The Combined Bomber Offensive 1943 - 1944: The Air Attack on Nazi Germany

by L. Douglas Keeney

Overview

In a time when tanks and battleships were the proven tools of war, a team of gutsy planners and a bold President of the United States approved a plan to destroy Adolf Hitler's Germany using airplanes ― B-17s and B-24s. It was called strategic bombing, a gutsy leap of faith in an entirely unproven weapon called the bomber on which the fate of World War II hinged. But why were military planners certain that World War II could be won by bombers?
Part of Keeney's "Lost Histories of World War II" series, The Strategic Bombing Offensive 1943–1944 is the definitive, in-depth history of the evolution of the Combined Bomber Offensive against Germany from an idea on paper into a powerful, shock-and-awe tool of war that lasts to this day. In each chapter the vicious air war against the Luftwaffe air and ground defenses unfolds, including the terrible losses to American aircrews which precipitated the massive changes in American air tactics that turned it around until victory was in sight and the final bombs were dropped on Berlin. That is this history, recovered and in print now for the first time since 1945.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781607465201
Publisher:	FastPencil, Inc.
Publication date:	03/15/2013
Series:	Lost Histories of WWII , #3
Pages:	332
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.90(d)

About the Author

L. Douglas Keeney has a master's degree from the University of Southern California and is a military historian and researcher. He is the cofounder of The Military Channel, on which he hosted the series Gun Camera. He has also appeared on The Discovery Channel, The Learning Channel, CBS, and Fox in the Morning. The author or coauthor of 12 books on military history, Mr. Keeney is a pilot and scuba diver and has visited many of the World War II sites mentioned in this book. He lives in Louisville, Kentucky.

Table of Contents

Foreword vii

Chapter 1 Target Selection for the Combined Bomber Offensive ? Early planning: 1941-1942 1

Chapter 2 The First Phase of the Combined Bomber Offensive April - June 1943 21

Chapter 3 The Second Phase of the Combined Bomber Offensive, July - September 1943 61

Chapter 4 The Third Phase of the Combined Bomber Offensive, October - December 1943 89

Chapter 5 Strategic Bombing 117

Chapter 6 Combined Bomber Offensive Plans January - June 1944 125

Chapter 7 Target Selection under Priority Systems 147

Chapter 8 Organization of the United States Strategic Air Forces 157

Chapter 9 Weapons and Defense 167

Chapter 10 Attack on Airframes, Aero-Engines, and Airfields 191

Chapter 11 Attack on the Ball Bearing Industry 217

Chapter 12 Transportation 221

Chapter 13 Attack on Oil, Chemicals, and Rubber 249

Conclusion 263

Appendix 269