Description

Bloomsbury presents Clean Sweep by Thomas McKelvey Cleaver read by Lance C Fuller

A vivid history packed with firsthand accounts of the US Eighth Air Forces VIII Fighter Command from its foundation in 1942 through to its victory in the skies over Nazi Germany

On August 7 1942 two major events occurred on opposite sides of the planet In the South Pacific the United States went on the offensive with the First Marine Division landing on Guadalcanal In England 12 B17 bombers of Eighth Air Force bombed the RouenSotteville railroad marshalling yards in France While the mission was small the aerial struggle that began that day would ultimately cost the United States more men killed and wounded by the end of the war in Europe than the Marines would lose in the Pacific War

Clean Sweep is the story of the creation development and operation of the Eighth Air Force Fighter Command and the battle to establish daylight air superiority over the Luftwaffe so that the invasion of Europe could be successful

Thomas McKelvey Cleaver has had a lifelong interest in the history of the fighter force that defeated the Luftwaffe over Germany He has collected many firsthand accounts from participants over the past 50 years getting to know pilots such as the legendary Hub Zemke Don Blakeslee and Chuck Yeager as well as meeting and interviewing leading Luftwaffe pilots Adolf Galland Gunther Rall and Walter Count Punski Krupinski This story is told through accounts gathered from both sides