“THROUGH BLUE SKIES TO HELL – – America’s ‘Bloody 100 th ’ in the Air War over Germany”, byEdward M. Sion. CASEMATE PUBLISHERS, Havertown, PA 19083: 2024, 256 pages, 16 pagesb/w photos, paperback, 6” x 9”, $24.95. Visit, www.casematepublishers.com.“PATHFINDER PIONEER – – The Memoir of a Lead Bomber Pilot in World War II”, ColonelRaymond E. Brim, USAF (ret.). CASEMATE PUBLISHERS, Havertown, PA 19083: 2016, reprintedas a paperback in 2024, 312 pages, 16 pages b/w photos, paperback, 6”x 9”, $24.95. Visit,www.casematepublishers.com.“Through Blue Skies to Hell”, by Edward Sion, a Professor of Astronomy and Astrophysics atVillanova University, has gifted us aviation buffs and enthusiasts with a most remarkableaccount of the air war over Europe during the 1944-1945 year. His centerpiece is a mission-by-mission diary of Ist Lieutenant Richard R. Ayesh, a bombardier on a B-17 Fortress, who flewwith the 100 Bombardment Group, the legendary “Bloody Group”. Author Sion follows the 1 stLieutenant progress from his youth during the Depression in Wichita to a bomber crew assignedto bomb the Hitler’s Third Reich. During that journey readers are privy to meeting aircraft crewsflying in their milieus. Even the most trusted sophisticated of WWII officers and other Brasswere allowed to enter there, let alone guests like you and me, to hear the principles ofAmerican daylight bombing strategies; air to ground and ground to air situations just after D-Day; photoreconnaissance know-how; munitions and bomb types; aircraft characteristics;fighter and bomber tactics; bomber formations; strategic target selections; radars secrets;countermeasures and counter measures. The tragedies and heroisms, with explanations andcommentaries, and successful victory events and their responses and actions, are alwaysendearing, unescapable daily deaths heart wrenching and unforgettable. The result is one ofthe most vivid memoirs ever written.Simply put, “Pathfinder Pioneer”, by Colonel Raymond Brim, is an equal to, the brother of,“Through Blue Skies to Hell”. There is not a single varnishing word in either. Brim’s years arealmost a ditto of Ayesh’s. It’s recommended that the reader read one after the other, “ThroughBlue”, first. For one thing, Brim was the first Pathfinder pilot to fly both day and night missions,often leading bomb groups of 600 + bombers to their targets. At the on-set of his missions inthe spring of 1943, B-17 crews were given a 50-50 chance of returning. Every one of his raidswas a nerve-wracking foray into the unknown, often with struggles to survive the damage to hisplanes due to flak and German fighter attacks. Miraculously, he always managed to bring his10-man crew home, usually with wounded but still alive. Colonel Ray Brim died in 2019 at the
age of 96 in the company of family and friends.
