The Petlyakov Pe-8 was a Soviet heavy bomber designed before World War II, and the only four-engine bomber the USSR built during the war. Originally designated the TB-7, the aircraft was renamed the Pe-8 after its primary designer, Vladimir Petlyakov, died in a plane crash in 1942. Supply problems, inexperienced pilots and crews (compared to the pilots of the Luftwaffe), and persistent engine problems heavily hindered the bomber's effectiveness throughout the war. Image and specs excerpted from Allied Bombers 1939-1945 by Chris Chant.
Fires burn in the Berlin streets below, silhouetting a Lancaster in its hellish glow. During some air raids, the firestorms created turbulence and smoke clouds over ten thousand feet above the urban areas being consumed. RAF crews could navigate to the target by the flames, which could sometimes be seen from sixty miles away. Photo courtesy of National Archives, from Bombs Away! The World War II Bombing Campaigns over Europe by John R. Bruning.
With the release of his new book, Mission to Berlin: The American Airmen Who Struck the Heart of Hitler's Reich, author and Air Force veteran Robert F. Dorr has shed new light on the experiences of a rare breed of hero, the American bomber pilots and crews who risked their lives over Berlin.
In the following Q & A, Dorr discusses his new book, the larger-than-life heroes whose stories are housed within its pages, and the world-engulfing war that has captivated generations of readers across the globe.
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ZENITH PRESS: To family members, historians and enthusiasts born long after World War II, the men who flew, maintained, supported and escorts heavy bombers pilots and crews have acquired a lofty—almost romanticized—status that spans generations. Why do you think that is?
ROBERT F. DORR: No one had ever fought at such great heights, in such terrible cold, with such fast and brutal action taking place all around them. So it was natural that American bomber pilots and crews became the stuff of legend and lore. Today, we realize that we'll never see anything like this again—thousands of aircraft and tens of thousands of men fighting many miles above the earth. These were very young men, citizen-soldiers drawn from our population, caught up in a new and different situation. We have overused the "greatest generation" label, but it is not wrong to say that these achieved nothing less than to save the world. So of course we admire them and hold them high in our thoughts.
