Inferno

By: Joe Pappalardo

Narrated by: Matt Godfrey

Length: 11 hrs and 48 mins

Publisher's summary

Joe Pappalardo's Inferno tells the true story of the men who flew the deadliest missions of World War II, and an unlikely hero who received the Medal of Honor in the midst of the bloodiest military campaign in aviation history.

There’s no higher accolade in the US military than the Medal of Honor, and 472 people received it for their action during World War II. But only one was demoted right after: Maynard Harrison Smith.

Smith is one of the most unlikely heroes of the war, where he served in B-17s during the early days of the bombing of France and Germany from England. From his juvenile delinquent past in Michigan, through the war and during the decades after, Smith’s life seemed to be a series of very public missteps. The other airmen took to calling the 5-foot, 5-inch airman “Snuffy” after an unappealing movie character.

This is also the man who, on a tragically mishandled mission over France on May 1, 1943, single-handedly saved the crewman in his stricken B-17. With every other gunner injured or bailed out, Smith stood alone in the fuselage of a shattered, nameless bomber and fought fires, treated wounded crew and fought off fighters. His ordeal is part of a forgotten mission that aircrews came to call the May Day Massacre. The skies over Europe in 1943 were a charnel house for US pilots, who were being led by tacticians surprised by the brutal effectiveness of German defenses. By May 1943 the combat losses among bomb crews were a staggering 40 to 50 percent.

The backdrop of Smith’s story intersects with some of the luminaries of aviation history, including Curtis Lemay, Ira Eaker and “Hap” Arnold, during critical times of their storied careers. Inferno also examines Smith’s life in a new, comprehensive light, through the use of exclusive interviews of those who knew him (including fellow MOH recipients and family) as well as public and archival records. This is both a thrilling and horrifying story of the air war over Europe during WWII and a fascinating look at one of America's forgotten heroes.

A Macmillan Audio production from St. Martin's Press

©2020 Joe Pappalardo (P)2020 Macmillan Audio

Critic reviews

"With both his heroism and his flaws, Medal of Honor recipient 'Snuffy Smith' perfectly represents the dramatic and deadly campaign for control of the skies over Europe in World War II. The ornery, charming, and brave B-17 tail gunner anchors this thrilling tale of how, warts and all, we won that brilliant and bloody air war." —Tom Clavin, New York Times bestselling author

"Mr. Pappalardo, a veteran journalist, has a nice way with words. The mission itself, targeting German submarine pens in France, is fairly routine and brilliantly described...a wonderful yarn." —Wall Street Journal

“Inferno is written with the energy, resolve, bloody-mindedness of a B-17. This is the Greatest Generation reconsidered as a diminutive Michigan-born anti-hero who is awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor for his amazing conduct on his first combat mission over Europe, May 1, 1943. Pappalardo's story takes on more than Maynard's Smith's pell-mell and eventually surprisingly sad life. The book reconsiders the still controversial American decision to carry out daylight bomber attacks, 1943-44, that led to well-documented and shocking casualty rates. This is a thrilling and important read." —John Batchelor, nationally syndicated radio host and author

Good, but hard to follow at times

Joe Pappalardo has written on a most ambitious topic and one that never ceases to be of interest to WWII military historians. The only problem is the book stats out completely about the most unlikely Medal of Honor recipient Maynard Smith. He’s more the anti-hero in many ways.

But then after detailing his heroic and award winning mission, the book starts into an overview of Black Thursday, Big Week, and nearly the entire air war over France and Germany. Interspersed in this narrative is Smith. So it gets hard to keep up. But overall it’s very good and detailed. The narration os excellent.

Great listen I

I recommend this to anyone interested in learning about WW!!. I was familiar with the Memphis Belle story. Snuffy's story was just as heroic!

Interesting story of a not-so-heroic “hero”.

Overall, this is the story of a jerk who did something heroic, then went on in his life to continue to be a jerk. Swindling, philandering and embellishing stories to the point of becoming fiction (not to mention outright lying whenever it suited him) is Smith’s legacy. Although he did one well-timed heroic deed (probably), he was not a hero himself. He was a lifelong self-serving minor criminal who leveraged that one incident for personal gain.

The book was fairly well written, jumping around in time far too much and with stories of modern air war updates included in a somewhat confusing, never-fully-connected fashion. The Audible performance featured a couple minor errors (once referring to the Congressional Medal of Honor as the “CHM”), but was overall well done.