Aces and Pilots of the US 8th and 9th Air Forces (Hardcover)

In the course of escorting their bombers, American fighter pilots steadily wore down the cream of the German Jagdwaffe to the point where it was unable to defend even its own airfields. Decimated by the sheer scale of operations that defending the Reich demanded, the enemy lost hundreds of pilots and aircraft to the point where the Luftwaffe fighter force, the former hunters of Europe's skies, increasingly became the hunted. In the European Theatre of Operations (ETO) those hunters rode cockpits of Mustangs, Thunderbolts and Lightnings and wore the patch of the Eighth and Ninth Fighter Commands. They succeeded in carrying the air war to the enemy in a way that had never before been possible. By so doing, numerous American pilots became air aces with a baseline five confirmed victories. A substantial number stopped at that point, the USAAF rotation system ensuring that many such men were rested from combat for long periods or were sent home, their duty done.-Jerry Scutts from the introduction. In this detailed account of the contribution that the aces and pilots of the US 8th and 9th Air Forces made to the ultimate allied victory the highly respected aviation historian Jerry Scutts has compiled a fitting tribute to all the front line fighter pilots in the ETO, whether or not they achieved the coveted status of an ace.