Good tribute to unrecognised cold war aviators
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Mr Burrow's book is a great tribute to the unsung aviator heroes of the Cold War.
The book describes the dangerous reconnaisance and electronic intelligence gathering missions that needed to be undertaken by the US and its allies in the Cold War to obtain sufficient information about Soviet-bloc countries' radar, capabilities and targets so that, should the war turn 'hot', the principle of mutually assured destruction would work (i.e. so that enough US bombers would get through to their targets to make an attack unlikely in the first place). The problem was that all this had to be done in great secrecy so as not to accidentally trigger World War III. And the consequence of all this secrecy was that there was almost no recognition of the sacrifices made by these brave airmen, and for those who survived and were captured, nothing could be done to free them.
Towards the end of the book the author traces the (inadequate) efforts to find out what happen to these airmen but even this belated effort was covered up in the interest of the post-cold war situation and of getting on with Russia.
I liked the book and thought Mr Burrows' efforts to publicise the sacrifice of the airmen were well worthwhile. It's always interesting to read little-known history and this book is certainly a good example of that! The shootdowns are vividly described as are the operations. It's a pity there weren't more diagrams of some of the aircraft that are described.
Overall an enjoyable read but I felt it could have been shortened without losing any of the story.
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United States | 
United Kingdom | 
Canada