On paper, Mission 84 of the Eighth Air Force was a unique two-pronged attack on the important German manufacturing cities of Regensburg and Schweinfurt, a brilliant, innovative master stroke. Once airborne on August 17, 1943, however, it became one of the costliest and bloodiest air battles of World War II.\n\nNot only was it the deepest penetration yet made into the German heartland, it was also the largest force launched by the VIII Bombing Command and a crucial test of the American policy of daylight precision bombing. It was a daring plan designed to confuse the Luftwaffe defenders. One combat wing under the command of General Curtis LeMay, after dropping its bombs on target, continued on across Europe to bases in North Africa in a record breaking 1200 miles non-stop flight under combat conditions.\n\nThis is an absorbing, fast paced narrative of that epic raid-from the planning at the highest levels of the Allied command to the minute by minute ordeal of the heroic airmen who flew the mission. It draws heavily on eyewitness accounts by the participants, and includes many official logs and documents relating to the operation, as well as twenty-nine photographs.\n\nWe are given a vivid, often chilling portrait of air warfare, the newest, and in many ways the deadliest theater of modern combat-fought, as it was, in three dimensions, five miles above the earth, over battlefields that could stretch for a thousand miles.