The Mighty Eighth in WWII: A Memoir

The Mighty Eighth

by J. Kemp McLaughlin

On an early morning in the fall of 1942, Kemp McLaughlin's group set out for a raid on a French target. Immediately after dropping its bombs, McLaughlin's plane was hit. A huge fire burned a four-foot hole in his wing, his waist gunner bailed out, his radio operator was wounded, the plane lost all oxygen, and his pilot put on a parachute and sat on the escape hatch, waiting for the plane to explode. And this was only McLaughlin's first sortie. McLaughlin went on to pilot the mission command plane on the second raid against Schweinfurt, the largest air raid in history, which resulted in the destruction of 70 percent of German ball bearing production capability. McLaughlin also participated in the bombing of heavy water installations in Norway. The Mighty Eighth in WWII also includes the stories of downed pilots in France and Holland who traveled under the cover of night through the countryside, evading the Nazis who had seen their planes go down. As a group leader, McLaughlin was responsible for the planning and execution of air raids, forced to follow the directives of senior (and sometimes less informed) officers. His position as one of the managers of the massive sky trains allows him to provide unique insight into the work of maintenance and armament crews, preflight briefings, and off-duty activities of the airmen. No other memoir of World War II reveals so much about both the actual bombing runs against Nazi Germany and the management of personnel and material that made those airborne armadas possible.

217 pages, Kindle Edition

First published August 17, 2000

Reviews

[Leonard · Rating 5 out of 5]

A good book. This take from the pilot training all the way to a squadron commander and all the job in between. All the other histories I have read about the Eighth covered air battles and individual accounts, this is different in that it tells the command side, such as moving the whole group, three times from base to base. At the end when the author was transforming to the B-29, his comments about it being underpowered and sluggish on the controls was interesting. Realizing that the B-17 and the B-29 both had relatively short life spans. I enjoyd this book.

[Paul Belanger · Rating 4 out of 5]

First off, I think the B-17 is the greatest bomber ever built. What the B-17 was able to accomplish with the young and talented and courageous crew assigned to her, was utterly amazing. The real unsung heroes of WWII were the people that designed, built, and maintained her. This aircraft could take so much damage and still be able to bomb her target, getting the crew safely home as well, in most cases. Many lives were lost, and McLaughlin manages to tell those stories too. This book is exciting to read, with humor spread throughout. I've read other books about the B-17 (see my first sentence) and this one never disappointed. Also, during the read, I learned a lot that I never knew about. McLaughlin was there early on and watched the build up and shift; from the devastating early raids to the later milk runs. This book is well worth the time to read.

[João · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is not an introductory book to the 8th Air Force. It will give a few accounts of different, personal situations of the occasional interesting story, but it's definitely not a study of the 8th Air Force, its impact, etc.

Within that context, it's definitely a decent read.

[Ed · Rating 5 out of 5]

An excellent book...personal account of McLaughlin in the 8th.