From Bill Yenne, author of the military histories Big Week and Aces High, comes the stirring true story of the Eighth Air Force in World War II. Barely a month after the attack on Pearl Harbor, the U.S. Army formed its Eighth Air Force, the first bomber command on either side to commit to strategic daylight bombing, with the goal of defeating the Third Reich from the air. The men of the Eighth paid the price in both lives and blood.
Hit the Target introduces readers to those who made the Eighth Air Force the formidable juggernaut it soon became. Men of all ranks, from General Tooey Spaatz, the hard-driving founding commander, to Colonel Jimmy Doolittle, the hero who led the first air raid on Japan, to Maynard “Snuffy” Smith, the irascible first airman in Europe to be awarded the Medal of Honor.
The story of the Mighty Eighth is told through these men, whose careers paralleled the early history of aviation and who helped to revolutionize airborne warfare and win World War II.
INCLUDES PHOTOS“Bill Yenne scores another bull’s-eye with Hit the Target...This is a story everyone should know.”—Robert Bruce Arnold is the co-author of
Wilderness of Tigers, A Novel of Saigon and grandson of the Air Force’s only Five Star General, Hap Arnold
“The story of the mighty United States Eighth Air Force is one for the ages.”—Brian Sobel, author of
The Fighting Pattons
-- Big Week Less than a month after the attack on Pearl Harbor, the U.S. Army formed its first air force designated to operate overseas, the Eighth. Within four months, they had set up base in England. Three months later, they were bombing German targets in occupied Europe. The Eighth was the first bomber command on either side to commit to strategic daylight bombing. It was a major change in tactics?and the men of the Eighth paid the price in both lives and blood. But it was that very sacrifice that led the Allies to victory. Hit the Target The story of the Mighty Eighth is told through these men, whose careers paralleled the early history of aviation? and who helped? to revolutionize airborne warfare and win World War II. INCLUDES PHOTOS.
Praise for Big Week“The author provides a day-by-day account of what took place as German industrial facilities were targeted for attack. Yenne skillfully situates the action, pulling together various threads. . . Well-written and fast-paced, this will be compelling to specialists and general readers alike.”—
Kirkus ReviewsPraise for Aces High“This is the greatest flying story of all time. . . If there was ever an aviation tale that had all the elements of an old school Hollywood blockbuster, Bill Yenne’s
Aces High is it. Wake up, Spielberg. This is the screenplay you’ve been looking for.”—Dan Roam, author of
The Back of the Napkin: Solving Problems and Selling Ideas 
