Bomb Group Audiobook Libro.fm

In February 1942 a reconnaissance party of US 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 Forcean 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 fourengine bombers These Boeing B17 Flying Fortresses and Consolidated B24 Liberators were soon punching through the enemys defenses to bomb targets vital to its war effort They were crewed by thousands of young American airmen most of whom were volunteers

This is the story of just one Bomb Groupthe 381st which crossed the Atlantic in May 1943 Arriving at RAF Ridgewell on the EssexSuffolk 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