The Mighty Eighth- Russian Shuttle by Gil Cohen

In June 1944 Colonel Don Blakeslee, leader of the famed Fourth Fighter Group, finally learned that his P-51 Mustangs were to escort B-17 Flying Fortresses from Debden, England, across Europe to the Soviet Union. The bombers would then fly to Italy, bombing an oil refinery on the way. They would be accompanied by Blakeslee's fighters as far as the Yugoslav coast where P-51's from the Fifteenth Air Force, based in Italy, would take over. Again escorted by the Fourth, the B-17's would make their way home to England, bombing railroad yards in France en route. The operational diary of Blakeslee's Group shows that the entire Shuttle mission covered 6000 miles, 10 countries and 29 1/4 hours of operational flying for 10 destroyed and 7 lost. After briefing his fighter pilots, Blakeslee said: "This whole thing is for show." Indeed, it showed a lot: it showed that no target in Germany was safe from air attack; that Allied air supremacy was complete; that the end of the war in Europe was in sight!