This book describes the period when the American daylight offensive
faltered and nearly failed and recalls the terrible losses suffered by
Liberators on the low-level attack on the Ploesti oilfields in Rumania
and by the B-17s on the notorious Schweinfurt and Regensburg raids which
entered 8th Air Force folklore as 'Black Thursday'. Fascinating
anecdotes, eye-witness accounts and the hard-won experiences of the
battle-scarred American 'fly-boys' reveal the grim realities of air
combat at four miles high above enemy occupied Europe, Berlin and the
Ruhr. 'Grown up in the war' they paint a revealing picture as only they
can. The 'Mighty Eighth' was an air force of hard-fighting, hard-playing
fliers who suffered more casualties than the entire US Marine Corps in
the Pacific Campaign. Here, in their own words are stories of survival
and soul-numbing loss, of 'fly-boys' who came together to fight an air
war of the ferocity that had never been fought on such a vast scale
before. While RAF Bomber Command was waging war at night, the 8th Air
Force B-17 Flying Fortresses and B-24 Liberators bombed by day in a
24-hour 'round the clock' campaign. This is also a partly a strategic
history with a behind-the-scenes look at deployment of the bomber groups
and the fighter escorts that would eventually become their salvation on
the interminable deep penetration raids into the Greater Reich.
