Bomber Mafia: Dreams of a humane war and the bloody everyday life of World War II

Renowned journalist and author Malcolm Gladwell tells the story of a group of US aviators obsessed with precision bombing, a military doctrine that could potentially reduce the number of casualties among enemy soldiers and civilians. For the 20th century, this... idea was revolutionary: instead of destroying all living things on a vast territory with carpet bombing, the “bomber mafia” proposed using a new class of aircraft that could specifically disable key military and civilian facilities. Gladwell masterfully interweaves the fates of several heroes - the inventor of the bomb sight, American and British generals and engineers. They all worked for the good of their people, but had different visions of the optimal way to wage war, and in the pages of this book the story of their confrontation becomes a tense documentary thriller.