Chicago, 1941: Ray, a simple farm worker, makes his way across the US to join the war effort as an RAF fighter pilot. With little experience – of life or war – Ray’s journey will take him further away from home than he expects. In Ludwigshafen, Germany, Erich and Gerda try to raise their young family, cursing the futility of the war whenever the air raid sirens sound. Each time they take shelter in their town’s above ground bunker, they don’t know how much devastation and death they will see when they emerge.28 Bunkers tells the story of World War II from many viewpoints – Brits, US airmen and Germans – as it unfolds. Expertly researched, this novel explodes the myths of the war and gives a unique insight into what it was like for the unsung heroes and victims to live through its horrors and joys. ( )

I had applied for this book because I wanted to learn more about WWII and how people lived through the hardships and horrors of the war. This book shows the war from two different points of view: from that of the fighter pilots flying bombing missions over Germany and risking their lives as well as from that of a young German family living amidst the bombing and burning and fighting to survive. None of the two is to blame for the war but it was these ordinary people that were forced to fight in it. ( )

Every conflict has two sides and both believe that they are in the right. However, looking at the mirco-structure, the individual lives affected by a war, everyone suffers, no matter which side they are on. The novel 28 Bunkers brings to life two sides of WWII, in and over Ludwigshafen, Germany.

On the one side there are the young American bomber and fighter pilots who are living far from home and are being shot at, while bombing a strategic target. Each mission becomes a fight for survival.

On the other side is a German doctor’s family trying to live as normal a life as possible in that same city. As the war progress the bombings become more and more intense, fear and death become commonplace, and they struggle to survive not just the bombings but hunger and cold as well.

The book shows how many of the human emotions are very similar whether in a bomber or a bunker. ( )