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Turning The Tide

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What to expect

Packed with personal accounts of the action, this is a vivid narrative history of the often-overlooked USAAF campaign in North Africa and Sicily in World War II.

In 1942, the Western Allies needed to take the offensive against the Axis to relieve pressure on the Soviet Union. With planning for a cross-Channel invasion beset by logistical and operational difficulties, in May 1942 President Roosevelt ordered his military leaders to prepare to support the British in the Mediterranean. This led to the first USAAF units arriving in the Middle East in July, firstly as reinforcements for the British and later as part of the Operation Torch landings in French Morocco and Algeria in November.

In little over ten months from the summer of 1942, the USAAF in North Africa grew from nothing to a senior partner, providing aircraft and crews the other Allies were unable to match. The Axis forces that had controlled almost the entire southern shore of the Mediterranean had been swept from the African continent – thanks in no small part to the efforts of the USAAF.

Using first-hand accounts from pilots and other aircrew, Tom Cleaver describes how the USAAF units that landed in Morocco were forced to learn their own lessons in combat with veteran Luftwaffe units, and how the experience gained in the skies over North Africa and Sicily was invaluable in developing the air forces that would dominate the skies over Europe in the latter years of the war.

Critics Review

  • This is a story of high drama and high heroism, told by a master of military aviation history. Once again, Tom Cleaver has given us a work that both informs and entertains, and which makes a substantial and lasting contribution to military aviation historiography.

    Richard P. Hallion, former Historian of the US Air Force

  • The air war in North Africa was as vicious and as consequential as any combat in World War II, but it’s usually treated like a sideshow. Tom Cleaver gives long-deserved respect and attention to this theater – and to the aviators and crews who fought and died to win it for the allies.

    Chris Bucholtz, author of 'P-51B/C Mustang: Northwest Europe, 1943–44'

  • Thomas Cleaver brings his well-honed investigative and storytelling gifts to bear in this remarkable book … a new benchmark in the study of aerial operations in the Mediterranean during World War II.

    Lynn Ritger, author of 'Messerschmitt Bf 109: Origins and Evolution'

  • Cleaver masterfully weaves personal stories of pilots into the larger fabric of the war, creating a narrative that puts the reader into the cockpit as well as the history books.

    James R. Benn, author of 'The Phantom Patrol' and 'Other Billy Boyle World War II Mysteries'

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