USAAF in North Africa Project news

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From the Stone & Stone site:

25 September 2023

Author Mark Reardon updated us on his upcoming USAAF volume:

Work on my USAAF in North Africa project resumed in early 2022 with the publication of my two-volume account of Operation ENDURING FREEDOM.

Over the next several months, I completed the first five chapters of my WW2 manuscript before [again] getting sidetracked by a very generous contract offer I could not refuse, e.g. writing the first official history volume of the U.S. Army in Operation IRAQI FREEDOM and Operation ENDURING FREEDOM (also known as the Tan Series). Interestingly, that opportunity coincided with my oldest daughter entering graduate school at nearby George Mason University. To make a long story short, I am just about finished with a volume on training and equipping the Post-Saddam Iraqi Army 2003 - 2017.

Once that manuscript is delivered to the U.S. Army Center of Military History editors in January 2024, I will delve once again into my USAAF in North Africa manuscript. So far I have completed the narrative through the first week of December 1942, which is notable for the 9th Air Force B-24 raid on Naples that sank or damaged three Italian Navy cruisers (the British requested the strike in advance of their first attempt to resupply beleaguered Malta from Egypt) and the rising tempo of B-17 raids against Tunis and Bizerte. Although the book is heavily weighted toward USAAF operations, I am including pertinent information about the Royal Air Force's Eastern Air Command, notably how the relatively short range of the Spitfire V aircraft that made up the bulk of its numbers required the Twelfth Air Force to intervene far earlier than planned in the fighting outside Tunis. The employment of the Bisley squadrons, culminating with the disastrous raid in early December that resulted in the loss of all participating bombers, is also covered in some detail.

The sixth chapter will shift the scene further south by laying out how the Americans were forced to deploy P-40s and A-20s to Thelepte after the Tebessa-based P-38 groups were reassigned as dedicated escorts for B-17 groups. Around that same timeframe, the Luftwaffe began shifting its own forces further south as Kesselring made preparations for a series of ground offensives (December 1942 through January 1943) aimed at protecting the rear of the retreating Panzerarmee Afrika by eliminating the French military presence southwest of Gabes.

It is important to note that this account will not only cover aerial operations in detail, but also will explain how the Twelfth Air Force (and Ninth Air Force as well) gained additional responsibilities as the campaign wore on, to include hitting targets in Rommel's rear area that were outside the range of escorted WDAF day bombers and an increasing share of daylight counter-shipping strikes that had traditionally been the responsibility of Malta-based RAF squadrons.