Fortier, Norman ‘Bud’, An Ace of the Eighth: An American Fighter Pilot’s Air War in Europe, Ballantine, 2003
Frankland, Noble, History at War: The Campaigns of an Historian, DLM, 1998
Franks, Norman, Buck McNair: Canadian Spitfire Ace, Grub Street, 2001
Gabreski, Francis, Gabby: A Fighter Pilot’s Life, Orion, 1991
Galland, Adolf, The First and the Last, Buccaneer Books, 1990
Good Brown, James, The Mighty Men of the 381st: Heroes All, Publishers Press, 1984
Goodson, James, Tumult in the Clouds, Penguin, 2003
Harris, Sir Arthur, Bomber Offensive, Collins, 1947
Heaton, Colin D., and Lewis, Anne-Marie, The German Aces Speak II, Zenith Press, 2014
Herrmann, Hajo, Eagle’s Wings: The Autobiography of a Luftwaffe Pilot, Airlife, 1991
Hinchliffe, Peter, The Lent Papers, Cerberus, 2003
Irving, David, The Rise and Fall of the Luftwaffe: The Life of Erhard Milch, Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1973
——, Göring: A Biography, Macmillan, 1989
Johnen, Wilhelm, Duel Under the Stars, Crecy, 1994
Johnson, Johnnie, Wing Leader, Penguin, 1959
Johnson, Robert S., with Caidin, Martin, Thunderbolt!: The Extraordinary Story of a World War II Ace, Uncommon Valor Reprint, no date
Kaplan, Philip, Two-Man Air Force: Don Gentile & John Godfrey World War Two Flying Aces, Pen & Sword, 2006
——, and Currie, Jack, Round the Clock: The Experience of the Allied Bomber Crews, Cassell, 1993
Keeffe, James H. III, Two Gold Coins and a Prayer: The Epic Journey of a World War II Bomber Pilot, Evader, and POW, Appell Publishing, 2010
Kershaw, Ian, Hitler: 1936–1945, Nemesis, Penguin, 2000
Kesselring, Albert, The Memoirs of Field Marshal Kesselring, Greenhill, 2007
Knoke, Heinz, I Flew for the Führer, Cassell, 2003
Matzen, Robert, Mission: Jimmy Stewart and the Fight for Europe, GoodKnight Books, 2016
McLaughlin, J. Kemp, The Mighty Eighth in WWII: A Memoir, University Press of Kentucky, 2014
Melinsky, Hugh, Forming the Pathfinders: The Career of Air Vice-Marshal Sydney Bufton, History Press, 2010
Newton Dunn, Bill, Big Wing: The Biography of Air Chief Marshal Sir Trafford Leigh-Mallory, Airlife, 1992
Parton, James, Air Force Spoken Here: General Ira Eaker & the Command of the Air, Adler & Adler, 1986
Peden, Murray, A Thousand Shall Fall: The True Story of a Canadian Bomber Pilot in World War Two, Stoddart, 1988
Probert, Henry, Bomber Harris: His Life and Times, Greenhill, 2006
Propst, Robert, The Diary of a Combat Pilot, Carlton, 1967
Richards, Denis, Portal of Hungerford: The Life of Marshal of the Royal Air Force Viscount Portal of Hungerford, Heinemann, 1977
Robinson, John Harold, A Reason to Live, Castle Books, 1988
Saward, Dudley, Bomber Harris, Sphere, 1985
Schlange-Shoeningen, Hans, The Morning After, Victor Gollancz, 1948
Scholz, Günther, In the Skies over Europe: The Memoirs of Luftwaffe Fighter Pilot Günther Scholz, Schiffer, 2011
Smith Jr., Ben, Chick’s Crew: A Tale of the Eighth Air Force, Yarborough Brothers, 1978
Smith, Dale O., Screaming Eagle: Memoirs of a B-17 Group Commander, Algonquin, 1990
Smith, Starr, Jimmy Stewart: Bomber Pilot, Zenith Press, 2005
Spagnuolo, Mark M., Mustang Ace: The Story of Don S. Gentile, Cerberus, 1986
Speer, Frank, One Down, One Dead, Xlibris, 2003
Tedder, Lord, With Prejudice: The War Memoirs of Marshal of the Royal Air Force Lord Tedder, Cassell, 1966
Toliver, Raymond F., and Constable, Trevor J., Fighter General: The Life of Adolf Galland, AmPress, 1990
Turner, Richard E., Mustang Pilot, New English Library, 1970
Magazines, Journals & Periodicals
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Harvey, Arnold D., ‘The Battle of Britain in 1940 and Big Week in 1944: A Comparative Perspective’, Air Power, Spring 2012
Lande, David A., ‘All the Winds of Doctrine: General Ira Eaker and the Implementation of Daylight Precision Bombing’, Master of Arts thesis
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Stoddart, Paul, ‘Spitfire to Berlin? Making Supermarine’s Finest an Escort Fighter’, Air Enthusiast, Autumn 2000
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Hughes, Robert L., Black Thursday – 14 Oct 43, www.100thbg.com
——, Commendation Letter, www.100thbg.com
——, Crew Information, www.100thbg.com
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——, Important Dates, www.100thbg.com
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——, La Junta AAB – Class 43B, www.100thbg.com
——, Letters, www.100thbg.com
——, Missions and Events, www.100thbg.com
——, Ops Narrative – Bremen 26 Nov 43, www.100thbg.com
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Acknowledgements
I would like to thank a number of people who have helped with this book. In the United States, the staff at both the Air Force Historical Research Agency at Maxwell Air Force Base and those at the National Mighty Eighth Museum just outside Savannah have been unfailingly helpful. At Maxwell, especial thanks are due to Tammy Horton, while at the Mighty Eighth Museum, I am hugely grateful to Dr Vivian Rogers-Price and her team. At the National World War II Museum in New Orleans, thanks are due to Dr Rob Citino, Jeremy Collins and Seth Paridon in particular for their help. I’d also like to thank the staff of the Imperial War Museum and The National Archives at Kew in the UK and those at the military archives in Freiburg, Germany. Mike Faley of the 100th Bomb Group Foundation has been extremely helpful, pointing me in the direction of all manner of sources – thank you.
Many others have helped along the way. Paul Bingley gave a wonderful tour of Ridgewell and has provided numerous documents as well. Captain Tony Dale kindly showed me around Debden. Martin Bowman, that great chronicler of the Eighth Air Force, has been incredibly generous with his time and sources, for which huge thanks.
I am also very grateful to the veterans who kindly gave me their time. Their numbers are sadly dwindling, but I feel very fortunate to have spent such time with the incredible Larry ‘Goldie’ Goldstein, Rusty Waughman and Bill Byers.
Friends and colleagues have also helped with advice, suggestions and direction-pointing. My deep thanks to Paul Beaver, Peter Caddick-Adams, Graham Cowie, Seb Cox, Conrad Crane, Nick Hartwell, Paul Stoddart, Adam Wheatley and Rowland White, but also to John Romain and Anna McDowell at the Aircraft Restoration Company and especially to Clive Denney and Steve Carter for the tour of Sally B. To Michelle Myers and Ingo Maerker in Freiburg, my grateful thanks, as ever. Thank you, too, to one of my oldest friends, James Petrie, to whom this book is dedicated – one of my very few old pals who actually shows any interest in this subject matter!
Enormous thanks are owed to Brenda Updegraff, who goes way beyond the normal bound
s of a copy editor to provide real collaboration – thank you for your wonderful judgement, skill and forbearance. I am also, as always, indebted to all those at Bantam Press in London and Grove Atlantic in New York: Justina Batchelor, Morgan Entrekin, Larry Findlay, Tom Hill, Phil Lord, Darcy Nicholson, Deb Seager and Vivien Thompson, but most of all George Gibson and Bill Scott-Kerr. I couldn’t hope for finer publishers. To Patrick Walsh, my enormous thanks, as ever.
My final thanks, as always, are to my long-suffering family, to whom I owe much. Watching Daisy clambering into a P-51 and then skipping down the old runway at Ridgewell will be among the enduring memories of writing this book.
Picture Acknowledgements
Every effort has been made to trace copyright holders; those overlooked are invited to get in touch with the publishers.
Here Boeing B-17G Flying Fortress, Handley Page Halifax III, Avro Lancaster, Consolidated B-24 Liberator, Lockheed P-38 Lightning, Focke-Wulf 190 A-8, Junkers 88 G-1 Night-fighter, Messerschmitt 110F, Messerschmitt 210: Alamy
Part-opener pages
1 Getty Images
2 US Airforce
3 US Airforce
4 Getty Images
1 Cockpit of Boeing B-17: James Holland.
2 Waist gunner’s station in B-17: James Holland.
3 Prototype B-17: AFHRA.
4 Don Blakeslee briefing pilots of 4th Fighter Group: Getty Images.
5 George and Bill Byers: Bill Byers.
6 Fred Anderson.
7 Hap Arnold.
8 Bill Kepner and Carl Spaatz: AFHRA.
9 Duane Beeson; Gabby Gabreski: AFHRA.
10 Jim Howard.
11 Hub Zemke: AFHRA.
12 P-51B model: MustangsMustangs.
13 Thunderbolt P-47 firing scheme: AFHRA.
14 Thunderbolt in flight: Alamy.
15 B-17s lined up for a mission: David R. Osborne.
16 Ace Conklin.
17 Larry Goldstein.
18 Kent Keith: Larry Goldstein.
19 Rusty Waughman (left) In cockpit of Lancaster.
20 Newly commissioned: Rusty Waughman.
21 Interior of a Lancaster: James Holland.
22 All photos: Rusty Waughman.
23 Nissen huts: David R. Osborne.
24 Accommodation for air crew: Martin W. Bowman.
25 Hermann Göring.
26 Hajo Herrmann.
27 FW190.
28 ME110: James Holland.
29 Wim Johnen: Frontline Books.
30 Bill Lawley’s battered B-17: Bob Lister.
31 Big Week map: Paul Bingley.
32 Thorpe Abbotts airfield today.
33 Old main runway at Ridgewell today.
34 Chaplain James Good Brown’s former office at Ridgewell: James Holland.
35 The chow line at Thorpe Abbotts.
36 Crew accommodation at Thorpe Abbotts.
37 Flying Fortress coming in to land: Martin W. Bowman.
Index
The page references in this index correspond to the printed edition from which this ebook was created. To find a specific word or phrase from the index, please use the search feature of your ebook reader.
Achmer, Germany 132
AFCE see Automatic Flight Control Equipment
Ahrenholz, Lieutenant Augustus 47
airfields xiii, xiv, 36–7, 74, 76
Allison V-1710 jet engine 122
American Committee of Operation Analysts (COA) 37–8
amphetamines, use of 287–8
Anderson, Lieutenant Clarence ‘Bud’ xxv, 231–3, 234–6, 272–3, 276–7, 298, 301, 348–9
Anderson, Major-General Frederick xxv, 38, 39, 43, 53, 209, 214, 257, 260, 268–9, 294, 305, 328, 340
Andersz, Tadeusz 15
Anglo-American Fifth Army 134
Anglo-French Purchasing Board 120
Anklam, Germany: Arado works 40, 55
anti-aircraft fire (flak) xx, 75, 132, 138, 143–4,194–5, 288, 293, 336
Antonie, Lieutenant Celestine ‘Tony’ 295
ANVIL, Operation 196
Anzio, Italy 260, 273, 295
ARGUMENT, Operation 201–2, 245, 249, 253, 255, 258, 259–60, 268, 273, 286, 290, 291, 294, 296, 301, 303, 313, 315, 316, 326, 336–7, 339
Arndt, Unteroffizier Alfred 31
Arnold, General Henry ‘Hap’ xxv, 37, 63; bombing philosophy 54, 61–2, 64, 65; and Eaker 54, 56, 103, 127, 129, 175–6, 179–80; agrees need for fighter escorts 120, 125, 128–9, 173; frustrations 126–7, 185; and creation of Fifteenth Air Force 134; and invasion of Italy 134; and Operation POINTBLANK 173, 175, 179; wants single Allied Strategic Air Force Commander in London 173–5; shocked by conditions in Italy 179; makes five key points 196; and need for Pathfinders 201; angry at failure to hit targets 220; and Spaatz 220, 244, 245, 257; urges ruthlessness 269
Arnold, Colonel Milton 208
Arnold, Lt-Colonel Walter ‘Pop’ 153, 154
Arnsberg, Germany 343
astro-navigation 140
Athlone Castle 118–19
Augsburg, Germany 294, 336–7; Messerschmitt factory 101, 260, 303, 337, 340
Australian airmen 13, 171, 262–3, 265, 266, 327, 328, 337, 344, 347
Automatic Flight Control Equipment (AFCE) 48–9
Avro Lancaster bombers ix, 64, 69, 73, 74, 77, 78, 105–6, 111–12, 116, 138, 139, 152, 171, 186–7, 188, 189–91, 223–4, 254, 255, 263, 336
B-17s see Boeing B-17 flying Fortress bombers
B-24s see Consolidated B-24 Liberators
Badoglio, Marshal Pietro 133
Bär, Hauptmann 221, 222, 223, 225
BARBAROSSA, Operation 34
Barran, Methuselah 33, 162, 163
Barris, Lieutenant George 248
Barry, ‘Nap’ 141
Barthelmess, Lt-Colonel 295
Bates, Sergeant 115
Battle of Britain (1940) 11, 17, 27, 28, 64, 70, 71, 88, 92, 97, 104–5, 114, 130, 133, 199, 239
Battle of the Atlantic 11–12, 118
Baughman, Joe 331
Beeson, Captain Duane ‘Bee’ xxv, 20–21, 227, 281–2, 297, 332, 349
Benzedrine, use of 287
Berlin: raids on 72, 79, 104, 106, 108, 112, 117, 138, 142–3, 171, 186, 187, 189, 193–4, 195, 222, 254, 342; evacuation 80; Conference 130, 131; defences 143–4, 194–5, 222, 288
Bernburg, Germany 270, 274
Bingley, Paul 350
Blackett bombsight 76
Blakeslee, Lt-Colonel Don xxv; personality 17, 18, 20, 163; background and training 17–18; joins Eagle squadrons 18–19; commands 4th Fighter Group 19–20, 184, 225–6, 350; as instructor 163, 237; and Mustangs 236, 293–4; missions 294, 297, 310, 342, 349; postwar 349
blind-flying: Luftwaffe 93, 131, 222; US Air Force 164, 177, 242
Blitz, the London 64, 70, 71, 72, 73, 78, 104, 239, 240, 340
Blue Blazing Blizzard 275
BMW jet engines 84, 90
Boeing Company: Boeing 247 60; Boeing 299 60–61; B-17G Flying Fortress bombers ix, xxii, 1, 61, 62, 63, 64–5, 90, 101, 102, 103, 105–6, 108, 136–7, 145–8, 149–50, 151, 152, 201, 202, 204–5, 212, 242, 244, 247, 258, 271, 274–5, 277–80, 281, 295, 297, 304, 309, 311, 317–18, 329, 330–31, 333
BOLERO, Operation 57
Bomber Commands see Royal Air Force; United States Army Air Forces
bombsights 76; Blackett 76; Norden 61, 62, 71, 76, 322; Stabilized Automatic Bomb Sight (SABS) 76
Boots 244
‘Boozer’ radar-warning receiver 76
Bosch factories 101, 286, 289–90
Bottomley, Air Marshal Sir Norman 104, 326
Bowman, Lt-Colonel Harold W. 219
Boxted, Essex 119, 163, 184, 210, 211–12, 218, 234, 235
Boyle, Al 298, 301
Boyle, Sergeant Joe 41–2, 183, 291–2
Breeding, Lieutenant Paul 283
Bremen, raids on 32, 40, 55, 66, 148, 150–51, 171, 185–6
Brereton, General Lewis H. 256,
257, 268
Breslau, Poland 260
Bridwell, Lieutenant Ernal 149, 210–11, 246
British Eighth Army 12, 134
Brown, Captain James Good 55, 182–3, 204–5, 283–4, 311, 350
Brunswick, raids on 209, 210, 218, 230, 231, 242, 247, 248, 270, 271, 294, 296, 298, 299, 300–1, 315, 317
Buckey (radio operator) 305, 320, 332
Bullet Serenade 159, 165–6, 293, 301
Bushy Park, London xiv, 15, 197, 255
Butler, Lieutenant 284
Butt Report 72, 73
Byers, George 66–9, 113, 114, 115, 116, 117
Byers, William ‘Bill’ xxvii, 66–9, 70, 113, 115–17, 142, 166, 261, 344, 347
Cabin in the Sky 158, 217
Cabin in the Sky III 277–80, 282–3
Cairo Conference (1943) 175, 178
Calais 186, 222
Canadian pilots 13, 261; see also Byers, George and William; Royal Canadian Air Force
Cannon, Major-General 260
Carter, Squadron Leader Gordon xxvi, 139–42, 149, 186–7, 259, 261–2, 263–4, 298–9, 311–12, 347
Casablanca Conference (1943) 25, 101–2
CBO see Combined Bomber Offensive
Chamberlain, Neville 58
Chapas, Joe 331
Chelveston, RAF (Northamptonshire) 158, 270
Chennault, Captain Claire 59, 70
Chiang Ka-ishek 59
Chipling, Squadron Leader Alban 115
Churchill, Winston 25, 73, 101, 104, 108–9, 260, 313, 344–5, 349
Clark, Lieutenant-General Mark 134, 260
Clore, Lieutenant Cecil M. 204
Clough, Lieutenant 48
COA see American Committee of Operation Analysts
Cogswell, Kirch 284
Cologne, raids on 74, 93–4, 315–16
Combat Box formations xxi
Combined Bomber Offensive (CBO) 52, 53, 102, 104, 126, 173, 174, 258
Combined Operational Planning Committee (COPC) 201, 255
Condor Legion 88, 92
Conklin, Lieutenant Clifford ‘Ace’ 145, 147, 271
Conley, Lieutenant William ‘Bill’ 205, 206, 270, 271–2, 280–81
Consolidated B-24 Liberators x, 63, 101, 105, 108, 144–5, 151–2, 153–4, 158, 206–8, 247, 258, 270, 271, 280–81, 304, 305, 311, 317, 318, 319–20, 321, 324, 330–31, 332, 333
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