Masters of the Air: America's Bomber Boys Who Fought the Air War Against Nazi Germany

by Donald L. Miller

on prediction. “We may as well frankly admit that it is going to be a bloody battle. The side will win which can make good its losses. In other words, the side which has the most reserve strength.” The butcher’s bill would be higher than he imagined. That summer and fall of 1943, the Eighth Air Force would sustain losses that would dangerously deplete its men and machines, shake the morale of its surviving crews, cost Eaker his command, and throw in doubt the feasibility of defeating Germany from the air. These would be the darkest months in the history of the American air arm. An American flying in a heavy bomber over Germany in these months would have the approximate chance of surviving as the victim of “a deep-seated cancer.”