This book describes the period when the American daylight offensive faltered and nearly failed and recalls the terrible losses suffered by Liberators on the low-level attack on the Ploesti oilfields in Rumania and by the B-17s on the notorious Schweinfurt and Regensburg raids which entered 8th Air Force folklore as 'Black Thursday'. Fascinating anecdotes, eye-witness accounts and the hard-won experiences of the battle-scarred American 'fly-boys' reveal the grim realities of air combat at four miles high above enemy occupied Europe, Berlin and the Ruhr. 'Grown up in the war' they paint a revealing picture as only they can. The 'Mighty Eighth' was an air force of hard-fighting, hard-playing fliers who suffered more casualties than the entire US Marine Corps in the Pacific Campaign.