DOC That Furious Struggle: Chancellorsville and the High Tide of the Confederacy; May 1-4; 1863 (Emerging Civil War Series) by Chris Mackowski; Kristopher D. White in History

Description

Though Anglo-American air power may be unrivaled in today’s world; this was certainly not the case during Europe’s last great war. Decades ago; when our airmen flew against Germany; horrific casualties resulted on both sides; and certain battles fought by the Allied powers can be termed nothing less than calamitous. “Black Thursday;” the second Schweinfurt raid; was the most savagely fought air battle in U.S. history; and a milestone in the course of World War II. On October 14; 1943; the U.S. Eighth Air Force launched nearly 300 bombers deep into German territory to destroy the ball-bearing plants at Schweinfurt; hoping this would bring enemy industry to a halt. On that clear; sunlit day; hundreds of German fighters raced among the unescorted B-17s; guns blazing; knocking down plane after plane; each with ten men aboard. Other German aircraft flew just outside machine-gun range of the tightly packed formations; lobbing rockets that exploded into thousands of pieces of shrapnel. U.S. bombers that split off from a formation; either wounded or disoriented; became prey for the agile packs of German fighters who would set upon them like wolves thirsty for a kill. By the end of the day; the flight path of the Flying Fortresses was marked across the breadth of Germany by towering pillars of smoke from crashed machines; fiery tributes to 600 lost airmen. W. Raymond Wood was just a child when his brother was lost in the Schweinfurt raid; and the minute details of this book is the result of his multi-year effort to illuminate “Black Thursday” as no writer has before. He not only reveals the experience of the American flyers in this famous battle; but that of the civilians on the ground and the enemy fighters who flew against the bomber stream; including the Me-110 pilot who in all probability destroyed his brother’s plane with a rocket. Illustrated with 48 pages of photos and original documents; this book examines the air war against the Third Reich; then brings the reader into the center of harrowing air combat; and finally chronicles the little-known operations after war’s end to retrieve and identify our dead. The young navigator who sacrificed his life over Schweinfurt; after first being buried in the German village in which he fell; was at last recovered by RAF and American War Graves teams; who returned his corpse to Nebraska; where his family had anxiously awaited news of the discovery of his remains. In this book; Wood has provided not only an important work of historical research; but also the intimate account of a death in one of World War II’s greatest battles.