Product Review

Black Thursday, first published in 1960, is the masterful retelling of the U.S. bombing raid on Schweinfurt, Germany on October 14, 1943. The mission's objective was to destroy Nazi ball-bearing factories (ball-bearings were critical in most machinery). Of 291 B-17 Flying Fortresses involved in the attack, 60 planes and 650 men were lost over this heavily defended region. Black Thursday provides an exciting look at the mission: the B-17's background, the briefings, the flight crews and ground crews at work, and, of course, the fateful mission itself. Included are 16 pages of photographs and numerous pen and ink illustrations.