Donald F. Kilburg, Jr. is a retired business executive whose interest in history has led him to research and write numerous published articles about events of World War II. He is a member of the 487th Bomb Group Association and serves on its Board. A charter member of the World War II Museum, he is also a member of the National Museum of the Mighty 8th Air Force, the Eighth Air Force Historical Society,and the National Museum of the Air Force.
Hitler's Last Christmas
The Day the Entire Mighty 8th Air Force Entered the Battle of the Bulge
by Donald F. Kilburg, Jr.
Hitler's Last Christmas
The Day the Entire Mighty 8th Air Force Entered the Battle of the Bulge
by Donald F. Kilburg, Jr.
Published May 02, 2019
321 Pages
Genre: HISTORY / Wars & Conflicts / World War II / General
Book Details
Christmas Eve 1944 The Greatest Day in the History of Aerial Warfare
The events of World War II have been studied, analyzed and documented extensively. Yet, one of the greatest feats of aerial bombing warfare has been all but ignored.
In Hitler’s Last Christmas, we revisit the Second World War and specifically Sunday, December 24, 1944—when the 8th Air Force launched the largest air armada in the history of warfare. It was a desperate effort by the Allies to support the troops hopelessly hunkered down in the frigid weather of the Battle of the Bulge. The eventual success of those beleaguered troops was to some great measure due to the success of that Christmas Eve air mission.
The details of the 8th Air Force mission #760 were mis-filed shortly after the war and the magnitude of that day in December 1944 overlooked—until now. Hitler’s Last Christmas shares the accounts of the event both from the Air Force Archives and the memories of those brave flyers who participated in it.