Mediterranean Sweep

The USAAF in the Italian Campaign

Mediterranean Sweep cover

Mediterranean Sweep

The USAAF in the Italian Campaign

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Pre-order. Available 13 Mar 2025
£15.75 RRP £17.50 Website price saving £1.75 (10%)

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Description

Filled with personal accounts of the action, this book details the USAAF's tactical and strategic campaigns in the skies over Italy in World War II.

With the defeat of the Germans and Italians on Sicily in mid-July 1943, all eyes turned towards the battle for the Italian mainland itself. This campaign has been called “forgotten” by many, with many of the best units from the North African and Sicilian campaigns withdrawn to prepare for the coming invasion of France, while those units that remained had a lower priority for replacements of men and material.

Despite these difficulties, the air war in the Italian campaign is a study in the successful application of tactical air power. Mediterranean Sweep describes how USAAF forces, alongside Free French, Italian co-belligerent forces, British and Commonwealth units and even a squadron of the Brazilian Air Force, took the war to the Axis in both the fighter-bomber war as well as Operation Bingo, the successful bombing campaign to strangle supplies to the German forces fighting on the Gothic Line.

Building on the story of the USAAF in North Africa and over Sicily told in his previous work Turning the Tide, renowned aviation expert Tom Cleaver uses a wide range of first-hand accounts form American, Allied, German and Italian pilots and other aircrew to bring to life the bitter struggle in the skies over Italy from mid-1943 through to the end of World War II.

Table of Contents

(Subject to confirmation)
Introduction
Chapter One: Sicily
Chapter Two: Invaders
Chapter Three: Invading Italy
Chapter Four: Hun Hunters
Chapter Five: USS Corsica
Chapter Six: The Forgotten Fifteenth
Chapter Seven: The Blackest Day
Chapter Eight: Red Tails
Chapter Nine: Piggyback in a P-38
Chapter Ten: Operation Bingo

Product details

Published 13 Mar 2025
Format Ebook (Epub & Mobi)
Edition 1st
Extent 320
ISBN 9781472863478
Imprint Osprey Publishing
Illustrations 16-page black and white plate section
Series General Aviation
Short code GNA
Publisher Bloomsbury Publishing

About the contributors

Author

Thomas McKelvey Cleaver

Thomas McKelvey Cleaver has been a published write…

Resources

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