Clean Sweep

A vivid history, packed with first-hand accounts, of the US Eighth Air Force''s VIII Fighter Command from its foundation in 1942 through to its victory in the skies over Nazi Germany. On August 7, 1942, two major events occurred on opposite sides of the planet. In the South Pacific, the United States went on the offensive with the First Marine Division landing on Guadalcanal. In England, 12 B-17 bombers of Eighth Air Force bombed the Rouen-Sotteville railroad marshalling yards in France. While the mission was small, the aerial struggle that began that day would ultimately cost the United States more men killed and wounded by the end of the war in Europe than the Marines would lose in the Pacific War.Clean Sweep is the story of the creation, development and operation of the Eighth Air Force Fighter Command and the battle to establish daylight air superiority over the Luftwaffe so that the invasion of Europe could be successful.Thomas McKelvey Cleaver has had a lifelong interest in the history of the fighter force that defeated the Luftwaffe over Germany. He has collected many first-hand accounts from participants over the past 50 years, getting to know pilots such as the legendary "Hub" Zemke, Don Blakeslee and Chuck Yeager, as well as meeting and interviewing leading Luftwaffe pilots Adolf Galland, Gunther Rall and Walter "Count Punski" Krupinski. This story is told through accounts gathered from both sides.>

Auteur

Thomas McKelvey Cleaver has been a published writer for the past 40 years, with his work including the best-selling Osprey titles The Tonkin Gulf Yacht Club (2021), Going Downtown (2022), The Cactus Air Force (2022) alongside the late Eric Hammel, and most recently Clean Sweep (2023). Tom served in the US Navy in Vietnam and currently lives in Encino, California.

Contenu

Foreword by Brigadier General USAF (Ret.) Clarence "Bud" Anderson
Author Preface
Chapter One: The Most Important Day
Chapter Two: War on the Horizon
Chapter Three: Fledgling Fighters
Chapter Four: Yanks in the RAF
Chapter Five: Starting Over
Chapter Six: Opponents
Chapter Seven: VIII Fighter Command Struggles to Survive
Chapter Eight: The Battle Gets Serious
Chapter Nine: Against the Odds
Chapter Ten: Carrying On
Chapter Eleven: Mission 115 - The Day the Luftwaffe Won
Chapter Twelve: Reinforcement
Chapter Thirteen: End of the Beginning
Chapter Fourteen: Jimmy Doolittle Arrives
Chapter Fifteen: Blakeslee Takes Command
Chapter Sixteen: One-Man Air Force
Chapter Seventeen: Big Week
Chapter Eighteen: "I Knew the Jig Was Up"
Chapter Nineteen: The Battle of Germany
Chapter Twenty: Liberating Europe
Chapter Twenty-One: The Battle of Normandy
Chapter Twenty-Two: Oil: The Knockout Punch
Chapter Twenty-Three: The Road To Bodenplatte
Chapter Twenty-Four: Death of the Luftwaffe
Chapter Twenty-Five: A Clean Sweep
Bibliography
Glossary
Index