Our Newest Book, Defeat of Nazi Germany, is now available!
The new series on Apple TV+, “Masters of the Air,” created a renewed appreciation of the achievements and sacrifices so many soldiers had made during the Second World War. The vivid depiction of the harrowing missions endured by crewmembers of the 100th Bomb Group revealed that aerial combat was no less vicious than the fighting on the ground.
During the earlier years of 1942-43, the "Bloody 100th" of the Third Division, US Eighth Air Force, suffered horrific casualties from attacks by the German Air Force. Every bombing raid was confronted with hundreds of enemy fighter aircraft. With the arrival of the North American P-51 Mustang in January 1944, all that changed, and the Luftwaffe was soundly defeated. The Allied air forces had achieved complete superiority of the skies over Europe. How this was accomplished, along with the final destruction of Germany, is told by S.Sgt. Chester Fong.
S.Sgt. Chester Fong and his crewmates flew with the 735th Bomb Squadron, 453rd Bomb Group, 2nd Air Division of the US 8th Air Force in the ETO. They flew 22 combat missions over Germany from January to April 1945. Each mission played a vital role in the final bombing campaigns against Germany's oil industry and transportation networks. Both air campaigns were a total success.
Despite futile efforts by the Luftwaffe to stem the ever increasing massive bombing raids, the German war machine was completely destroyed. Its major cities were reduced to rubble. These crippling raids carried out by the strategic Allied air forces broke the back of the Wehrmacht.
The Russian armies captured Berlin in May 1945 and Germany surrendered. The war in Europe was over.
"Bandits at 12 o'clock high!"
A factual and fascinating account of how the Western Allied strategic air forces in the European Theater of Operations annihilated Adolph Hilter's Third Reich. Seen through the eyes of S.Sgt. Chester Fong as a tail-gunner aboard a Consolidated B-24 Liberator heavy bomber in the US 8th Air Force, Fong's story is more than just a history lesson. He describes the events leading up to the ultimate defeat of Germany, the roles of the Allied air and ground forces in securing victory in Europe, and coming home to unite once more with his family.S.Sgt. Fong gives a personal account of each mission regarding its purpose and objectives in the ongoing air bombing campaign, and what was achieved through a successful bombing raid. Military operations are both very mechanical and routine, but their success or failure critically depends on the human component. This is one aspect of the war that Fong brings forth to the reader, the trials and tribulations of just being a combat soldier. The events occurring with what was happening on the ground dictated ongoing Allied air force operations. As such, both elements were inextricably linked in defeating the Axis Powers in Europe.