Bombing Hitler's Hometown (eBook)

The Untold Story of the Last Mass Bomber Raid of World War II in Europe

Mike Croissant (Autor)

eBook Download: EPUB

2024
352 Seiten
Citadel Press (Verlag)
978-0-8065-4304-8 (ISBN)

Infos

One of WWII's final untold stories, this visceral account of the white-knuckled bombing mission American airmen carried out on Hitler's hometown of Linz, Austria is now told for the first time through the eyes of the men on the airplanes as well as the innocent Austrians under the bombs. Fans of Masters of the Air and Unbroken will be riveted by this groundbreaking true story of the aerial bombing and its aftermath from retired CIA officer Mike Croissant. Foreword by Richard Overy, author of The Bombers and the Bombed In April 1945, Linz was one of Nazi Germany's most vital assets. It was a crucial transportation hub and communications center, with railyards brimming with war materiel destined for the front lines. Linz was also the town Hitler claimed as home and had long intended to remake as the cultural capital of Europe, filling its planned Fuehrermuseum with world-famous art stolen from his conquered territories. Inevitably, Linz was also one of the most heavily defended targets remaining in Europe. The airmen of the Fifteenth Air Force were a mix of seasoned veterans and newcomers. As their mission was unveiled in the predawn hours of April 25th, audible groans and muffled expletives passed many lips. The reality of that mission would prove more brutal than any imagined. In the unheated, unpressurized B24 Liberator and B17 Flying Fortress heavy bombers, young men battled elements as dangerous as anything the Germans could throw at them. When batteries of German antiaircraft guns opened fire, the men flew into a manmade hell of exploding shrapnel. Aircraft and men fell from the sky as Austrian civilians on the ground also struggled to survive beneath the bombs during the deadly climax of Hitler's war. Drawing on interviews with dozens of America's last surviving World War II veterans, as well as previously unpublished sources, Mike Croissant compellingly relates one of the war's last truly untold storiesa gripping chronicle of warfare, the death of Nazi Germany, and the beginning of the Cold War. It is also a timeless tale of courage and terror, loss and redemption, humanity and savagery.

Produkt-Details

• Erscheint lt. Verlag: 26.3.2024
• Sprache: englisch
• Themenwelt: Geisteswissenschaften ► Geschichte
• Schlagworte: Adolf Hitler • Airbase • AirForce • airmen • air warfare • allied power • all the light we cannot see • Annexation • Anschluss • anti-aircraft guns • archives • austria • austrian annexation • Austrian resistance to Nazi rule • author croissant • B-17 • B-17 Flying Fortress • B-24 • B-24 Liberator • band of brothers • Bomber Raid • bombing mission • Buzz Bissinger • churchill’s shadow raiders • CIA officer • Civilians • Cold War • concentration camps • Croissant • Damien Lewis • Danube • European Front • european theater • family stories • fifteenth air force • Flying Fortress • George McGovern • Germany • hermann goering • Hitler's early years • Hitler's hometown • hitler’s war • Holocaust • Interviews • Italy • liberation • Liberator • Linz • Linz, Austria • Masters of the Air • Mauthausen • Michael Croissant • michael p. croissant • : military history • military target • mosquito bowl • Nazi Germany • Nazi Regime • Nazis • Norman Lear • nose gunner • Office of Strategic Services • origins of Cold War • OSS • personal accounts • Pilot • plane crash • Post-traumatic stress disorder • Prisoners of war • PTSD • rick atkinson • Second World War • shrapnel • soldiers, airmen • Soviets • Soviet Union • Spies • Survivors • survivor stories • tail gunner • The Bomber Mafia • The Wild Blue • Third Reich • Unbroken • US Air Force • US Army • veterans • Victory • Victory In Europe Day • War history • war veterans • wings of war • World War 2 • World War II • World War II veterans
• ISBN-10: 0-8065-4304-3 / 0806543043
• ISBN-13: 978-0-8065-4304-8 / 9780806543048