Eighth Air Force Bomber Stories

Following the success of Eighth Air Force Bomber Stories Ian McLachlan has trawled official archives, interviewed survivors and gained privileged access to personal letters, diaries and photograph albums to assemble a brand-new collection of bomber stories. Combining painstaking research and aviation archaeology, the author has uncovered twelve compelling new accounts of US bomber crews in combat over Europe during the Second World War.

Employing many previously unpublished photographs, the author devotes each chapter to a particular incident with powerful human interest during a time when young airmen trained for and engaged in savage aerial combat. Episodes covered include the possible murder of a bomber crew missing at sea; US prisoners of war incarcerated in one of Hitler's most grotesque concentration camps - Buchenwald - and an airman's last letter to loved ones at home. The broken and buried fragments of once mighty machines, now virtually extinct, recall the hopes and the love so often lost in a bomber's final moments. The reader is reminded of sacrifices made not only by young bomber crews, but by others who risked their lives aiding fallen fliers.