The RAF Enters the Atomic Age: From the Rhine to VE-Day and into the Cold War, 1944-1949

An analysis of air power's role in WWII's final battles, its lessons, and its impact on Cold War policies.

By September 1944 the Western Allies had reached the approximate positions they had held back in September 1939 at the outbreak of war. It had taken more than four years to claw back the territory lost in 1940. It was four years in which the strategic bomber had failed to deliver the victory the bomber advocates had promised. With Allied armies converging on Germany from all directions,...