HMSO - Target : Germany (1944) (ebook)

HMSO - Target : Germany (1944)

Her Majesty’s Stationery Office

The US Army Air Forces’ official story of the VIII Bomber Command’s first year over Europe

February 1944: For a year, the B-17 flying fortresses of General Arnold's 8th US Air Force are stationed on British bases and pound Germany by day (leaving the night bombing to Field Marshal Harris).

The American information service published a 120-page propaganda book to show the American public that the sacrifices made were not in vain. The book, produced by experienced communicators, was of interest to the British government, which in turn published it for British 'exploitation'. This is the version you are offered.

The book begins with a lively report on a bombing mission over the Ruhr. The second chapter explains the difference between British and American techniques for destroying the German industrial fabric: area night versus precision daylight. Chapter 3 is devoted to the installation and the first missions of the 8th Army in the United Kingdom. One chapter is devoted to the bombing of Lille, intended to validate the American technique. Another one is dedicated to the multiple missions against the concrete shelters of the German submarines in St Nazaire, Lorient, etc...

The conditions of daily life in England are evoked (of course in very positive terms). The choice of targets and the effects of the bombardments are explained in an interesting way. The opposition of the enemy fighters, the recovery of crews shot down at sea, the enormous logistic machine and the organisation of the bases, the meshing and the efficiency of the German anti-aircraft defence networks, the B-24 Liberator raid on the Ploesti oilfields in Romania, the techniques of formation flying, and finally, an assessment of the 124 raids carried out in one year with their results constitute the various elements of a very complete picture of the American bombing operations in 1943 and 1944.

120 pages, in English. Traces of age wear.