Eighth Air Force Bomber Stories: A New Selection - Hardcover

Ian McLachlan has trawled official archives, interviewed survivors and gained privileged access to personal letters, diaries and photo albums to relate a series of compelling stories of the US Eighth Air Force during the Second World War. Each chapter looks at a particular incident or theme, including: 'Jerks Berserks' - newly discovered crew pictures and additional evidence relating to the loss at sea of an American bomber crew. Adrift and helpless, were they murdered by a vengeful German U-boat crew? 'Skipper an' the Kids' - a B-17 on a whisky run to Scotland vanishes. Decades later, the author helps discover debris from the lost bomber and recreates its final flight. 'Buchenwald' - a powerful account relating the little-known facts about US airmen incarcerated in Hitler's infamous death camp. 'The Innocent Sky' - rescuers risking their lives perish in a vast explosion, the 8th AF's worst-ever incident of its kind that claimed the lives of both crews and 19 rescuers. 'Don't worry folks, I'm happy and fine' - a last hasty letter penned on the hardstand prior to take-off, words that echoed for generations in an American family.

Ian McLachlan is an authority on the history of the wartime USAAF in his native East Anglia. He is the author of Final Flights(1989), 8th Air Force Bomber Stories(1991), Night of the Intruders(1994) and USAAF Fighter Stories(1997). Ian lives in Beccles, Sufolk.