Foucrier, Jean-Charles Le Ciel du Reich 1944

February 1944: Operation Argument, the largest air battle in history. It is often forgotten that the Americans and British were not sure whether their landing in Normandy on 6 June 1944 would be successful. Their worst nightmare was that 1,000 Luftwaffe fighter planes with the best pilots in the world would challenge their air superiority over the beaches and hedgerows of Normandy. Therefore, one of the prerequisites for D-Day was the destruction of the Luftwaffe where it was concentrated, namely in its homeland, in the skies above the Reich. A little-known operation called Argument was prepared in the winter of 1943-1944 and launched in the last week of February 1944. It brought together four Allied air forces, i.e. an unprecedented number of 3,000 bombers and fighters. The idea was simple. The production of tens of thousands of drop tanks would enable the best American fighter, the P-51 Mustang the fastest in the world to accompany the B-17s on their attacks on Germany's vital infrastructure on the way there and back. The Luftwaffe had no choice but to scramble all its fighters to counter the threat. Their pilots then found themselves caught in the crossfire of the six heavy machine guns mounted on each Mustang and the eleven machine guns mounted on each B-17. The trap worked better than expected: within a few weeks, the Luftwaffe was destroyed at home, German industry was severely damaged, and the success of the Normandy landings was assured. This book is the first to tell the story of this gigantic, unknown yet decisive battle.