1971 "First Printing: September 1971" stated on copyright page; Ballantine Books publishers, New York; softbound; very good condition; "Ballantine's Illustrated History of the Violent Century, campaign book No. 17".
 
GoodReads reviewer -
Shweinfurt, Disaster in the Skies , number 17 in the Ballantine's Ilustrated History of the Violent Century, is a book about the early part of the US daylight bombing campaign over occupied Europe and Germany itself. Written by John Sweetman, a Sandhurst Professor and author on European History , the book came out in 1971. As with all this series, the book is filled with b/w pictures, Maps, diagrams and line drawings of the aircraft and anti-aircraft guns involved. This book came out before the Ultra Revelation of the mid- seventies, but is still a pretty good survey of the campaign's early days although it focuses on the two first Schweinfurt raids of 8/17/1943 and 10/14/1943 carried out without the aid of the P-51 fighter escorts all the way to and from the targets. The targets were the Nazi ball bearing factories, three of whom were in this smaller German city. These raid were extremely costly in both men and machines, shocking the Army Air Corps(forerunner of the USAF) and helping to accelerate the development of the Mustang and other means of protecting the American Bomber force in England.