During the Second World War, from 1941 onwards, Stalin's Soviet Union was joined in a close but awkward coalition with the Western allies. Military aid and intelligence flowed to the Soviets but virtually no troops. The exception was a small group of US airmen who were sent to Russia to set up an air operation to bomb targets in the Third Reich. This is the story of that unit. They called themselves the Forgotten Bastards of the Eastern Front and Harvard Professor Serhii Plokhii has uncovered new material which sheds light on their time in Stalin's Russia.