This is the full account of USAAF Mission 311 on 22 April 1944 when B-17 Liberator and B47 Flying Fortress bombers suffered their highest ever loss to German intruders. The German fighters followed the air armada home after the raid, picking individual bombers off on their return over Europe and then over England as the American force struggled to land.

The book covers many famous USAAF, RAF and Luftwaffe units and describes the ferocious action over Europe when the Americans attacked Germany’s largest railway marshaling yards at Hamm. Packed with powerful human interest stories, history and technical details, it chronicles the mission fully from the initial planning stage to its bloody finale, untangling the facts behind what went so horribly wrong and over sixty bomber crews lost their lives.