Description

Great Book by Osprey Publishing. 64 pages
During World War II 100,000 Allied Bomber Crewmen were killed over the European theater alone. The US Air Force and particularly the Bomber Crews played an integral role in the dramatic Air War during these years. To serve in the US Air Force was a dangerous, but heroic task - more US servicemen for the Air Corps lost their lives than any other part of the US Armed Forces, including the Marines.This book will examine the lives of these courageous American Bomber Crewman who flew, maintained and repaired the famous Boeing B-17 Flying Fortresses and the B-24 Liberators. Our Bomber crew was part of one of the most famous units of the USAAF - the Eighth Air Force. Gregory Fremont-Barnes will examine the recruitment of this elite force, where men required a wide range of skills: an aptitude for flying, those with the technical skills required for work as bombardiers and radio operators, men adept at navigation and map reading, and others who could be trained to operate the numerous heavy machine guns mounted on bombers for their protection from enemy aircraft. All these men longed for the glory of the skies, but were faced with a very different reality. Bombing missions were long and exhausting. Brute strength was required to move the control column and rudder pedals, especially when an engine went out. Bombers routinely flew at over 20,000 feet where temperatures plunged below freezing but often the cabins lacked heating and pressurization. Often flying daylight missions the US Bombers of WWII were a vulnerable target for the skilled Luftwaffe as they took the war to Germany itself.