Description

“Big Tailed Birds” is about the air and ground crews who served with the Army Air Forces’ 319th Bombardment Group during World War II and the three aircraft they flew: the Martin Marauder B-26, the North American B-25 Mitchell and the Douglas A-26 Invader. It is also a near mission-by-mission account of the combat operations of the group and its squadrons (437th, 438th, 439th and 440th), from the sands of North Africa to the snow-covered Italian Alps and finally to the heat of Okinawa Island off Japan. This book the reader month-by-month, airfield by airfield, from the 319th’s Activation June 26, 1942, at Barksdale Field, Louisiana (Third Air Force), to its post-war inactivation at Ft. Lewis, Washington, December 4, 1945. For his book, Tannehill draws on Official records, including group and squadron diaries, plus interviews with 319th veterans and their families, wartime reports and media accounts.

The pages are filled with photographs–nearly 300 of them–most never before published–of people, places and planes, along with maps and artwork.