Blood and Fears: How America's Bomber Boys of the 8th Air Force Saved World War II

by Kevin Wilson

Overview

The US 8th Air Force came of age in 1944. With a fresh commander, it was ready to demonstrate its true power: from Operation Argument in February—targeting German aircraft production plants—to bringing the Luftwaffe to battle over Berlin, the combined US Air Force-Royal Air Force forces’ round-the clock campaign bottled up the German army in Normandy.In this authoritative history, Kevin Wilson reveals the blood and heroism of the 8th Air Force. At the same time, he opens up the lives of the Women's Army Corps and Red Cross girls who served in England with them and feared for the men in the skies, and he hasn't flinched from recounting the devastation of bombing or the testimony of shocked German civilians.Drawing on first-hand accounts from diaries, letters, and his personal audio recordings, the author has brought to life the ebullient Americans' interaction with their British counterparts, unveiling stories of humanity and heartbreak. Thanks to America's bomber boys and girls, the tide of World War II shifted forever.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781681776637
Publisher:	Pegasus Books
Publication date:	04/10/2018
Pages:	560
Sales rank:	524,903
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 1.50(d)

About the Author

Kevin Wilson has spent most of his working life as a staff journalist on British national newspapers, including the Daily Mail and the Sunday Express. He is the author of Blood and Fears and Airborne in 1943, also published by Pegasus Books.

Table of Contents

List of Illustrations ix

List of Maps xi

Introduction xiii

Winter

1 'He had us dead to rights' 3

2 'Things are going to be tough from now on' 28

3 'A gasp of surprise and dread' 64

4 'What are those fools trying to do, kill all of us' 93

Spring

5 'Hiya Baby! Lovely day isn't it?' 107

6 'Up and down the streets people jeered and spat at me' 135

Summer

7 'Invasion! No longer just a gleam in the General's eye' 165

8 'An Me 109 came at me head on. I was terrified' 184

9 'Couldn't sleep. Kept seeing ships exploding' 199

10 'Some were blazing and some were blown to bits' 220

11 'All hell broke loose' 250

Autumn

12 'Bodies were scattered all over the area' 273

13 'The greatest air battle of this war' 289

Winter

14 'I bet our lives' 329

15 'So cold tears came into ray eyes' 361

16 'The birds were really flying. What a sight!' 377

17 'Sitting off my wing was an Me 109' 409

Spring

18 'Let the English celebrate' 435

19 'I can't get away from the things I've seen' 457

Acknowledgements 480

Notes 484

Glossary 512

Bibliography 516

Index 522

Editorial Reviews

Wilson’s all-guns-blazing history of the United States Army Air Forces boys and girls covers everything from Glenn Miller dances and gifts of silk stockings to nerve-wracking daylight raids over Germany. It flies.

The Daily Express (U.K.)

A sweeping history of the time period that includes the decisions to keep attacking, despite the losses. It captures not only the experiences of the bomber crews but also the British population, the U.S. fighter squadrons providing escort, and the ground support personnel. The author’s admiration for the courage, sacrifice, and skill of the bomber crews is evident in every chapter.

Military Review

Kevin Wilson has gathered together a treasure trove of unique stories from an incredible range of sources. Tense, thrilling and often tragic, his book brings to vivid life the everyday heroism of the American bomber boys.

Keith Lowe

The whole book—style, information, readability (and other merits I can’t express as I’m not that literary) are great! One of the most enjoyable I have read; hard to put down.

8th Air Force Historical Society

"Wilson has written a comprehensive history of the Eighth Air Force. By drawing on letters, diaries and his own interviews with the airmen of the Eighth, Wilson offers fresh material."

Air & Space/Smithsonian Magazine

"An excellent telling of the 8th Air Force’s strategic-bombing campaigns. Wilson reveals in this action-packed book not only the bloodshed and historic heroism of the 8th Air Force but also the personal stories and efforts of the Women’s Army Corps and Red Cross women who served in England. An amazingly detailed story of the extreme bravery, heroism, and heartbreak that ultimately turned the tide of World War II. A great addition for anyone’s library on World War II history."

Flight Journal

Meticulously researched and grippingly recounted, this is a first-rate contribution to our understanding of the Second World War.

The Daily Express

Thorough, thrilling and profoundly moving.

The Times (London)

11/15/2016
The defeat of Nazi Germany in World War II required the combined action of army, naval, and aerial forces as well as close coordination with the Allies. A significant example of this coordinated effort is the daytime and nighttime bombing of Germany by the American Eighth Air Force and the British Royal Air Force. Formed in 1942, the Eighth Air Force, led by Gen. James Doolittle starting in 1944, began systematically bombing German industrial and military targets, effectively limiting their strength. By war's end, the Eighth Air Force had lost 26,000 men while dropping over 700,000 tons of bombs on Germany. Journalist Wilson has crafted a highly readable and intimate account based on letters, diaries, and oral histories of not only the men involved but also the women who served with them in the Red Cross and the Women's Army Corps. For libraries that already own Donald Miller's Master's of the Air, Wilson's book would be a fine counterpart, especially with its attention to the contributions of women. VERDICT A well-researched and well-written history of a significant aspect of World War II. For most collections.—Ed Goedeken, Iowa State Univ. Lib., Ames

Library Journal

2016-12-05
In his first book, a British journalist tells the story of the airmen who reduced the Third Reich to ashes. On the 8th Air Force's dangerous missions, which consisted of persistent daytime bombing of the European continent, 26,000 flyers would die. Targeting airfields, transportation centers, industrial sites, and refineries, the 8th alone dropped 714,000 tons of bombs on Europe between April 1942 and 1945 and, together with the Royal Air Force, killed 593,000 civilians in the bomber offensive. Relying heavily on diaries, letters, journals, and interviews, Wilson tracks the air campaign from the months before D-Day to the fall of Berlin. Chronicling numerous significant raids, his account abounds with arresting detail—the widespread heavy use of Benzedrine to fight tiredness, the frustrating performance of the electric suits designed to keep flyers warm at 28,000 feet—and features broader discussions about air combat—e.g., the role of sheer luck in determining who lived or died and the shockingly high risk of collision. Famous names pop up: European commander Carl Spaatz and, of course, the 8th's fabled Gen. Jimmy Doolittle. Wilson also touches on the midair explosion that killed young Joe Kennedy, the heroics of Hollywood star Jimmy Stewart, the first "kill" of future legend Chuck Yeager, and the mysterious, deadly plane crash of band leader Maj. Glenn Miller. Mostly, though, Wilson focuses on the everyday pilots, navigators, bombardiers, and gunners, their exploits in the air, and their lives in Britain, a nation whose social life their presence transformed. The American flyboys—"over paid, oversexed, and over here"—married 41,000 British girls, fathering 14,000 babies. Even as their planes regularly fell out of the sky, scarring the countryside and cities, the airmen busied themselves with small cultural revolutions—e.g., introducing swing music to teenagers and peanut butter to schoolboys. An intimate, often affecting look back at a group of young men who established an American air superiority that persists to this day.

Kirkus Reviews