
Clean Sweep
VIII Fighter Command Against the Luftwaffe, 1942–45
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Narrated by:
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Lance C. Fuller
About this listen
Bloomsbury presents Clean Sweep by Thomas McKelvey Cleaver, read by Lance C Fuller.
A vivid history, packed with first-hand accounts, of the US Eighth Air Force's VIII Fighter Command from its foundation in 1942 through to its victory in the skies over Nazi Germany.
On August 7, 1942, two major events occurred on opposite sides of the planet. In the South Pacific, the United States went on the offensive with the First Marine Division landing on Guadalcanal. In England, 12 B-17 bombers of Eighth Air Force bombed the Rouen–Sotteville railroad marshalling yards in France. While the mission was small, the aerial struggle that began that day would ultimately cost the United States more men killed and wounded by the end of the war in Europe than the Marines would lose in the Pacific War.
Clean Sweep is the story of the creation, development and operation of the Eighth Air Force Fighter Command and the battle to establish daylight air superiority over the Luftwaffe so that the invasion of Europe could be successful.
Thomas McKelvey Cleaver has had a lifelong interest in the history of the fighter force that defeated the Luftwaffe over Germany. He has collected many first-hand accounts from participants over the past 50 years, getting to know pilots such as the legendary “Hub” Zemke, Don Blakeslee and Chuck Yeager, as well as meeting and interviewing leading Luftwaffe pilots Adolf Galland, Gunther Rall and Walter “Count Punski” Krupinski. This story is told through accounts gathered from both sides.
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A succinct overview
- By Snippersly on 04-18-24
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Pacific Thunder
- The US Navy's Central Pacific Campaign, August 1943–October 1944
- By: Thomas McKelvey Cleaver
- Narrated by: Tom Perkins
- Length: 13 hrs and 13 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
On 27 October 1942, four "Long Lance" torpedoes fired by the Japanese destroyers Makigumo and Akigumo exploded in the hull of the aircraft carrier USS Hornet (CV-8). Minutes later, the ship that had launched the Doolitte Raid six months earlier slipped beneath the waves of the Coral Sea 100 miles northeast of the island of Guadalcanal and just north of the Santa Cruz Islands, taking with her 140 of her sailors. With the loss of Hornet, the United States Navy now had one aircraft carrier left in the South Pacific.
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Good for what it is, but not what it claims to be
- By David Maher on 12-18-17
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Blazing Star, Setting Sun
- The Guadalcanal-Solomons Campaign November 1942-March 1943
- By: Jeffrey Cox
- Narrated by: Lance C Fuller
- Length: 24 hrs and 58 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
By the end of February 1944, thanks to hard-fought and costly American victories in the first and second naval battles of Guadalcanal, the battle of Empress Augusta Bay and the battle of Cape St George, the Japanese would no longer hold the materiel or skilled manpower advantage. From this point on, although the war was still a long way from being won, the American star was unquestionably on the ascendant, slowly, but surely, edging Japanese imperialism towards its sunset.
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Narrator Ruined the Book
- By Duncan on 08-20-20
By: Jeffrey Cox
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Dark Waters, Starry Skies
- The Guadalcanal-Solomons Campaign, March–October 1943
- By: Jeffrey Cox
- Narrated by: John Chancer
- Length: 31 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Thousands of miles from friendly ports, the US Navy had finally managed to complete the capture of Guadalcanal from the Japanese in early 1943. Now the Allies sought to keep the offensive momentum won at such a high cost. This is the central plotline running through this page-turning history beginning with the Japanese Operation I-Go and the American ambush of Admiral Yamamoto and continuing on to the Allied invasion of New Georgia, northwest of Guadalcanal in the middle of the Solomon Islands and the location of a major Japanese base.
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great but way too much alliteration...
- By Greg on 06-16-23
By: Jeffrey Cox
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Under the Southern Cross
- The South Pacific Air Campaign Against Rabaul
- By: Thomas McKelvey Cleaver
- Narrated by: Lance C Fuller
- Length: 13 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
From August 7th 1942 until February 24th 1944, the US Navy fought the most difficult campaign in its history. Between the landing of the 1st Marine Division on Guadalcanal and the final withdrawal of the Imperial Japanese Navy from its main South Pacific base at Rabaul, the US Navy suffered such high personnel losses that for years it refused to publicly release total casualty figures.
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Done with this author
- By Texican Scotty on 12-28-22
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Wings of War
- The World War II Fighter Plane That Saved the Allies and the Believers Who Made It Fly
- By: David Fairbank White, Margaret Stanback White
- Narrated by: René Ruiz
- Length: 9 hrs and 24 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Wings of War is the incredible true story of the P-51 Mustang fighter and the unlikely crew of designers, engineers, test pilots, and army officers who brought it from the drafting table to the skies over World War II. This is hardly a straightforward tale of building an airplane—for years, the team was stymied by corruption within the defense industry and stonewalled by the Army Air Forces, who failed to understand the Mustang’s potential.
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Disappointed
- By David Kocol on 06-22-23
By: David Fairbank White, and others
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To Fly and Fight
- Memoirs of a Triple Ace
- By: Clarence E. Bud Anderson
- Narrated by: Joshua Katinger
- Length: 12 hrs and 40 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Bud Anderson is a flyers flyer. The Californians enduring love of flying began in the 1920s with the planes that flew over his father's farm. In January 1942, he entered the Army Air Corps Aviation Cadet Program.
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Fantastic!!!
- By chris johnson on 07-24-23
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Holding the Line
- The Naval Air Campaign in Korea
- By: Thomas McKelvey Cleaver
- Narrated by: Sean Runnette
- Length: 13 hrs and 31 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Holding the Line chronicles the carrier war in Korea from the first day of the war to the last, focusing on frontline combat while also describing the technical development of aircraft and shipboard operations and how these all affected the broader strategic situation on the Korean Peninsula.
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Get to the point
- By J.Brock on 12-30-19
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Pacific Carrier War
- Carrier Combat from Pearl Harbor to Okinawa
- By: Mark E. Stille
- Narrated by: Christopher Douyard
- Length: 9 hrs and 4 mins
- Unabridged
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A detailed and comprehensive study of the carrier formations of the Pacific War, including their origins, development, and key battles from the Coral Sea, through Midway and Guadalcanal to the battle of the Philippine Sea.
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Great book, poor narration
- By Matt on 07-15-23
By: Mark E. Stille
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Tidal Wave
- From Leyte Gulf to Tokyo Bay
- By: Thomas McKelvey Cleaver
- Narrated by: Tom Perkins
- Length: 13 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
The United States Navy won such overwhelming victories in 1944 that had the Navy faced a different enemy the war would have been over at the conclusion of the Battle of Leyte Gulf. However, in the moment of victory on October 25, 1944, the US Navy found itself confronting an enemy that had been inconceivable until it appeared. The kamikaze, meaning 'divine wind' in Japanese, was something Americans were totally unprepared for; a violation of every belief held in the West.
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Horrible writing
- By DearMrDear on 06-02-18
Could not stop listening to!
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Outstanding!
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home. I never would have been born. Greatest Generation for sure.
My Dad flew a B~17.
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Lots of firsthand detail
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Compared unfavorably to Masters of the Air
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A great review of WWII aviation
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Good factual stories and first hand accounts make it easy to listen to. Great reference to historical events told from both sides. My only criticism is the error regarding General Frank Maxwell Andrew’s death as his did not die in Greenland but his airplane crashed into a mountain called Fagradalsfjall near Keflavík Iceland.
Very comprehensive and enjoyable
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Every bombing mission and dog fight
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may be factual but poorly written
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probably shouldn't be an audiobook
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