A review of Bombing Hitler’s Hometown by Mike Croissant
On 25 April 1945, some 700 bombers and fighter escort airplanes from the US 15th Air Force took to the predawn air in southern Italy. Their target: Linz, Austria, the town where Adolf Hitler grew up.
But more importantly for the airmen, Linz was their number one target in central Europe that April: a crucial rail hub for the German armed forces.
The 15th Air Force had already bombed Linz many times, and the airmen knew it was one of their toughest targets. What they could not know was that the Germans had more than doubled the anti-aircraft defences in Linz, and when the Liberators and Flying Fortresses reached their target, they ran into what they called “a wall of flak.” Defences they had never experienced before.
And while no one involved could know it at the time, this would turn out to be the last major air raid by the Allies in the war.
Bombing Hitler’s Hometown is the story of the men on those planes. A story told with recollections of the men who were there, as well as meticulous research of records and archives.
Author Mike Croissant has a personal connection to one of the airmen on that mission: his uncle, bombardier Ellsworth Croissant, who flew on that mission and nearly 30 others without suffering a scratch. However, Ellsworth was killed in a plane crash in the U.S. three months after the end of the war.
That is just one of many ironies in this book. Another is that for many airmen, this would be the last mission they were obliged to fly; at the time, regulations stated that 35 missions was a full tour of duty. After their 35th mission, the air crew, whether pilot, navigator, radio operator or gunner, could return home. For many, the mission to Linz on 25 April 1945 was their 34th or 35th mission.
Another irony is the date: the war would be over in two weeks. But the men on the mission could not know that. Neither could the Austrian people on the ground in Linz.
Dozens of U.S. bomber planes were shot down, hundreds of people killed, hundreds more wounded. People on both sides bore physical psychological scars the rest of their lives.
Several damaged planes managed to crash-land; some behind German lines, and some in territory recently occupied by the Soviet Red Army. But landing in an area held by nominal allies like the Soviets did not mean the men were safe—many were imprisoned for weeks or longer, some were tortured as spies and some were killed.
The story of the 25 April 1945 air raid on Linz is harrowing, shocking, gripping and masterfully told. Author Croissant is a retired CIA analyst who turned his research and analytical skills into finding the facts about this mission, some sixty years after, and then crafting a story that I could not put down.
Croissant spent years finding out the facts about his uncle’s death, about the missions flown by the 15th Air Force, and then finding the survivors. He interviewed more than 50 of them. Many had never spoken about their experiences during the raid, or indeed about the war, ever before.
The book also includes rich historical context, starting with the relationship between the city of Linz, Austria and nazi dictator Adolf Hitler—how Hitler’s affinity for Wagner’s Ring Cycle of operas fed into the tyrant’s monstrous mythology. It also describes how Linz became a critical logistical hub for nazi Germany in the last months of the war.
And, of course, there are the technical details about the planes, the formations, weapons and organization of the Air Force that World War II history buffs love. All together, this book satisfies the most demanding history reader.
The personal stories make up the meat of this book, and the documented facts provide the skeleton. Together, they make up a story that lives and breathes on the page.
If you want an up-close view of the last days of the Second World War, you could not do better than reading Bombing Hitler’s Hometown by Mike Croissant.
You can get it from most online e-tailers and at better bookstores everywhere. Start with Kensington Publishing for more details.
Find more about Mike Croissant at his website, MikeCroissant.com.
As of 22 April 2024, you can hear a conversation with the author on Beyond Barbarossa, the only English-language podcast focusing on the Eastern Front of World War II.