Forgotten Bastards of the Eastern Front Lib/E: American Airmen Behind the Soviet Lines and the Collapse of the Grand Alliance

At the conference held in Moscow in October 1943, American officials proposed to their Soviet allies a new operation in the effort to defeat Nazi Germany. The Normandy Invasion was already in the works; what American officials were suggesting until then was a second air front: the US Air Force would establish bases in Soviet-controlled territory, in order to "shuttle-bomb" the Germans from the Eastern front. Stalin, recalling the presence of foreign troops during the Russian Revolution, balked at the suggestion of foreign soldiers on Soviet soil. Eventually in early 1944, Stalin was persuaded to give in, and Operation Baseball and then Frantic were initiated. B-17 Flying Fortresses were flown from bases in Italy to the Poltava region in Ukraine. As Plokhy's book shows, what happened on these airbases mirrors the nature of the Grand Alliance itself. While both sides were fighting for the same goal, Germany's unconditional surrender, differences arose that no common purpose could overcome. Soviet secret policeman watched over the operations, shadowing every move. A catastrophic air raid by the Germans revealed the limitations of Soviet air defenses. Relations soured and the operations went south. Indeed, the story of the American bases foreshadowed the eventual collapse of the Grand Alliance and the start of the Cold War.

About the Author :
Serhii Plokhy is the Mykhailo Hrushevsky Professor of Ukrainian History and the director of the Ukrainian Research Institute at Harvard University. The author of numerous books, including The Last Empire, which received the Lionel Gelber Prize for the best book on international relations, and Chernobyl, which was awarded the Baillie Gifford Prize for nonfiction, Plokhy lives in Burlington, Massachusetts. An Oxford University and Royal Academy of Dramatic Art graduate, Alex Wyndham has voiced everything from Apple iPad campaigns to fertilizer instructions. He's also starred in several BBC and HBO shows, including the Emmy Award-winning Little Dorrit and Rome, and in various films. In its review of his narration of The Strangler Vine, the Washington Post described him as "brilliant at summoning up the personalities in this exotic, exciting tale." Romantic Historical Reviews writes that he is a "wonderful narrator" and "has an ability to get to the emotional heart of both story and characters."