This book details the operations of the USAAF’s overlooked XV Fighter Command that protected the bombers during the campaign against the Romanian oil fields in World War II.

Formed in the fall of 1943, the Fifteenth Air Force was popularly known as the “The Forgotten Fifteenth,” as its achievements were overshadowed by more glamorous exploits of the Eighth Air Force in the air war over Germany. Nevertheless, the Fifteenth’s contribution to Allied victory was crucial, and a vital part of that was the role played by the escorting fighter groups from the XV Fighter Command who protected the B-17s and B-24s from the Luftwaffe in the skies over Romania.

In this new history of the campaign, renowned aviation historian Tom Cleaver tells the story of the Fifteenth’s air war through first-person accounts of the fighter pilots of the Fifteenth Fighter Command, including such famous units as the Red Tails – the Tuskegee Airmen – the 82nd Fighter Group and the 325th’s “Checkertail Clan,” and with his ability to place wartime events in their greater context.

Tom Cleaver’s account of the Fifteenth Air Force in its effort to disrupt the Luftwaffe’s access to oil supplies is an epic tale… It brings to life the thrills, dangers, and, ultimately, a tsunami of action worthy of Twelve O’Clock High. * Captain Roy Cash Jr., USN (Ret.) *
Bloody Skies expertly tells the story of the Fifteenth Air Force, known as ‘The Forgotten Fifteenth’ due to its overshadowed role in the Mediterranean Theater. Thomas Cleaver is a master storyteller with the superb knack of laying out a strategic vision on one page and bringing to life the exhilaration and terror of air combat on the next. * James R. Benn, author of A Bitter Wind and other Billy Boyle World War II Mysteries *

Thomas McKelvey Cleaver has been a published writer for the past 40 years, with his most recent work being the best-selling Osprey titles MiG Alley (2019), I Will Run Wild (2020), Under the Southern Cross (2021), The Tonkin Gulf Yacht Club (2021), Going Downtown (2022), The Cactus Air Force (2022) alongside the late Eric Hammel, Clean Sweep (2023) and most recently Turning The Tide (2024). Tom served in the US Navy in Vietnam and currently lives in Encino, California.