The General Whose Doctrine Killed His Own Bomber Crews. Removed Right Before It Was Fixed.

Описание: In February of 1942, Ira Eaker arrived in England with six staff officers and an idea that would define the American air war: the self-defending bomber. Fly the B-17 high, in tight formation, bristling with fifty-caliber guns, and it would need no fighter escort to reach any target in Germany. Eaker believed it completely. He was, by trade, a fighter pilot.
Through 1943, the deadliest year the Eighth Air Force would ever know, that doctrine was tested to destruction over the skies of the Reich. At Schweinfurt, twice, the unescorted formations met the full weight of the Luftwaffe alone, and the cost was staggering. Sixty bombers on a single afternoon. Six hundred young men. Loss rates so severe that most crews never finished their tours.
This is the story of the commander who defended a deadly idea one year too long, who called the long-range escort "premature" while his crews were dying for the lack of it, and who was then removed from the command he built just weeks before the P-51 Mustang and a new tactical order finally won the daylight war he had started.
He was right about daylight bombing. He was wrong about the fighter. And history handed the victory to the man who came after him.
We tell the story of the officers who decided, and the boys who died, and we try never to forget which was which. If your family flew with the Eighth, tell us their name in the comments.