Caidin - Black Thursday

I am deeply grateful to Colonel Budd J. Peaslee, United States Air Force, Retired, who spared no effort to assist me in the task of bringing this epochal air battle back to life. As the air commander of Mission 115, the daylight bombing attack on Schweinfurt, Germany, on October 14, 1943, Colonel Peaslees contribution is unique. Both as a fighting man and as an observer, he is rich in emotion, courage, and understanding. Without his unselfish assistance and suggestions and kind permission to study and quote from the manuscript of his recollections of the attack, this book would not have been possible. As with any such project, of course, many other people have also contributed greatly to it. My sincere thanks to Beime Lay, Jr., formerly Lieutenant Colonel, U.S.A.A.F., a great combat pilot and a gifted writer of the air. The staff of the Research Studies Institute, Air University, United States Air Force, have also spared no pains in their close cooperation; among them I wish to extend my thanks particularly to Margaret Kennedy and to Colonel Laurence Macauley, U.S.A.F. I am no less grateful for the aid of Dr. Albert F. Simpson, chief, U.S.A.F. Historical Division, who has brought to the documentation of the history of air warfare remarkable skill and knowledge of the subject.

For many hours spent in the air with him, in airplanes small and large, and for his patience and skill as a teacher, my thanks to the late Lieutenant Colonel Keith M. Garrison, U.S.A.F. Keith Garrison was in a B-17 on Mission 115; the machine in which he flew his last mission, seventeen years later, was the mighty B-52 of the Strategic Air Command. I am grateful for the ready assistance and suggestions of Carl B. McCamish and of H. M. Mason, Jr., who have always supported and aided my projects. Major Raymond Houseman over the last several years has kept up his own private project to accumulate material for this book, and I owe much to him for his efforts. These acknowledgments would be far from complete if they did not express, finally, my gratitude to Major James F. Sunderman, U.S.A.F., who has worked for many years with me on airpower projects, and whose ready and willing support of these efforts has contributed to them greatly.

M.C.