THE SKIES OF THE REICH - 1944

February 1944: Operation Argument, the greatest aerial battle in history.

It is too easily forgotten: the Americans and the British were not certain of success when they landed in Normandy on 6 June 1944. Their worst nightmare was the prospect of 1,000 Luftwaffe fighters — with the best pilots in the world — contesting air superiority over the beaches and the Norman bocage.

One of the prerequisites for D-Day was therefore the destruction of the Luftwaffe where it was concentrated — at home, in the skies of the Reich. A little-known operation, codenamed Argument, was drawn up in the winter of 1943–1944 and launched in the last week of February 1944. It brought together four Allied air armies — an unprecedented combined force of 3,000 bombers and fighters.

The idea was straightforward. The manufacture of tens of thousands of drop tanks would enable the finest American fighter, the P-51 Mustang — the fastest in the world — to escort the B-17 Flying Fortresses throughout their raids against Germany's vital infrastructure, from take-off to return.

The Luftwaffe would have no choice but to scramble all its fighters to counter the threat. Its pilots would then fall under the combined fire of the 6 heavy machine guns fitted to each Mustang and the 11 mounted on each B-17. The trap would work beyond all expectations: the Luftwaffe was destroyed on home soil within a matter of weeks, German industry was severely hit, and the success of the Normandy Landings was assured.

This book is the first to tell the story of this vast, overlooked yet decisive battle.