"Middlebrook’s book is just as exceptional today as it was when first released. His writing style is smooth and his research and citation impeccable."

Air Power History

An outstanding book by an outstanding author.

This book goes into great detail about the ill fated daylight raid by the RAF. It is packed full of descriptive accounts which puts you in the Lancaster as part of the crew.

This author never fails to delivery and that is why this is worthy of the 5 stars.

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Richard Domoney-Saunders

On a clear, moonlit night in 1944, RAF Bomber Command launched a “maximum effort” raid on the German city of Nuremberg. It was a disaster. German night fighters got into the bomber stream early on, and the bombers suffered the highest losses of the war while the intended target was barely damaged. Using firsthand accounts, Mr. Middlebrook follows the planning, preparation and execution of the operation in meticulous detail, but he does more than that: Employing hundreds of eyewitness accounts, he shows the raid from the point of view of the German defenses and the civilians on the ground. Factual and analytical, this is a portrait of mechanized warfare at the level of personal experience.

Wall Street Journal

On a clear, moonlit night in 1944, RAF Bomber Command launched a “maximum effort” raid on the German city of Nuremberg. It was a disaster. German night fighters got into the bomber stream early on, and the bombers suffered the highest losses of the war while the intended target was barely damaged. Using firsthand accounts, Mr. Middlebrook follows the planning, preparation and execution of the operation in meticulous detail, but he does more than that: Employing hundreds of eyewitness accounts, he shows the raid from the point of view of the German defenses and the civilians on the ground. Factual and analytical, this is a portrait of mechanized warfare at the level of personal experience.

Simon Mawer, Wall Street Journal

This air operation was to finish over a half a year prolonged battle between RAF Bomber Command and Luftwaffe. As the whole air battle of Berlin 1943-1944 was the bloodiest part of British strategic bomber offensive in the years of World War II, the Nuremberg raid became the costliest of it – more than one hundred airplanes were shot down or written off, more than seven hundred aviators were killed or captured. Perhaps, it's symbolical that the only Victoria Cross of air battle of Berlin was won in this raid, and it was awarded posthumously.
Martin Middlebrook – one of the most known modern military historians – in his usual detailed manner, by thorough study of an eye-witnesses accounts (from both Allied and German sides) and meticulously analyzed archive sources, restored a full picture of the drama which took part in the war-thorn sky of Europe on the night of 30/31 March, 1944. The derived result shows: even though every sortie against the targets in the Third Reich was a drama itself, mistakes in planning on the Nuremberg raid made by Bomber Command HQ staff, unfavorable weather and actions of German night fighters turn this drama into tragedy

Mykhaylo Akimov