The Mighty Eighth: The Air War in Europe as Told by the Men Who Fought It [Paperback]

In the skies of World War II Europe, the Eighth Air Force was a defining factor in turning the tide against the Nazis. In these gripping oral histories, the sacrifice, savagery, and supremacy of the “Mighty Eighth” is described by those who experienced it...and survived it.

At the outbreak of World War II, America was woefully unprepared for a fight, though Europe was already years into the battle. Soon, though, America’s war machine was rolling out pilots, engineers, planes, and materials in astounding numbers. It was called the Eighth Air Force—and it would hit the Nazi juggernaut like a lightning bolt.

Launching a then-groundbreaking campaign of daylight bombing runs, the men of the Eighth would suffer more casualties than the entire Marine Corps in the Pacific theater. But they would also prove to be the most effective weapon against the enemy, taking out strategic targets such as munitions plants and factories that were vital to the German war effort and grinding them to a halt. InThe Mighty Eighth, the men who fought in the greatest air war in human history tell their stories of courage and camaraderie as only those who were there can tell them.Praise forThe Mighty Eighth

“Great reading.”—Stephen Ambrose

“Bold, brawny, epic in scope...Astor captures the fire and apssion of these tens of thousands of U.S. airmen who flew through the inferno that was the bomber war over Europe.”—Stephen CoontsGerald Astorwas a World War II veteran and award-winning journalist and historian whose articles have appeared in the New York Times,Playboy, andEsquire.Within twenty-four hours after the first bombs from carrier-based Japanese airplanes exploded at Pearl Harbor, the United States entered a world-wide war in which the flying machine, largely a bit player previously, assumed an ever larger role. But, on December 7, 1941, what wol“2