The author reexamines the bombings of Germany, totaling more than 1.4 million missiles, that took out oil refineries, industries, and transportation infrastructures vital to the Reich's war effort. While other accounts have focused on operational details, this is the first book to reveal the crucial role of air intelligence in these dramatic campaigns. The author describes the close ties that developed between the Royal Air Force's "precision intelligence" arm and the U.S. Army Air Force's "precision bombardment" forces, telling how the RAF's photographic reconnaissance and signals intelligence steered both British and American bombers to the right targets at the right intervals with the right munitions. Drawing on a huge collection of bomb-damage assessment photographs and a wealth of other archival sources, he shows that the success of the war can be traced directly to the success of air intelligence.

Air intelligence in its historical context -- The Great War and the beginnings of air intelligence -- Lessons learned, unlearned, and forgotten : analyses of aerial bombardment in World War I and their consequences -- Retrenchment and advance : air intelligence developments in the early interwar period, 1919-1933 -- The pace quickens : air intelligence developments in the late interwar period, 1933-1941 -- Air intelligence grows to adolescence : British developments, 1939-1941 -- The shift to night area bombing : air intelligence, doctrinal evolution, and operational change, 1941-1942 -- Air intelligence reaches maturity, January 1943-January 1944 -- Transportation campaigns : bombing, air intelligence, and the defeat of German armies in France, 1944 -- The attack on oil, April-December 1944 : air intelligence and the acceleration of German defeat in the field -- Endgame, November 1944-May 1945 : air intelligence, the final destruction of oil and transportation assets, and the defeat of the Wehrmacht -- Retrospective.