Night of the Intruders: The Slaughter of Homeward Bound USAAF Mission 311

by Ian McLachlan

This is the full account of USAAF Mission 311 on 22 April 1944 when B-17 Liberator and B47 Flying Fortress bombers suffered their highest ever loss to German intruders. The German fighters followed the air armada home after the raid, picking individual bombers off on their return over Europe and then over England as the American force struggled to land.

The book covers many famous USAAF, RAF and Luftwaffe units and describes the ferocious action over Europe when the Americans attacked Germany’s largest railway marshaling yards at Hamm. Packed with powerful human interest stories, history and technical details, it chronicles the mission fully from the initial planning stage to its bloody finale, untangling the facts behind what went so horribly wrong and over sixty bomber crews lost their lives.

240 pages, Hardcover

First published May 1, 1994

Reviews

[Robert Newell · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a fascinating and well written book, detailing the mission from both the aircrews involved and people on the ground affected when the Luftwaffe shot down the liberators on their return home. The book is hard to put down and you can easily visualise the mayhem that occurred.