By Kevin Seabrooke

Though the “Mighty Eighth” based in England earned the most headlines, the U.S.A.A.F.’s Fifteenth based in Italy played no less important—and every bit as dangerous—a role in bombing targets in Nazi Germany, France and Eastern Europe.

One of their most important missions was protecting the bombers during the campaign against the Romanian oil fields. Fly along with such famous units as the 332nd FG, the Tuskegee Airmen, also known as the “Red Tails,” the 325th FG “Checkertail Clan,” and the “Fork-Tailed Devils” of the 82nd FG, who flew the twin fuselage P-38 Lightning.

Bloody Skies: XV Fighter Command Against All Odds (Thomas McKelvey Cleaver, Osprey Publishing, New York, NY, 320 pp., 8 pp. b/w photos, March 10, 2026 $32 HC)