Bomb Group: The Eighth Air Force's 381st and The Allied Air Offensive Over Europe

Paul Bingley · Mike Peters

Dec 2023 · Tantor Media Inc · Narrated by David de Vries

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19 hr 13 min

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About this audiobook

In February 1942, a reconnaissance party of US Army Air Force officers arrived in England. Firmly wedded to the doctrine of daylight precision bombing, they believed they could help turn the tide of the war in Europe. In the months that followed, they formed the Eighth Air Force-an organization that grew at an astonishing rate. To accommodate it, almost seventy airfields were hastily built across the eastern counties of England. At the heart of the Eighth Air Force was its bombardment groups, each equipped with scores of heavily armed, four-engine bombers. These Boeing B-17 Flying Fortresses and Consolidated B-24 Liberators were soon punching through the enemy's defenses to bomb targets vital to its war effort. They were crewed by thousands of young American airmen, most of whom were volunteers. This is the story of just one "Bomb Group"-the 381st, which crossed the Atlantic in May 1943. Arriving at RAF Ridgewell on the Essex-Suffolk border, its airmen quickly found themselves thrown into the hazardous and attritional air battle raging in the skies over Europe. The 381st's path led from its formation in the Texan desert, to its 297th and final bombing mission deep into the heart of Hitler's Third Reich. This is the remarkable story of one group and the part it played in the strategic bombing campaign of "The Mighty Eighth."

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About the author

Paul Bingley has worked in the civil aviation industry for over thirty years. He is the current chairman of the Ridgewell Airfield Commemorative Museum in Essex and regularly delivers talks on the airfield's history. Paul is acknowledged as being one of the best of the new generation of Eighth Air Force historians.

Mike Peters is a retired Army Air Corps officer with more than thirty years of military service. He is now a full-time military historian and chairman of the International Guild of Battlefield Guides. Mike has published books on the Glider Pilot Regiment in WWII and the Operational History of the Army Air Corps.

David de Vries is a veteran stage actor and award-winning audiobook narrator. He can be seen in a number of feature films, including The Founder, The Accountant, Captain America: Civil War, and Billy Lynn's Long Halftime Walk. On television, his credits include House of Cards, Nashville, and Halt and Catch Fire.

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