Author: J. Kemp McLaughlin

Publisher: University Press of Kentucky

Published: 2014-04-23

Total Pages: 259

ISBN-13: 0813145740

“Told by a ‘been there, done that’ combat commander, McLaughlin gives us precise accounts of such air battles as the devastating bombing of Schweinfurt.”—Gen. Philip P. Ardery, author of Bomber Pilot: A Memoir of World War II On an early morning in the fall of 1942, McLaughlin’s group set out for a raid on a French target. Immediately after dropping its bombs, McLaughlin’s plane was hit. A huge fire burned a four-foot hole in his wing, his waist gunner bailed out, his radio operator was wounded, the plane lost all oxygen, and his pilot put on a parachute and sat on the escape hatch, waiting for the plane to explode. And this was only McLaughlin’s first sortie. He went on to pilot the mission command plane on the second raid against Schweinfurt, the largest air raid in history, which resulted in the destruction of 70 percent of German ball bearing production capability. McLaughlin also participated in the bombing of heavy water installations in Norway. As a group leader, McLaughlin was responsible for the planning and execution of air raids, forced to follow the directives of senior (and sometimes less informed) officers. His position as one of the managers of the massive sky trains allows him to provide unique insight into the work of maintenance and armament crews, preflight briefings, and off-duty activities of the airmen. No other memoir of World War II reveals so much about both the actual bombing runs against Nazi Germany and the management of personnel and material that made those airborne armadas possible. “Well-written, fast-paced and filled with anecdotes.”—Bowling Green Daily News “He laces tense battle scenes with humorous anecdotes about the famous people we met along the way.”—Charleston Gazette