The Men Who Killed the Luftwaffe: The U.S. Army Air Forces Against Germany in World War II

When World War II began, the U.S. Army Air Corps had only forty-five thousand men and a few thousand aircraft—insufficient to defend the United States, much less defeat Germany's Luftwaffe, which possessed advanced aircraft and experienced pilots. By war's end, however, the Luftwaffe had been destroyed, and the U.S. Army Air Forces, the Air Corps' successor, had delivered the decisive blows. This book chronicles that transformation while presenting accounts of aerial combat. Britain's Royal Air Force was barely holding its position when American strength became necessary to shift the balance. The U.S. built an air force of more than two million men from limited beginnings. Under the leadership of Henry "Hap" Arnold, Carl "Tooey" Spaatz, Ira Eaker, James Doolittle, and others, the USAAF developed a well-trained and equipped force. The brave Americans who crewed, maintained, and supported the aircraft enabled the USAAF to annihilate the Luftwaffe through sustained bombing of targets inside Germany and elsewhere. The book combines history with tribute to these men, describing World War II aerial warfare over Europe and the personalities of those who won it, both on the ground and in the air.