Bomb Group: The Eighth Air Force's 381st and The Allied Air Offensive Over Europe [Hardcover]

The authors do a good job using the diaries, interviews, and books written by group members to convey a vividsometimes too vividpicture of war at its most elemental. The Journal of the Air Force Historical FoundationIn February 1942, a reconnaissance party of United States Army Air Force officers arrived in England. Firmly wedded to the doctrine of daylight precision bombing, they believed they could help turn the tide of the war in Europe. In the months that followed, they formed the Eighth Air Force  an organization that grew at an astonishing rate. To accommodate it, almost seventy airfields were hastily built across the eastern counties of England.At the heart of the Eighth Air Force was its bombardment groups, each equipped with scores of heavily armed, four-engine bombers. These Boeing B-17 Flying Fortresses and Consolidated B-24 Liberators were soon punching through the enemy's defenses to bomb targets vital to its war effort. They were crewed by thousands of young American airmen, most of whom were volunteers.This book tells the story of just one Bomb Group  the 381st, which crossed the Atlantic in May 1943. Arriving at RAF Ridgewell on the Essex-Suffolk border, its airmen quickly found themselves thrown into the hazardous and attritional air battle raging in the skies over Europe. The 381sts path led from its formation in the Texan desert, to its 297th and final bombing mission deep into the heart of Hitlers Third Reich. This is the remarkable story of one group and the part it played in the strategic bombing campaign of The Mighty Eighth. The story of the men of 381st Bombardment Group, based in England and flying dangerous bomber missions over Europe during World War II.The 381st was based at Ridgewell airfield, Essex, 194335, flying almost 300 bombing missions over Europe.Over half a million USAAF personnel were based in Britain at the peak of the war.There were over 200 American airfields during World War II, the story of the 381st was echoel_