I will start out by saying that I've always despised George McGovern and his liberal politics but in all honesty I have a new respect for Mr. McGovern, I still don't like his politics, but as a man he obviously had many admirable traits.
As to the book itself, the correct title should have been "Flying with George McGovern and a few other guys". Stephen Ambrose is a better author than this book would lead you to believe. I've read several of his other works so I mistakenly assumed that this book would be of similar caliber but it wasn't even close.
If you want to learn more about George McGovern this would be a useful book. If, on the other hand, you want to learn about the B-24's part in WWII, skip it.

A lot of the previous reviewers have been entirely too critical of the book simply because it does not address all B-24 crews and just focuses on one. Still a good book, and an excellent example of leadership. If you're interested in a good book about ONE (yes, I realize only ONE) B-24 crew, and can get past the fact that it is only about ONE crew (did I emphasize it enough?) this is still going to be an enjoyable read.

The book is more about George McGovern not the boys/men that flew. It is more about his life written from more of a subjective point of view rather than facts. It was ok, not totally boring and interesting at times but I have read far better WWII books.

This book by Stephen Ambrose offers the reader an opportunity to learn about some of the men who flew the B-24 Liberator during WW2 from Italy. Most books cover the more glamorous B17 Flying Fortress flying missions against occupied Europe from bases in England. I confess that I have a love for the B-17 but always felt that I should try and find something about the B-24 which was still one of the mainstay bombers of the USAAF.

This book fits the bill and provides a decent overall snapshot of the B-24, the training of the crews who flew it and their missions from bases in Italy during 1944-45. I would have liked more about the B-24's combat missions earlier in the war against a highly active Luftwaffe however the focus of this book is on one crew, piloted by George McGovern who started missions with the 741st Squadron, 455th Bomb Group, 15th Air Force, after the decline of the Luftwaffe, leaving German flak and weather as their greatest dangers.

Overall this is still a very good account of what it takes for young men to fly highly dangerous missions against occupied Europe during WW2. The book is easy to read and utilises numerous first-hand accounts and interviews with veterans to high-light the dangers, the camaraderie, the missions and the results of combat flying on these young men, aged between 18 and 25. Well done to the author and well done to those brave men who climbed into their aircraft day-after-day during the Second World War

I enjoyed this book as I learned a great deal about the Army Air Force during World War 2, how the men were trained, and the dangers they faced not only in combat but in training. The process of young men from a variety of backgrounds coming together to engage in incredibly high risk activities, and getting the job done, makes for very interesting reading. It is true that the book centers upon George McGovern and his crew, but I don't see that as either a positive or negative, McGovern was just another guy from middle america when World War 2 took place. His experiences were not atypical, nor was his heroism.

I'll agree that this is not Ambrose's best work. Definitely don't buy it if: a) your politics make you ideologically predisposed to be sick if you are forced to read even one positive word about George McGovern or b) you really only like war porn where lots of stuff blows up on every page except for one chapter where they present statistics about the weapons and that other chapter where they talk about strategy.

I liked it for exactly the reason Ambrose said he found the story interesting in his forward: citizen soldiers were primarily responsible for the defence of our democracy in World War II. These were people who put their lives on hold and stood up because their country needed them to. Yes, you'll spend lots of time in McGovern's personal life, in school and in training. The point is that citizen soldiers were not there because they desired a career in the military -- their stories are compelling precisely BECAUSE of what they risked losing through their service. You get the experience of one person and one crew from their beginning to the end. It also greatly motivates the McGovern's subsequent life and political career - the man knew about what he was trying to avoid.

I'll throw one firebomb before I'm done -- even the peaceniks of the Greatest Generation were BAMFs compared to the boomers. No wonder our country has seemed to stumble as these wonderful folks have passed into history.

I read this book a couple of years ago. While the overall story was interesting I remember being very unimpressed by the writing style.

I just pulled the book out again and went through a couple of chapters. Sorry to say but the quality of writing is very simple and not nearly up to the standard of Ambrose's other books.

I'm wondering if he really wrote it - or had it subcontracted out.

I'm only giving this one star because amazon says I have to give something cause I dont feel they deserve even one star, I ordered this product May 4th, its now June 4th, and I still have not received my book. I have emailed the seller 3 times with no reply from them at all. This is my first bad experience on Amazon, but it wont stop me from buying off of Amazon again . Amazon is working with me to help me resolve the issue. I don't even really want my money back I would rather have my book, but only if its in the condition advertised----like new. I don't know whether to order from someone else as its part of a series or just keep waiting this out or what. But I will never buy from this person again.

One of the things I love about Ambrose's books is the personal history he brings to the subject. If you look at the bibliography of "The Wild Blue" you will notice that many of the sources are interviews he has done with many of the characters in the book, along with other primary source materials. What this does is brings a very personal style to the telling of these stories. Other so-called "oral histories" are bland and often read like a transcript. Ambrose brings other research to the stories so you can understand the context of the time they lived in. "The Wild Blue" is no exception to this.

Before he was a liberal Democratic senator from South Dakota and an anti-war candidate for president, George McGovern flew 35 combat missions over Europe in World War II. Of these 35, only a few were "milk runs." The others were deadly encounters with the enemy, and only his skill and bravery saved his life and the lives of his crew. McGovern also volunteered for this service - no one was drafted or forced into piloting these heavy bombers.

McGovern is a noted anti-war figure from the Vietnam era and was soundly defeated by Nixon in 1972 for the presidency. One of the great ironies of McGovern's political career is in aligning his anti-war stance with his magnificent and heroic service in WWII. Perhaps that experience shaped his views in ways we, or anyone who has so vocally criticized him, can never imagine.

A theme in all of Ambrose's WWII books is that of the "citizen soldier," that of ordinary (mostly young) people dedicated to their country, families, buddies, and surviving the war. One of the accounts from "The Wild Blue" is of a mission where McGovern's engine had been blown out by flak, and his efforts in bringing the crippled B-24 home safely and in saving his life and the life of his crew. McGovern was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross for his efforts. He was 22 years old. What were you doing when you were 22?

Through this personal history, and other similar books and films on this theme, we pay only a fraction of the respect that is owed to these men.

Not up to par with the classic Ambrose WWII books.

Citizen Soldiers: The U. S. Army from the Normandy Beaches to the Bulge to the Surrender of Germany
Band of Brothers : E Company, 506th Regiment, 101st Airborne from Normandy to Hitler's Eagle's Nest

Ambrose seemed to mail this one in. It reads like a first draft that needs polish and upgrades.

The interesting part of the book is when it centers on George McGovern, yes the ultra-liberal Democratic candidate for President who got a mere handful of votes in the 1972 election, who was a B-24 pilot in the War!

The Wild Blue: The Men and Boys Who Flew the B-24s Over Germany by Stephen E. Ambrose is controversial because some scholars point out Ambrose has lifted the work of other authors without placing said work inside "quotation" marks. That is a tragic error. Is it an error of omission or commission? I do not know. I do know it is ethically wrong. The book tells the story of former US Presidential candidate and US Senator George McGovern. It tells of McGovern's upbringing, his journey to college, the outbreak of World War II, his falling in love and marriage, his joining the US Army Air Corps, his training as a pilot, and his combat deployment and action where he was based out of Italy bombing the Axis war machine. It is written in Ambrose's wonderful narrative style. It is highly readable and entertaining. Read in January 2005.

This book is not about the men and boys who flew the B 24 it is a book about Mc Govern. Reading the book sort of makes you feel like he was the only man in the war. I purchased the book to read about all the men. The author could have even shown some about other men that did basicaly the same that became famous: Kennedy, Jimmy Stewert and others. He focused only on McGovern and I certinaly wonder how much he paid to get Stephen to write this book or is Stephen that much in love with Mc Govern. I can not stand the man now and will not ever knowingly buy another book of his.
Mary Jo PottsThe Wild Blue : The Men and Boys Who Flew the B-24s Over Germany 1944-45

Stephen Ambrose's The Wild Blue: the Men and Boys Who Flew the B-24s over Germany tells the heroic tales of the B-24 Liberators and their crews from the 15th Army Air Force in Italy flying over Nazi Germany in World War II. The Wild Blue begins with the stories behind each crewman who will eventually fly aboard the "Dakota Queen" and a few crewmen who will fly aboard other B-24s. The stories behind the crewmen are a very nice addition to the book as it is the crewmen who make the majestic B-24s fly and fight. The reader actually gets to meet George McGovern who eventually flies the "Dakota Queen". McGovern was born on July 19, 1922, and was attending his second year at Dakota Wesleyan when he heard that Pearl Harbor had been attacked. The combat stories are complete to the detail of what it is like to fly over Nazi Germany against flak and the occasional fighter, what it is like to be shot down, and what it is like to watch a fellow B-24 get shot down. Ambrose was able to give this amount of detail because of his interviews with approximately fifty B-24 crewmen and their families. Without those interviews, this book would be bland and very unreal. But it is enjoyable and very real. The Wild Blue is a book that I would re-read and recommend to those who are interested in history, World War II, aircraft, or to those who just want to know the feeling of being taken up into a B-24 and flown over Nazi Germany.

Mr. Ambrose wrote a unabashed tribute to George McGovern, too bad he tried to pass it off as a story about something else.

While I enjoyed this one, it certainly was not the author's best work. It did draw attention to a group of very brave men, the B-24 crew members in the European Theater, which was good as this group and this plane is often overlooked. It did seem to me though that the author, on one side was trying to write a biography of George McGovern, or if he was trying to cover the air war during the last part of WWII. I did enjoy his trade mark technique of telling the stories of different men who participated, but he would always go back to McGovern. Perhaps if he had stuck to one or the other the book would have had more of an impact. Parts of this work did drag and were rather repetative. On the other hand, the author did not try to over dramatize McGovern's part in the war. The work was well crafted and you certainy would not waste your time in reading it. I suppose it is not quite fare to compare this work with other works by this author. After all, no one bats a thousand all the time. Overall, recommend this one with reservations. It is about very brave young men and we do need to know as much about them as possible.

The only other Ambrose book I've read was "Band of brothers" so I really can't compare it to his other works. But I had to comment after reading the negative reviews. They must have skipped around a lot. This book was so exciting and dramatic it was almost unbelievable. McGovern shows himself to be an exceptional pilot and a true hero. The book is full of unforgetable moments and breath-taking action. After reading it I immediatly started looking up more information on line. I consider it a must read.