Bombing Hitler’s Hometown
The Untold Story of the Last Mass Bomber Raid of World War II in Europe
Mike Croissant, Citadel Press, 2024, 352 pages
Book Review published on: December 05, 2025
Bombing Hitler’s Hometown: The Untold Story of the Last Mass Bomber Raid of World War II in Europe takes a detailed look at the massive raid by U.S. bombers on the railyards and industry of Linz, Austria, that took place on 25 April 1945. Less than a week before Adolf Hitler’s suicide, and just under two weeks before the end of the war in Europe, the Fifteenth Air Force launched nearly five hundred B-24 Liberators and B-17 Flying Fortresses at one of the last remaining industrial targets of the Third Reich. Author Mike Croissant links us up with dozens of aircrew members during their training, puts us in their bombers during the attack, and lets us tag along on the return trips of those that made it back—and some who didn’t.
The book is extremely well researched and sourced. It has an extensive bibliography with nearly two hundred entries, including over fifty books and over sixty interviews conducted by the author. These entries support about 750 endnotes. An appendix lists aircraft and crew losses on the mission by bomb group, including each aircraft’s type, tail number, and full crew listing. It also includes a listing of medals awarded for actions during the Linz mission.
Bombing Hitler’s Hometown is written in three parts. The first, “The Men,” takes about a quarter of the book and delves into how several of the subjects came to be bomber crewmen. Most of this section, like the rest of the book, is told in short vignettes of two or three pages, changing location, time, and people frequently. However, the author provides enough cues to remind the reader who or what was being dealt with in that particular thread. We meet several crew members whom we will shadow at different times throughout the book. The section takes us through crew preparations for the mission to Linz, aircraft formation assembly, and right up to the start of the bomb run. This section also has a chapter on Hitler’s coming of age in Linz and provides a glimpse into his experiences there and their impact on his growth into who he became.
The second part, “The Mission,” takes up the second quarter of the book. In this part, the author puts the reader on board several different aircraft at different times during the bomb run. The book does a very good job of describing the different jobs of each crewmember rather than just focusing on the pilots or the crew in general. By the time this section is over, the reader has a good idea of what each person on the crew does during the mission. Much of the action in this section is told in the words of the men who were there, and their fear in describing the blanket of flak covering the city is palpable. Nearly each aircraft that is damaged or destroyed on the mission is discussed at some point, and the book describes the great lengths the crewmembers went to in their life-and-death battles on the mission.
The third part, which takes the entire second half, is called “The Return.” It picks up the aircraft and crew on their way back to base. Most of the aircraft returned to their bases in Italy, and we follow along with some of these crew as they nurse their wounded bombers over the Alps and back to some harrowing landings. Some others had to divert to a closer emergency airfield in Prkos, Yugoslavia. Still others were in such bad shape that they flew east to airfields in Soviet-occupied Austria, where their “allies” would eventually help them return to U.S. control. However, the most terrifying portions of the book deal with those crew members who were forced to bail out of their dying planes over the city that they had just bombed. As could be expected, most were not warmly greeted by those on the ground, military or civilian. The book follows each group through to their eventual fate.
Bombing Hitler’s Hometown is a terrific book and easy read. It is highly recommended to anyone interested in military history, and in particular the life and activities of bomber aircrews of World War II.
Book Review written by: Joseph Curtis, Fort Leavenworth, Kansas