Black Thursday

Martin Caidin’s Black Thursday: The Story of the Schweinfurt Raid tells of the United States Air Force’s massive bombing raid into Nazi Germany’s industrial heartland on Thursday, October 14, 1943. On that fateful day two hundred and ninety one hulking B-17 Flying Fortresses - escorted by squadrons of nimble P-47 Thunderbolts – miraculously fought their way through swarms of Messerschmitt Me-109’s, Focke-Wulf FW-190’s, Heinkel He-113’s and more on their way to cripple the enemy’s vital ball-bearings plant at Schweinfurt.


Sixty of the B-17’s never returned and six hundred and fifty men were lost. It was the highest casualty toll that the United States Air Force had ever suffered and the day became known as “Black Thursday.”


Much of the urgent, fast-paced narrative is told in real-time, from the perspective of American airmen survivors interviewed by author Martin Caidin.