The Pointblank Directive

Three Generals and the Untold Story of the Daring Plan that Saved D-Day

The Pointblank Directive cover

The Pointblank Directive

Three Generals and the Untold Story of the Daring Plan that Saved D-Day

Description

The Pointblank Directive is the result of extensive new research that creates a richly textured portrait of perhaps the last untold story of D-Day.

Where was the Luftwaffe on D-Day? Following decades of debate, 2010 saw a formerly classified history restored and in it was a new set of answers.

This title analyzes three uniquely talented men and why the German Air Force was unable to mount an effective combat against the invasion forces. Following a year of unremarkable bombing against German aircraft industries, General Henry H. “Hap” Arnold, commander of the U.S. Army Air Forces, placed his lifelong friend General Carl A. “Tooey” Spaatz in command of the strategic bombing forces in Europe, and his protégé, General James “Jimmy” Doolittle, command of the Eighth Air Force in England.

For these fellow aviation strategists, he had one set of orders – sweep the skies clean of the Luftwaffe by June 1944. Spaatz and Doolittle couldn't do that but they could clear the skies sufficiently to gain air superiority over the D-Day beaches. The plan was called Pointblank.

Table of Contents

Foreword by Stephen Frater
Introduction
Preface: 1943

Chapter 1 Airmen
Chapter 2 Autumn 1943
Chapter 3 Pointblank
Chapter 4 Weather
Chapter 5 Spaatz
Chapter 6 Anywhere
Chapter 7 The Clock Ticks
Chapter 8 Formation
Chapter 9 Exhaustion
Chapter 10 Locusts
Chapter 11 Flak Boys
Chapter 12 Berlin
Chapter 13 April
Chapter 14 Invasion
Chapter 15 Secret Weapons
Chapter 16 War Plan
Chapter 17 Combat
Chapter 18 Dicing with the Devil
Chapter 19 May 1944
Chapter 20 Deception
Chapter 21 June 1944
Chapter 22 D-Day
Chapter 23 D+1

Bibliography
Notes
Index

Product details

Published 18 Dec 2012
Format Ebook (Epub & Mobi)
Edition 1st
Extent 304
ISBN 9781782008958
Imprint Osprey Publishing
Illustrations 20 b/w; 5 col
Series General Military
Short code GNM
Publisher Bloomsbury Publishing

About the contributors

Author

L. Douglas Keeney

L. Douglas Keeney has been writing military non-fi…

Resources

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