Air Campaigns 28 D-day 1944 Paperback

Description

An illustrated study of the little-known history of the failed Allied bombing campaigndesigned to shatter German defenses on D-Day.D-Day is one of the most written-about events in military history. One aspect of theinvasion, however, continues to be ignored: the massive pre-assault bombardment bythe Allied Expeditionary Air Force (AEAF), reinforced by RAF Bomber Command and theUS Eighth Air Force on June 6 which sought to neutralize the German defenses alongthe Atlantic Wall. Unfortunately, this failed series of attacks resulted in death or injury tohundreds of soldiers, and killed many French civilians.Despite an initial successful attack performed by the Allied forces, the most crucialphase of the operation, which was the assault from the Eighth Air Force against thedefenses along the Calvados coast, was disastrous. The bombers missed almost all oftheir targets, inflicting little damage to the German defenses, which resulted in a highnumber of casualties among the Allied infantry. The primary cause of this failure wasthat planners at Eighth Air Force Headquarters had changed aircraft drop times at thelast moment, to prevent casualties amongst the landing forces, without notifying eitherEisenhower or Doolittle.This book examines this generally overlooked event in detail, answering severalfundamental questions: What was the AEAF supposed to accomplish along the AtlanticWall on D-Day and why did it not achieve its bombardment objectives? Offering a newperspective on a little-known air campaign, it is packed with illustrations, maps anddiagrams exploring in detail the features and ramifications of this mission.Sales and Marketing HighlightsD-Day is one of the most-written-about and biggest-selling subjects of WorldWar II. This book offers a new perspective on the entire operation, describinga little-known mission which affected the entire campaign.The air campaign on D-Day was one of the biggest in history, involving almostevery aircraft the Allies had to hand.Dr Stephen Bourque is an expert in European, American and military historywho has served in the US Army for over 20 years. He has published variousmilitary history titles.