Building the B-29 by Jacob Vander Meulen, and: Courage and Air Warfare: The Allied Aircrew Experience in the Second World War by Mark K. Wells

Abstract

788 Book Reviews TECHNOLOGY AND CULTURE renz and others demonstrated in the 1970s that the atmosphere is a chaotic system whose behavior is all too sensitive to small variations in initial conditions. Once again, Nebeker points out, the refractory nature of meteorology stimulated mathematical innovation. Except for a few pages showing the results of archival research in the papers of von Neumann and Charney, Nebeker exploits only published sources. There is ample material among these, however, including numerous retrospective and review articles by meteorolo­ gists, for a first survey of an uncharted area. The author takes care to explain most technical concepts, though occasionally he falters: readers outside of meteorology would appreciate, for example, an explanation of the significance of the 500 mb surface. Otherwise the book reads well and offers convincing suggestions of the ways in which institutional and military factors directed meteorology to­ ward computational approaches. Calculating the Weather is a wel­ come addition to a field still largely neglected by historians of sci­ ence. Theodore S. Feldman Dr. Feldman studies the history of meteorology in the early modern period and is currently preparing a book on the idea of climate in the Enlightenment. BuildingtheB-29. Byjacob Vander Meulen. Washington, D.C.: Smith­ sonian Institution Press, 1995. Pp. 128; illustrations, figures, bibli­ ography. $18.95 (cloth). Courage and Air Warfare: TheAlliedAircrewExperience in the Second World War. By Mark K. Wells. London: Frank Cass, 1995. Pp. xv+240; illustrations, notes, bibliography, index. $40.00 (cloth) $22.50 (paper). Human factors are often the key to successful deployment of mili­ tary technology in wartime. These two titles take a look at such fac­ tors from two different perspectives. Mark Wells’s Courage and Air Warfare analyzes operational functions; Jacob Vander Meulen’s Building the B-29 considers the manufacturing process. Mark Wells, a United States Air Force colonel, amassed some 2,400 flight hours and acquired a Ph.D. in War Studies from King’s Col­ lege, University of London; he currently teaches history at the Air Force Academy. He uses a comparative method to assess the experi­ ence of the U.S. Eighth Air Force and the RAF’s Bomber Command over Europe in World War II. Both air arms had a common goal, but applied different approaches in terms of crew selection, combat assignments, and responses to wartime stress. In the RAF, aircrew who experienced severe combat fatigue and were unable to fly on combat missions were declared to have “Lack of Moral Fiber” TECHNOLOGY AND CULTURE Book Reviews 789 (LMF) and assigned to a variety of nonflying tasks. Such reassign­ ments were clearly seen as punitive, and the stigma of LMF stamped on one’s personnel file often contributed to a lifetime of guilt and resentment. Using obscure medical records and impressive research techniques, Wells effectively compares the British practice with the American approach, which was more inclined to psychological treat­ ment and rehabilitation. Still, both services experienced roughly the same number of emotional casualties. This is a sensitive, informative study. Jacob Vander Meulen, professor of history at Dalhousie Univer­ sity, has written on the politics of aircraft production and various aspects of labor relations. In this brief but engrossing book, he fo­ cuses on the remarkable story of the Boeing B-29 Superfortress. This was one of the first airplane production efforts to effectively employ a style later tagged as “concurrency,” in which construction offacto­ ries and specialized tooling began as the plane progressed through preliminary design and early test phases. By the time the B-29 was cleared for production, an elaborate system of subcontractors and new fabrication facilities was already in place. Vander Meulen also describes the incredibly diverse work force recruited for B-29 pro­ duction lines, employing seamstresses, filling station attendants, cocktail waitresses, farmhands, and others. All had to be trained in esoteric production tasks for hydraulic lines, fuel gauges, electronic gun sights, and huge slabs of aluminum skin—the myriad compo­ nents for one ofthe most sophisticated military machines of the war. Many components were designed so as to be more producible by the masses of unskilled workers on B-29 assembly lines. Enhanced by dozens of rare photos, this is...