Although the Swift family knew that their grandfather died with his crew piloting a Lancaster bomber over the North Sea in 1943, it was a vague historical anecdote until the author's father was seized by a midlife obsession with finding out more. The book follows them to the Netherlands, where the bodies washed up, to Munster, where survivors talk about what happened during bombing raids, to RAF museums and through a sidelight on the author's own literary expertise--the poetry generated by the new air war, so startling different from WWI verse, as these lines from Randall Jarrell, ""In bombers names for girls, we burned/The cities we had learned about in school--/Till our lives wore out."

i loved this book. swift uses personal narrative, interspersed with bomber pilot poetry and critical evaluations to deftly examine how the pilots of WWII served in such a different capacity than soldiers in previous wars or than soldiers in their own war. using literature and verse to discuss issues of historical and military importance? a beautiful, creative way to challenge the ideas of war poetry and art. simply a lovely book.