had some strong points and some weaknesses. It did good job of explaining the politics of the airlift and surrounding events from both sides. In that way it showed that the airlift could really be considered the opening salvo of the Cold War. It's weakness seemed to be in the way it was organized. The chapters were chronological, but still seemed all over the place, and some times repetitive. This may have partly been due to the nature of the airlift though. That said, it was a very quick and compelling read though it seemed to drag in parts. That's to be expected I guess in a long book on a complicated issue that nonetheless spanned only 11 months, roughly a quarter of the time frame of the World War that came just before, and yet the feats of daring described were just as big if not more amazing then some things in the war. Over all a compelling read.