The big four-engined bombers droned their way north over the sea, a few miles out from the Eastern coast of the USA. They kept tight formation, flying fast and low. If anyone had seen them, they would have been mistaken for American planes on a training flight…except that there was no one to see them. And this was deliberate, for they were Junkers 290s of the Luftwaffe - and their target was New York.
Introduction
When originally published, this story was called "Bomb New York!"
However, even though it appeared long beforehand, we don't want to appear insensitive to the events of September 11, 2001, so the book has been re-named "Target Ahead!"
Going purely by the visuals, we immediately know what the tale is going to be about, thanks to Ian Kennedy's superb realisation of Manhattan - and those Luftwaffe aircraft hurtling towards the unmistakable metropolis with deadly intent. There was that original title, too, which you can see below. After consulting our records, the tale came to us via top scriptwriter Alan Hebden's typewriter bearing the slightly more poetic legend, "The Night They Bombed Manhattan".
Presumably at the time Ian's cover was deemed too action-packed to fit all those words on!
Scott Montgomery, Deputy Editor
Note: Originally published as Commando No 1020 (March 1976) and re-issued as No 2348 (February 1990).
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