Turning The Tide: The USAAF in North Africa and Sicily

The USAAF campaign in North Africa and Sicily in World War II is vividly narrated in this book, with personal accounts of the action. The USAAF grew from nothing to a senior partner in ten months, providing aircraft and crews that the Allies were unable to match. The Axis forces that had controlled almost the entire southern shore of the Mediterranean were swept from the African continent, thanks in part to the efforts of the USAAF.

Format: Hardback
Length: 320 pages
Publication date: 15 August 2024
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing PLC

Packed with personal accounts of the action, this vivid narrative history of the often-overlooked USAAF campaign in North Africa and Sicily during World War II offers a compelling insight into the pivotal role played by the USAAF in the Allied victory. In 1942, the Western Allies faced a critical need to take the offensive against the Axis to relieve pressure on the Soviet Union. However, planning for a cross-Channel invasion was beset by logistical and operational difficulties, leading President Roosevelt to order his military leaders to prepare to support the British in the Mediterranean. This resulted in the first USAAF units arriving in the Middle East in July, initially as reinforcements for the British and later as part of the Operation Torch landings in French Morocco and Algeria in November. In less than ten months from the summer of 1942, the USAAF in North Africa grew from nothing to a senior partner, providing aircraft and crews that the other Allies were unable to match. The Axis forces that had controlled almost the entire southern shore of the Mediterranean had been swept from the African continent, thanks in no small part to the efforts of the USAAF. Using first-hand accounts from pilots and other aircrew, Tom Cleaver describes how the USAAF units that landed in Morocco were forced to learn their own lessons in combat with veteran Luftwaffe units, and how the experience gained in the skies over North Africa and Sicily was invaluable in developing the air forces that would dominate the skies over Europe in the latter years of the war.

Weight: 564g
Dimension: 242 x 162 x 32 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9781472860255