Big Week
Page 44
4 ‘We are being recalled …’: ibid
5 ‘Eleven o’clock …’: ibid
6 ‘It was my wingman …’: Heinz Knoke, I Flew for the Führer, p. 142
7 ‘Ground strafing …’: Francis Gabreski, Gabby: A Fighter Pilot’s Life, p. 148
8 ‘Lucky I was at my gun …’: Sullivan Diary, 22/2/1944
9 ‘We dropped our bombs …’: Hugh McGinty, My Life, Book One: The War Years, p. 41
10 ‘Tail gunner pretty bad …’: Sullivan Diary, 22/2/1944
11 ‘The end may be victory …’: James Good Brown, The Mighty Men of the 381st, p. 329
12 ‘A man who had …’: ibid, p. 330
13 ‘While waiting …’: papers of Squadron Leader G. H. F. Carter, IWM 96/41/1
Chapter 23 Thursday, 24 February 1944
1 ‘U.S. in First Joint …’: Stars & Stripes, 23/2/1944
2 ‘The American sporting …’: AFHRA EO 13526
3 ‘You learned to live …’: cited in Johannes Steinhoff et al., Voices from the Third Reich, p. 219
4 ‘After the attacks …’: cited in Jeremy Noakes (ed.), Nazism, Vol. 4: The Home Front in World War II, doc. 1321, p. 567
5 ‘Only the upper part …’: cited in Steinhoff et al., p. 213
6 ‘Was this England? …’: Hugh McGinty, My Life, Book One: The War Years, p. 44
7 ‘impenetrable weather’: T. Michael Sullivan Diary, 23/2/1944
8 ‘You bombed the wrong target …’: James H. Keeffe III, Two Gold Coins and a Prayer, p. 74
9 ‘I could see these multiple …’: ibid, p. 75
10 ‘That will help …’: this episode is recounted in John Harold Robinson, A Reason To Live, pp. 296–8
11 ‘It became pretty grim …’: Keeffe, p. 75
12 ‘I saw it explode …’: ibid
13 ‘It was going to take …’: ibid, p. 78
14 ‘Our losses were not nearly …’: McGinty, p. 45
15 ‘Our little band …’: Heinz Knoke, I Flew for the Führer, p. 143
16 ‘49th Squadron annihilated …’: T. Michael Sullivan Diary, 24/2/1944
17 ‘You were lucky …’: Robinson, p. 298
18 ‘So all in all …’: ibid
19 ‘Not one of us …’: Keeffe, p. 79
Chapter 24 Friday, 25 February 1944
1 ‘It is extremely small …’: cited in Dudley Saward, Bomber Harris, p. 298
2 ‘No clouds obscured …’: papers of Flight Sergeant Kenneth Handley, IWM 3198
3 ‘We saw no searchlights …’: ibid
4 ‘All of us were like …’: John Harold Robinson, A Reason To Live, p. 299
5 ‘My thoughts raced ahead …’: cited in Robert Matzen, Mission, p. 243
6 ‘There will be very little margin …’: Robinson, p. 300
7 ‘No rest as the air blitz …’: Larry Goldstein Diary, 25/2/1944
8 ‘My feet were walking …’: Robinson, p. 300
9 ‘Sad, sad day …’: Robert L. Sullivan Diary, 25/2/1944
10 ‘Such things as I saw …’: ibid
11 ‘No laxatives are needed …’: Heinz Knoke, I Flew for the Führer, p. 144
12 ‘Well, he definitely …’ Mark M. Spagnuolo, Mustang Ace, p. 172
13 ‘Bomb bay doors coming open.’: Robinson, p. 302
14 ‘Trying to get around …’: ibid
15 ‘For God sakes …’: Robert S. Johnson, AFHRA, p. 78
16 ‘He’s staying there …’: Robinson, p. 303
17 ‘On your left …’: this episode described in Knoke, pp. 144–6
18 ‘The tail of the ship …’: Robinson, p. 304
19 ‘Sergeant, somebody sure could …’: ibid
20 ‘There were flak holes …’: ibid, p. 305
21 ‘These past few missions …’: Goldstein Diary, 25/2/44
22 ‘Perhaps it was just as well …’: Handley papers
Postscript
1 ‘Since Jan. 1 …’: Stars & Stripes, 28/2/1944
2 ‘In numbers as well as …’: Beppo Schmid, ‘The Most Important Mistakes of the Luftwaffe as Seen from the Standpoint of the German Fighter Force’, AFHRA
3 ‘destruction of German air combat …’: cited in Alan J. Levine, The Strategic Bombing of Germany, 1940–1945, p. 128
4 ‘Wholesale slaughter …’: Rusty Waughman Diary, 31/3/1944
5 ‘Awe-inspiring at times …’: papers of Flight Sergeant Kenneth Handley, IWM 3198
6 ‘At last I have walked …’: Larry Goldstein Diary, 4/3/1944
7 ‘I was suddenly …’ Hugh McGinty, My Life, Book One: The War Years, p. 72
8 ‘I wonder what kind of life …’: Bill Byers, author interview
Selected Sources
Personal Testimonies
Air Force Historical Research Agency, Maxwell AF Base, Alabama
Anderson, Frederick L.
Gabreski, Francis S.
Galland, Adolf
Hodges, James
Johnson, Robert S.
Kepner, William E.
Lawley Jr., William R.
Schmid, Josef
Spaatz, Carl A.
Author Interviews
Byers, Bill
Goldstein, Larry
Herrmann, Hajo
Munro, Les
Neumann, Julius
Waughman, Rusty
Imperial War Museum, London
Mayer, John
National Museum of the Mighty Eighth Air Force, Savannah, Georgia
Goldstein, Larry
National World War II Museum, New Orleans, Louisiana
Anderson, Bud
Shoens, Bob
Unpublished Memoirs, Diaries, etc.
Imperial War Museum, London
Carter, Gordon, Memories of War
Handley, Ken, Papers
Milch, Erhard, Papers
National Museum of the Mighty Eighth Air Force, Savannah, Georgia
Ankeny, Harry, Diary
Burgsteiner, Will D., Memoir
Davison, Ralph, My Excursions from Podington
Dolan, William, Recollections of a Bombardier
Emory, Frank N., Diary
Gentile, Don S., One-Man Air Force
Goldstein, Larry
Hanlyn, Calvin M., Diary
Herdic Jr., Carl W., Diary
Hivey, Eugene, Diary
Johnson, John R., Hang the Expense
Lewis, Daniel
McGinty, Hugh, My Life, Book One: The War Years – A Tail Gunner Looks Back
Sullivan, Robert L., Diary
Vaughn, Winfield C., Diary
Archives, Museums, etc.
Air Force Historical Research Agency, Maxwell AF Base, Alabama
Air Staff Post Hostilities Intelligence Requirements on GAF (German Air Force of Luftwaffe) Appendices I–VII
Bar, Oberstleutnant, A Typical Fighter Mission in Defense of the Reich
Bar, Oberstleutnant, and Galland, Adolf, Fighter Tactics
Eighth Air Force: Miscellaneous Reports, Aircrew Surveys, Tactics etc., A1756
Galland, Adolf, The Birth, Life, and Death of the German Fighter Arm
——, Fighter Tactics
Galland, Adolf, and Schmid, Josef, The Most Important Mistakes of the Luftwaffe as Seen from the Standpoint of the German Fighter Force
Interrogation of Generalleutnant Galland, Generalfeldmarschall Milch, Oberstleutnant Bar, Generalleutnant Hitschhold and Leutnant Neumann, GAF Opinions of Allied Aircraft
Kammhuber, Josef, Problems in the Conduct of a Day and Night Defensive Air War
Schmid, Josef, Day and Night Aerial Warfare over the Reich
——, German Nightfighting
——, The Struggle for Air Supremacy over the Reich, 1 January 1944–31 March 1944
Unit histories and war diaries: 4th Fighter Group; 56th Fighter Group; 354th Fighter Group; 357th Fighter Group; 100th Bomb Group; 364th Bomb Group; 379th Bomb Group; 388th Bomb Group; 389th Bomb Group; 445th Bomb Group
VIII Fig
hter Command, Narrative of Operations
——, The Long Reach Deep Fighter Escort Tactics
National Archives, London
Squadron Operational Record Books: 35 Squadron; 101 Squadron; 429 Squadron; 609 Squadron
General
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Anon, The Aircraft Book: The Definitive Visual History, Dorling Kindersley, 2013
Archard, L. (ed.), How to Fly a Second World War Heavy Bomber: Lancaster, Halifax, Stirling, Amberley, 2014
Astor, Gerald, The Mighty Eighth: The Air War in Europe As Told by the Men Who Fought It, Berkley Caliber, 2015
Bekker, Cajus, The Luftwaffe War Diaries: The German Air Force in World War II, Corgi, 1972
Bishop, Patrick, Bomber Boys: Fighting Back 1940–1945, Harper Press, 2007
——, Air Force Blue: The RAF in World War Two – Spearhead of Victory, William Collins, 2017
Blake, Steve, The Pioneer Mustang Group: The 354th Fighter Group in World War II, Schiffer Military, 2008
Bowman, Martin, USAAF Handbook 1939-1945, Sutton, 2003
——, B-17 Combat Missions: Fighters, Flak and Forts – First-hand Accounts of Mighty 8th Operations over Germany, Metro Books, 2007
——, On the Highways of the Skies: The 8th Air Force in World War II, Schiller, 2008
——, We’re Here to Win the War For You: The US 8th Air Force at War, Amberley, 2009
——, We Were Eagles, Volume One: July 1942 to November 1943, Amberley, 2014
——, We Were Eagles, Volume Two: December 1943 to May 1944, Amberley, 2014
Bruning, John R., Bombs Away! The World War II Bombing Campaigns over Europe, Zenith, 2011
Cooper, Alan, Target Leipzig: The RAF’s Disastrous Raid of 19/20 February 1944, Pen & Sword, 2009
Corum, James S., The Luftwaffe: Creating the Operational Air War, 1918–1940, University Press of Kansas, 1997
Cotter, Jarrod, and Hammond, Maurice, North American P-51 Mustang: Owners’ Workshop Manual, Haynes, 2016
Crane, Conrad C., American Airpower Strategy in World War II: Bombs, Cities, Civilians, and Oil, University Press of Kansas, 2016
Craven, Wesley Frank, and Cate, James Lea (eds), The Army Air Forces in World War II, Volume Two: Europe: Torch to Pointblank, August 1942 to December 1943, University of Chicago Press, 1949
——, The Army Air Forces in World War II, Volume Three: Europe: Argument to V-E Day, January 1944 to May 1945, University of Chicago Press, 1951
Davis Biddle, Tami, Rhetoric and Reality in Air Warfare: The Evolution of British and American Ideas about Strategic Bombing, 1914–1945, Princeton University Press, 2002
Earnshaw, James Douglas, 609 at War, Vector, 2003
Eden, Paul (ed.), The Encyclopedia of Aircraft of World War II, Amber, 2017
Emerson, William R., Operation Pointblank: A Tale of Bombers and Fighters, United States Air Force Academy, 1962
Ethell, Jeffrey, and Price, Dr Alfred, Target Berlin: Mission 250 – 6 March 1944, Greenhill, 2002
Freeman, Roger A., The Mighty Eighth: A History of the US 8th Army Air Force, Macdonald, 1973
——, Mighty Eighth War Diary, Jane’s, 1986
——, Airfields of the Eighth Then and Now, After the Battle, 1992
Gann, Ernest K., Fate is the Hunter, Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 2011
Graff, Cory, P-51 Mustang: Seventy-Five Years of America’s Most Famous Warbird, Zenith, 2015
Gunston, Bill, Illustrated Directory of Fighting Aircraft of World War II, Salamander, 1988
Hall, David Ian, Strategy for Victory: The Development of British Tactical Air Power, 1919–1943, Praeger Security International, 2008
Hall Jr., Grover C., 1,000 Destroyed: The Life & Times of the 4th Fighter Group, Brown Printing Co., 1946
Harris, Arthur, Despatch on Operations: 23rd February 1942 to 8th May 1945, Frank Cass, 1995
Hess, William N., 354th Fighter Group, Osprey, 2002
Holland, James, Heroes: The Greatest Generation and the Second World War, Harper Perennial, 2007
——, Dam Busters: The Race to Smash the German Dams, Bantam Press, 2012
——, The War in the West: Germany Ascendant, 1939–1941, Bantam Press, 2015
——, The War in the West: The Allies Strike Back, 1941–1943, Bantam Press, 2017
Irons, Roy, The Relentless Offensive, Pen & Sword, 2009
Kay, Antony L., and Smith, J. R., German Aircraft of the Second World War, Putnam, 2002
Klein, Maury, A Call to Arms: Mobilizing America for World War II, Bloomsbury Press, 2013
Levine, Alan J., The Strategic Bombing of Germany, 1940–1945, Praeger, 1992
Mahoney, Kevin A., Fifteenth Air Force Against the Axis: Combat Mission over Europe during World War II, Scarecrow Press, 2013
——, Bombing Europe: The Illustrated Exploits of the Fifteenth Air Force, Zenith, 2015
Mahurin, Walker ‘Bud’, Hitler’s Fall Guys: An Examination of the Luftwaffe by One of America’s Most Famous Aces, Schiffer Military History, 1999
McFarland, Stephen L., and Philips Newton, Wesley, To Command the Sky: The Battle for Air Superiority Over Germany, 1942–1945, Smithsonian Institution Press, 1991
McLaren, David R., Beware the Thunderbolt: The 56th Fighter Group in World War II, Schiffer Military, 1994
Middlebrook, Martin, and Everitt, Chris, The Bomber Command War Diaries, Penguin, 1990
Miller, Donald L., Eighth Air Force: The American Bomber Crews in Britain, Aurum, 2008
Mombeek, Eric, Defenders of the Reich: Jagdgeschwader 1, Volume One: 1939–1942, Classic Publications, 2000
Morrison, Wilbur H., The Incredible 305th, Belmont Tower Books, 1962
Murray, Williamson, Luftwaffe: Strategy for Defeat 1933–1945, Grafton, 1988
Nielsen, Andreas, The German Air Force General Staff, Arno Press, 1968
Noakes, Jeremy (ed.), Nazism 1919–1945, Volume 4: The German Home Front in World War II, University of Exeter Press, 2006
Overy, Richard, The Bombing War: Europe 1939–1945, Allen Lane, 2013
Pons, Gregory, 9th Air Force, Histoire & Collections, 2008
Price, Alfred, Instruments of Darkness: The History of Electronic Warfare, Macdonald and Jane’s, 1977
Rasmussen, Nicolas, On Speed: From Benzedrine to Adderall, New York University Press, 2008
Ries Jr., Karl, Dora Kurfürst und Rote 13, Volumes I–IV: Flugzeuge der Luftwaffe 1933–1945, Verlag Dieter Hoffmann, 1968
Rogers, Jeff, Valor at Polebrook: The Last Flight of Ten Horsepower, Ken Cook, 1998
Rumpf, Hans, The Bombing of Germany, Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1963
Rust, Kenn C., The 9th Air Force in World War II, Aero, 1967
Scutts, Jerry, and Stanaway, John, Aces of the Mighty Eighth, Osprey, 2002
Speer, Frank E., The Debden Warbirds: The 4th Fighter Group in World War II, Schiffer, 2004
Spick, Mike, Luftwaffe Fighter Aces: The Jagdflieger and Their Combat Tactics and Techniques, Ivy Books, 1997
——, Aces of the Reich: The Making of a Luftwaffe Fighter Pilot, Greenhill, 2006
Steinhoff, Johannes, Pechel, Peter, and Showalter, Dennis, Voices from the Third Reich: An Oral History, Da Capo, 1994
Suchenwirth, Richard, Command and Leadership in the German Air Force, Arno Press, 1969
——, Historical Turning Points in the German Air Force War Effort, University Press of the Pacific, 2004
Szlagor, Tomasz, P-47 Thunderbolt with the USAAF, Kagero, 2013
Tooze, Adam, The Wages of Destruction: The Making and Breaking of the Nazi Economy, Penguin, 2007
Various, World War II Day by Day, Dorling Kindersley, 2001
Weal, John, Jagdgeschwader 2 ‘Richthofen’, Osprey, 2000
Webster, Charles, and Frankland, Noble, The Strategic Air Offensive Against Germany 1939–1945, Volume II: Endeavour, Naval & Military Press, 2006
——, The Strategic Air Offensive Against
Germany 1939–1945, Volume IV: Annexes and Appendices, Naval & Military Press, 2006
Yenne, Bill, Big Week: Six Days That Changed the Course of World War II, Berkley Caliber, 2012
Zaloga, Steven J., Operation Pointblank 1944: Defeating the Luftwaffe, Osprey, 2011
Ziegler, Frank H., The Story of 609 Squadron: Under the White Rose, Crecy, 1993
Memoirs, Biographies, etc.
Anderson, Clarence E. ‘Bud’, To Fly and Fight: Memoirs of a Triple Ace, Pacifica Press, 1990
Anzanos, Andrew, My Combat Diary With Eighth Air Force B-17s 390th Bomb Group, Original Publication, 2004
Arnold, H. H., Global Mission, TAB Books, 1989
——, American Air Power Comes of Age: General Henry H. ‘Hap’ Arnold’s World War II Diaries, ed. John W. Huston, Progressive Management Publications, 2017
Baker, David, Adolf Galland: The Authorised Biography, Windrow and Greene, 1996
Brereton, Lewis H., The Brereton Diaries: The War in the Pacific, Middle East and Europe, 3 October 1941–8 May 1945, William Morrow, 1946
Caine, Philip D., Spitfires, Thunderbolts and Warm Beer: An American Fighter Pilot over Europe, Potomac Books, 2005
Charlwood, Don, No Moon Tonight, Goodall, 2010
Clostermann, Pierre, The Big Show: Some Experiences of a French Fighter Pilot in the R.A.F., Cassell, 2005
Crosby, Harry H., A Wing and a Prayer: The Bloody 100th Bomb Group of the U.S. Eighth Air Force in Action over Europe in World War II, iUniverse.com, 2000
Davis, Richard G., Carl A. Spaatz and the Air War in Europe, Center for Air Force History, 1993
Doolittle, James H. ‘Jimmy’, I Could Never Be So Lucky Again, Bantam Books, 1992
Dos, Margarete, and Lieff, Kerstin, Letters from Berlin: A Story of War, Survival, and the Redeeming Power of Love and Friendship, Lyon Press, 2013
Fischer, Wolfgang (ed.), Luftwaffe Fighter Pilot, trans. John Weal, Grub Street, 2010
Fleming, Samuel P., Flying with the Hell’s Angels, Honoribus Press, 1991