Here's my video review of this good book, and the YouTube transcript.

https://youtu.be/ToxFCmdi8og

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welcome to this review of Air Battles
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Before D-Day: How All Allied Airmen
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Crippled the Luftwafer and German Army
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in France by Colonel Joseph Mollis it
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sort of does what it says on the tin the
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gist is this quote from Eisenhower to
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his son whilst they walked around the
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beaches of D-Day and the son remarked
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what terrible traffic jams were and how
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they'd be a perfect target for the
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Luftwuffer and he said "If I didn't have
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air superiority I wouldn't be here." So
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the books out in the end of May
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beginning of June depending on where you
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get your books pretty reasonably priced
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uh UK and US pricing as a guide for you
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joseph Molson is a retired US Air Force
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colonel this is his second book his
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previous one was about the Battle of the
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Atlantic and it's a kind of similar gig
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in that it's a really great
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comprehensive guide to the topic it's an
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extensive operational history underlined
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capital letters well not quite capital
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letters but you get the gist um it
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covers everything from air attacks on
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canals and bridges and air bases and
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radar stations and trains and
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marshalling the yards and V-W weapons
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and fuel and deception measures and it
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doesn't skate over the death of French
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civilians during these attacks and it
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deals with flack and organization and
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intelligence and doctrine and ground air
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ground cooperation and planning and
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historical context it's all there and
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the sort of subtext it's a tribute to
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Allied airmen in World War II uh and the
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service that they rendered to their
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countries the argument is uh again to
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quote Eisenhower if you see fighting
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aircraft over you they will be ours the
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Allied Air Forcees contributed in so
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many ways to the preparations for the
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invasion of France all of these efforts
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began modestly and grew in effectiveness
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and he highlights six areas which is not
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necessarily what you might expect so he
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starts off with the battle of the
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Atlantic and the defense of Britain and
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the defeat of the Creeks mean these
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these aren't the majority of the book by
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any stunts but he starts off with these
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because I guess overall he is arguing
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that air power was a necessary condition
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for victory it at D-Day and the Normandy
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landings
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sine qua-non if you like your Latin without
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which not and then he moves on to
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degrading German war fighting the army
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and the lu buffer developing the air
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transport for that important role and
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then finally the direct support of the
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allied armies so it's really pretty
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extensively researched all the official
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histories quite a few technical ones
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many many secondary sources I uh I
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particularly like the uh mention here of
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Charlie Messenger who I used to work
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with back in the day when I was at the
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Royal United Services Institute as a a
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boy researcher in the 80s it is light on
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primary sources it's not an academic
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piece and uh it's a bit light on German
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sources he is an American speaks English
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like most Americans and British doesn't
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speak other languages very well so it's
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one-sided but my god it's really
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detailed on that side i originally
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called this pluses and minuses and
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strengths and weaknesses but actually
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you know it's you've only got a few
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hundred pages to cover everything so you
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can't cover everything so what has he
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chosen to cover and what does that mean
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it isn't covered so he's given you a
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commander's eye view of the campaign if
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you wanted to be a staff officer at
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shape seeing how the air war unpacked
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itself this is a great guide if you want
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the individual human story of how Airmon
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GI John did his stuff or whatever that's
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not this book um it's rich rich in
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details and in breadth it's longish you
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know coming up towards 400 pages um but
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you know that goes with the breadth
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territory uh it reflects Mollis's
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lifelong service in the Air Force that
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shines through he's an airman okay um
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obviously as an airman he sees
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everything as an Air Force hammer
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looking like an air nail i mean it's
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just you know I'm a navalist primarily
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you know we all we all have our place
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where we come
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from he does take the time to explain
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how they got there in the first place he
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he doesn't just begin in 44 he begins in
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40 if not 39 so there's quite a bit of
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background in the book uh it's important
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it's foundational he would argue and I I
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think I would support that but if you
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want to get to the very end well you
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just need to you know skip through a
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little bit it focuses on operations and
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tactics and
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doctrine it's not about the technical
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performance of the airplanes it's not
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you know a rivet counters book it
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focuses obviously uh as indicated in the
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sources on the Allied war effort
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particularly the US Army Air Force but I
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mean you know British French etc
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contributions are in no way neglected
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the German Air Force is kind of done to
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rather than a star of the book in its
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own right and my heavens above did it
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get a lot of gunning too during this
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campaign and there's tons of maps and
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diagrams and tables of which I can see
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no downside at all for me the favorite
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bits well it is exactly that breadth i
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mean I'm not unnowledgeable about the
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air uh war but I never really had this
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comprehensive 360 view of the total
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effort uh involved uh I love the
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generosity around the maps and diagrams
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pictures and and what have you all of
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the illustrations here are taken from
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the book um it doesn't take anything for
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granted which I think is really nice
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because although I come with a lot of
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expertise um you may not or for example
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you know I I'm British I know where the
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English Channel is I've sailed on it but
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if you haven't either then you know he
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takes the trouble to really describe it
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and its geography and what a tricky
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piece of sea it is I particularly liked
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it's got something like I don't know 66
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chapters and they're all bite-sized and
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personally I always read before I go to
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sleep so having a chapter or even two
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that I can knock off feels very nice and
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rounded so yeah well done for the uh the
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really nice uh structure of the book so
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do I recommend it yes i mean if you're
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interested in World War II yes if you're
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interested in air power absolutely or if
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you're interested in D-Day and the
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Normandy campaign absolutely i really
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liked that i just learned things that I
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didn't really know i really got absorbed
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in the fascinating details contained in
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the book you know crippling the canal uh
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infrastructure of France who knew i I
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liked the behindthecenes debates in
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Allied high command about what to do and
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I found it a very accessible and
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straightforward read so to be published
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soon on pre-order at your favorite book
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kind of place right now get it if you're
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this kind of guy thanks for watching see
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you next