Recently I found an article in a periodical about the history on the Eighth Air Force in Europe. This being one of my favorite subjects in history I eagerly launched into it. I soon found it to be a dry, disappointing list of dates; when this group arrived in England, when that general transferred, when that mission took place, and so on. The memoir of Brig. Gen. McLaughlin’s two tours of duty with the Eighth Air Force proved to be a much more entertaining and informative read. Gen. McLaughlin’s tale spans the entire length of the U.S.’s involvement in the war, starting with his reporting to the Maxwell Army Air Corps Field for training in Sept. 41 to his separation from active service during in the summer of 46. During this time he had survived both Schweinfurt missions, flown in support of the D-day invasion and had risen from the rank of 2nd Lt. to Lt. Colonel. His first person accounts of these and other landmark events of the air war over Europe gives the reader a special insight into them. McLaughlin’s unit, the 92nd Bomb Group crossed the Atlantic and arrived in England in August of 42. His first mission, co-pilot during the bombing the steel mills in Lille, France, is described in the book’s first chapter. It was also very nearly his last. During this mission he had to contend with the loss of an engine, a fire from the engine so hot it forced the tail gunner from his position, a wounded radio operator, the bail out of one of his waist gunners, and a face to face confrontation with the pilot of a Focke-Wulf 190 that was inspecting their badly damaged B-17F. In the middle of all this his pilot abandoned his position to put on his parachute and waited at the escape hatch in case the plane exploded. The other chapters in the book were not quite as action packed but many were still filled with many tidbits of information. For instance he explains something I had often wondered about, why more crews had not worn the electrically heated flight suits. He also describes the procedure of assembling a large bomber stream, how effective the YB-40 gunships were, and many other interesting points. The book covers quite a lot of non-aerial combat oriented events. Many of these gave me new insights into the setting in which they operated. For instance, one of McLaughlin’s first non-combat assignments was flying generals and other high-ranking allied officer to important conferences. On one of these McLaughlin landed at the British base at Gibraltar on the eve of Operation Torch, the allied invasion on North Africa. His description of the goings-on at the base and port facilities, jam-packed with planes and ships, was fascinating. During another of these flights with high-ranking officers on board they were forced to crash land on a farm in the Ireland Republic, a neutral country. I found what happened next and how they avoided internment humorous. While the book is entertaining and informative it was not without its shortcomings. His narrative bounced about through those war years, sometimes jumping back many months or years. There were a few times I had trouble following what events had occurred in what order. Also I had hoped for more details and stories about the actual combat missions. There were a number of chapters that were primarily concerned with escape and evasion, group and headquarters operations, and what he did during R & R. One chapter, written not by McLaughlin but by one of his buddies, Lt. Col. Dave Alford, is the longest in the book and covers the many months he was in hiding. He details how, with the help of the underground, he moved from place to place in his attempt to rejoin allied forces. While interesting this particular chapter was longer than needed to convey the story and I found myself look forward to its conclusion. Although this book is not a great work of literature and has some weaknesses I did enjoy reading it and would recommend it. It is not a fact-filled, sequential, impartial account of the Eighth Air Force’s history but rather an entertaining, easy, quick read with delightful insights into the type of minutia that only a true devotee of this period of our history would appreciate. This book is available from The University Press of Kentucky. Back to Cry Havoc #37 Table of Contents Back to Cry Havoc List of Issues Back to MagWeb Master Magazine List © Copyright 2002 by David W. Tschanz. This article appears in MagWeb (Magazine Web) on the Internet World Wide Web. Other military history articles and gaming articles are available at http://www.magweb.com