Archive for June 7th, 2021

The Bomber Mafia. A dream , a temptation and the longest night of the second world war. Malcolm Gladwell

The Bomber Mafia. A dream, temptation and the longest night of the second world war. Malcolm Gladwell. 2021. ISBN 9780316296939.  A riveting true story, how the US developed and then tried to apply the Norden bombsight, despite its huge limits.  The growth of the Army  Air Force and how it differed from the British model.  And an insight into Curtis Lemay.   Like any Gladwell book, there are life lessons in this.  One is the US love of technology over what actually works in the field.  How true believers will rewrite the story to fit what they believe vs what actually happens.  And for Curts Lemay how his firestorms in Japan hastened them to the table and shortened the war. One could suppose that the US did not have to drop the bomb as Japan was already teetering.   Useful read and an easy one.

Category: History, Innovation

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