A
vivid history, packed with first-hand accounts, of the US Eighth Air Force's
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 B-17 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 first-hand 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.