Out of the Italian Night: Wellington Bomber Operations 1944-45

by Maurice G. Lihou

The Wimpy, as the Wellington was affectionately known, had been operational when war was declared and five years on their young crews were still taking them into battle. Maurice Lihou joined the RAF in 1939, just before the outbreak of war.

Genres: World War II, Aviation

208 pages, Paperback

First published March 1, 2003

Reviews

[Spad53]

I haven’t read many books featuring the Wellington bomber, so that is why I chose this one. The Wellington is often mentioned in the beginning of bomber pilot biographies, on first tours. But here’s a poor guy doing two tours, in 1944-45, they only let him off Wellingtons when it was replaced by the Liberator, and the RAF in an unusual fit of humanity sent him home. The Italian front is often ignored and forgotten. Wellington crews in Italy lived wretchedly in tent camps, no eggs and bacon breakfasts for them.
Even so the Wellington served this crew well, far too many other crews were lost to enemy action and bad weather, flying over the Alps was marginal at the best of times.
This was a very well written biography, the author was a thinker, and shares his worries openly. He was also a very good pilot, that’s why he survived.

[Erik]

"Out of the Italian Night" by Maurice G. Lihou

I was pleasantly surprised by the quality of this book, and found the story presented riveting and somber. The author provides an excellent personal account of RAF night bombing from the latter stages of WW2, and illuminating the tremendously difficult tasks they faced (and the Wellington bomber used) like no other book I have encountered.

There is a great deal of personal conversations and dialog included, which adds some flavor to the missions and drama as it unfolds. There are some photos included as well showing mission objectives, crew, and of course their plane. I found these to be tremendously enhancing.

I think anyone interested in WW2 air combat would enjoy this book as this topic is not something heavily written on. It has significantly improved my understanding of the Italian air operations conducted by the RAF during the evenings, and enlightened me on a very fascinating aircraft I knew of by name only before this reading. I can't really say anything negative about the book, and found it to be a solid 4 Star effort. The appendices and maps at the end were a nice touch.