McLaughlin went on to pilot the mission command plane on the second raid against Schweinfurt, the largest air raid in history, which resulted in the destruction of 70 percent of German ball bearing production capability. McLaughlin also participated in the bombing of heavy water installations in Norway, returning to Scotland with one engine burning and Messerschmitts in unrelenting pursuit. An especially long flight once left him out of fuel and over neutral Ireland, where he crash-landed with four generals on board, including the Commander of American Forces in the European Theater of Operations.
The Mighty Eighth in WWII also includes the stories of pilots who were downed in France and Holland. They traveled under the cover of night through the countryside, evading the Nazis who had seen their planes go down. The pilots found citizens willing to help and hide them, and they made their way through the underground networks of Europe in an effort to get back to England.
As a group leader, McLaughlin was responsible for the planning and execution of air raids, forced to follow the directives of senior (and sometimes less informed) officers. His position as one of the managers of the massive sky trains allows him to provide unique insights into the work of maintenance and armament crews, preflight briefings, and off-duty activities of the airmen. No other memoir of World War II reveals so much about both the actual bombing runs against Nazi Germany and the management of personnel and material that made those airborne armadas possible.
