On the Highways of the Skies; The 8th air Force in World War II
Atglen, PA: Schiffer Military History, 2008. Presumed First Edition, First printing. Hardcover. The format is approximately 8.75 inches by 11.25 inches. 360 pages. Decorative cover. Illustrated endpapers. Illustrations (some in color). Glossary. German Ranks and their Abbreviations. Endnotes. Bibliography No dust jacket present. Pencil notation on rep. This is largely in a two-column format. This is a heavy, oversized book that if sent outside of the United States would require additional shipping costs. With well over 100 published books, Martin W. Bowman is one of Britain’s best-known aviation historians and authors. Specializing in Second World War history and post-war aviation, Martin’s interest in these subjects was driven by the prolific number of RAF and USAAF air bases that were established in his native East Anglia. His previous books have included works such as Legend of the Lancaster, Confounding the Reich, Duxford and the Big Wings, as well as numerous titles in the exhaustive Air War series, which, between them, provide extensive coverage of operations carried out on D-Day and during the Market Garden offensive at Arnhem. The story in words and pictures, many of them never before seen, of the U.S. 8th Air Force fighter and bomber groups of the 1st, 2nd and Third Air Divisions 1942-45. Many first person stories tell what combat was like in the skies in the ETO against the Luftwaffe Gruppes of Bf 109s and Fw 190s and the B-17 Flying Fortresses and B -24 Liberators. Many first hand accounts detail the missions that were fraught with flak and fighters as the U.S. Strategic Offensive reached into the deepest parts of the Reich. Also told are stories from the Luftwaffe experts who opposed the bomber fleets and the fighter escorts. VIII Bomber Command of the United States Army Air Forces was established early in 1942. From June 1943 it was the daylight bombing part of the Combined Bomber Offensive against Germany. VIII Bomber Command was redesignated as Eighth Air Force on 22 February 1944. The Eighth Army Air Force (8 AAF) was a United States Army Air Forces combat air force in the European theater of World War II (1939/41–1945), engaging in operations primarily in the Northern Europe area of responsibility; carrying out strategic bombing of enemy targets in France, the Low Countries, and Germany; and engaging in air-to-air fighter combat against enemy aircraft until the German capitulation in May 1945. It was the largest of the deployed combat Army Air Forces in numbers of personnel, aircraft, and equipment. VIII Bomber Command launched its first raid in North-western Europe on 4 July 1942, when six RAF Douglas Boston (A-20 Havoc) bombers flown by crews of the 15th Bombardment Squadron (Light), accompanied by another six Bostons from the No. 226 Squadron RAF, commanded by Captain Charles C. Kegelman attacked four airfields in the Netherlands. Alerted to the attack, the airfield defences were prepared for the raid when it arrived. The right propeller of Kegelman's Boston was shot away by flak while over the target at De Kooy Airfield. Further ground fire caused damage to his right wing, and the engine caught fire. Kegelman's aircraft lost altitude and even bounced off the ground, but he was able to bring the damaged bomber home and received the Distinguished Service Cross (DSC) from General Carl Spaatz on 11 July. This was the first DSC earned by a member of the Eighth Air Force in World War II. Regular combat operations by the VIII Bomber Command began on 17 August 1942, when the 97th Bombardment Group flew twelve Boeing B-17E Flying Fortresses on the first VIII Bomber Command heavy bomber mission of the war from RAF Grafton Underwood, attacking the Rouen-Sotteville marshaling yards in France. During World War II, the offensive air forces of the United States Army Air Forces (USAAF) came to be classified as strategic or tactical. A strategic air force was that with a mission to attack an enemy's war effort beyond his front-line forces, predominantly production and supply facilities, whereas a tactical air force supported ground campaigns, usually with objectives selected through co-operation with the armies. In Europe, Eighth Air Force was the first USAAF strategic air force, with a mission to support an invasion of continental Europe from the British Isles. Eighth Air Force carried out strategic daytime bombing operations in Western Europe from airfields in eastern England as part of the Combined Bomber Offensive. The Pointblank directive of June 1943 redirected the Allied strategic bombing effort against the German air force in order to reduce it to the point where it could not oppose the planned invasion of France in mid-1944. Also in June 1943, two groups of the Eight Air Force from England began training for the upcoming Operation Tidal Wave, a low-level raid on the Ploie ti refineries in Romania. A few weeks after Tidal Wave, the Eighth Air Force groups returned to England. Condition: Very good.
Keywords: 8th Air Force, Eighth Air Force, Flying Fortresses, B-17, Big Week, Operation Argument, Westwall, Bridgehead, Ardennes Offensive, Battle of the Bulge, Luftwaffe, Aerial Combat, Military Units
ISBN: 9780764330902
[Book #90443]
Price: $175.00