Hit the Target: Eight Men Who Led The Eighth Air Force to Victory Over the Luftwaffe

Shortly after the beginning of World War II, the U.S. Army formed a field team, Eighth United States Army, the first air force expected to operate overseas. A few months later, the Eighth embarked on a strategic mission to bomb Germany by daylight. By 1945, the Eighth, in concert with the Royal Air Force's night bombing campaign, had crushed much of Germany's productive capacity and, consequently, turned dozens of cities into rubble heaps. Yenne (The Imperial Japanese Army) demonstrates how eight men drove the development and eventual triumph of the Eighth. Some are well known: Carl Andrew Spaatz, Ira C. Eaker, Jimmy Doolittle, and Curtis LeMay. Others are less famous but played crucial roles. Interweaving the eight stories into the complex history of the bombardment force is at times confusing, as there was a great deal of job changing and movement, as well as appearances by other figures such as Dwight Eisenhower, Winston Churchill, General Hap Arnold, and Hollywood director William Wyler.