Forgotten Fifteenth; The Daring Airmen Who Crippled Hitler's War Machine

xiv, 338 pages. Illustrations. Appendix. Notes. Bibliography. Index. Forgotten Fifteenth: The Daring Airmen Who Crippled Hitler's War Machine is the first comprehensive strategic history of the U.S. Army Air Forces' Fifteenth Air Force during World War II. Author Barrett Tillman uses first-person accounts, interviews, and operational data to rescue this highly vital combat unit from the historical shadow of the UK-based Eighth Air Force. Barrett Tillman is a prominent, award-winning American aviation historian and author. He is widely recognized as a leading authority on World War II air combat and naval aviation history. Background and Aviation Roots: Early Exposure: Born into an Oregon ranching family, he developed a passion for flying from his father, a World War II Navy-trained pilot. He learned to fly at age 16 and has logged hundreds of hours piloting vintage and historic military aircraft, including a restored Douglas SBD Dauntless dive bomber. Education: He graduated with a bachelor's degree in journalism from the University of Oregon in 1971. Henry Barrett Tillman (born 1948) is an American author who specializes in naval and aviation topics in addition to fiction and technical writing. Tillman's most influential book to date is On Yankee Station (1987), written with John B. Nichols. It is a critical appraisal of naval aviation in the Vietnam War. It was added to the US Air Force and Marine Corps professional reading lists, and at least one squadron took copies of the book with them to Operation Desert Storm as 'a reality check on tactics'. November 1943 May 1945 The U.S. Army Air Forces waged an unprecedentedly dogged and violent campaign against Hitler's vital oil production and industrial plants on the Third Reich's southern flank. Flying from southern Italy, far from the limelight enjoyed by the Eighth Air Force in England, the Fifteenth Air Force engaged in high-risk missions spanning most of the European continent. The story of the Fifteenth Air Force deserves a prideful place in the annals of American gallantry. In his new book, Forgotten Fifteenth: The Daring Airmen Who Crippled Hitler's War Machine, Tillman brings into focus a seldom-seen multinational cast of characters, including pilots from Axis nations Romania, Hungary, and Bulgaria and many more remarkable individuals. They were the first generation of fliers few of them professionals to conduct a strategic bombing campaign against a major industrial nation. They suffered steady attrition and occasionally spectacular losses. In so doing, they contributed to the end of the most destructive war in history. Forgotten Fifteenth is the first-ever detailed account of the Fifteenth Air Force in World War II and the brave men that the history books have abandoned until now. Tillman proves this book is a must-read for military history enthusiasts, veterans, and current servicemen. The Fifteenth Air Force (15 AF) is a numbered air force of the United States Air Force's Air Combat Command (ACC). It is headquartered at Shaw Air Force Base. It was reactivated on 20 August 2020, merging the previous units of the Ninth Air Force and Twelfth Air Force into a new numbered air force responsible for generating and presenting Air Combat Command's conventional forces. Established on 1 November 1943, Fifteenth AF was a United States Army Air Forces combat air force deployed to the European Theater of World War II, bombing Europe from bases in southern Italy and engaging in air-to-air fighter combat against enemy aircraft. During the Cold War, 15 AF was one of three Numbered Air Forces of the United States Air Force Strategic Air Command (SAC), commanding USAF strategic bombers and missiles on a global scale. Elements of 15th Air Force engaged in combat operations during the Korean War, the Vietnam War, and Operation Desert Storm.…