On 4 July 1942, American airmen flew in US-built bombers against a German target for the first time. It was a small operation involving six US crews in Boston medium bombers, but was nonetheless a harbinger of things to come. The first heavy bombardment group of B-17s had crossed the Atlantic in June 1942, another arriving by 1 August, marking the first steps in the massive build-up of B-17s and B-24s that would be based in Britain as part of the Eighth Air Force.

This book, illustrated with both black-and-white and period colour pictures, tells the story of US Eighth Air Force operations in the words of the men who flew on them, from that initial raid over the Netherlands and the first attack by the Fortresses on Rouen to the opening mission against Germany itself and the famous B-24 raid against the Romanian oilfields at Ploesti.