Battle over Germany

[ZachariasX]

1 hour ago, cardboard_killer said:

Streib enthusiastically calls for full production but this is delayed due to political rivalries between Josef Kammhuber, commander of the German night fighter forces, Ernst Heinkel who has openly criticized the government for forcing him to fire Jewish engineers and technicians, and Erhard Milch, responsible for aircraft construction in the Aviation Ministry.

Lutz Budrass makes a very concise point in his monumental work Flugzeugindustrie und Luftrüstung in Deutschland 1918-1945 that this was a rivalry between Junkers and Heinkel. Junkers being the one company that as a smaller player originally, devoured almost all competition (it used fancy colorful charts that the dimwits in the party and the RLM thought they understood and thus just sold better) in the market except Messerschmitt, who had too many connections within the party oligarchy to be an easy game. Junkers had Heinkel for breakfast and would go on using the one revolutionary part of that airctaft - the cockpit - on the Ju188 etc.

 

[cardboard_killer]

[80 years ago today] "• Sixty Avro Lancasters of the RAF's No. 57 and 97 Squadrons attack Friedrichshafen, Germany, and then fly to Blida, Algeria, in the first shuttle mission between the UK and North Africa. After refuelling and rearming they will return home June 23-24 (bombing Spezia naval base en route)."

[cardboard_killer]

[80 years ago today] "• “Comin’ In On A Wing And A Prayer” by The Song Spinners about a night bombing raid over Europe reaches Number 1 on the Billboard Pop Singles chart in the US.

 

 

• 653 British bombers attack Cologne. During the raid, the Luftwaffe experiments for the first time with Wilde Sau ("Wild Boar") night fighter tactics, in which single-engine day fighters use any illumination – from searchlights, flares, fires, etc., – available over a city to visually identify and attack enemy bombers at night. Wilde Sau pilots and antiaircraft artillery both claim the same 12 bombers shot down over Cologne and officially each receive credited for six."

[cardboard_killer]

[80 years ago today] "• 791 RAF bombers attack Hamburg, beginning Operation Gomorrah or the “Battle of Hamburg”, a systematic effort by Bomber Command chief Air Marshal Arthur Harris to destroy the city. For the first time, Bomber Command uses chaff, codenamed "Window", to foil German radar. About 1,500 people are killed, more than in all 137 previous air attacks on the city combined. Twelve British bombers are lost.

 

- Below is a description by Luftwaffe night fighter pilot Wilhelm Johnen on the confusion created by Window:

 

“The early warnings from the Freya apparatus on the Channel coast indicated a large-scale British raid. In the lane afternoon various flak units, night-fighter wing and civilian air-raid posts had been given orders to have their full complement at action stations.

 

What were the British up to? What city that night would be the victim of these well-prepared raids? Every ominous presentiment was to be fulfilled that night. In all ignorance, the night-fighter squadrons took off against the British bombers, whose leaders were reported over Northern Holland.

 

I was on ops and flew in the direction of Amsterdam. On board everything was in good order and the crew was in a cheerful mood. Radio operator Facius made a final cheek and reported that he was all set.

 

The ground stations kept calling the night fighters, giving them the positions of the bombers. That night, however, I felt that the reports were being given hastily and nervously. It was obvious no one knew exactly where the enemy was or what his objective would be.

 

An early recognition of the direction was essential so that the night fighters could be introduced as early as possible into the bomber stream. But the radio reports kept contradicting themselves. Now the enemy was over Amsterdam and then suddenly west of Brussels, and a moment later they were reported far out to sea in Map Square 25.

 

What was to be done? The uncertainty of the ground stations was communicated to the crews. Since this game of hide-and-seek went on for some time I thought: To hell with them all, and flew straight to Amsterdam. By the time I arrived over the capital the air position was still in a complete muddle. No one knew where the British were, but all the pilots were reporting pictures on their screens. I was no exception.

 

At 15,000 feet my sparker announced the first enemy machine in his Li. I was delighted. I swung round on to the bearing in the direction of the Ruhr, for in this way I was bound to approach the stream. Facius proceeded to report three or four pictures on his screens. I hoped that I should have enough ammunition to deal with them!

 

Then Facius suddenly shouted: ‘Tommy flying towards us at a great speed. Distance decreasing … 2,000 yards, 1,500 … 1,000 … 500 …’

 

I was speechless. Facius already had a new target. ‘Perhaps it was a German night fighter on a westerly course,’ I said to myself and made for the next bomber.

 

It was not long before Facius shouted again: ‘Bomber coming for us ata hell of a speed. 2,000… 1,000… 500… He’s gone.’

 

‘You’re crackers, Facius,’ I said jestingly.

 

But I soon lost my sense of humour for this crazy performance was repeated a score of times and nally I gave Facius such a rocket that he was deeply offended.

 

This tense atmosphere on board was suddenly interrupted by a ground station calling: ‘Hamburg, Hamburg. A thousand enemy bombers over Hamburg. Calling all night fighters, calling all night fighters. Full speed for Hamburg.’

 

I was speechless with rage. For half an hour I had been weaving about in a presumed bomber stream and the bombs were already falling on Germany’s great port. We were a long way from Hamburg.”

 

RAF Night bombing raid

 

Hamburg damage"

[cardboard_killer]

[80 years ago yesterday] "• After a heavy RAF raid on the Krupp armaments works at Essen last night, Dr Gustav Georg Friedrich Maria Krupp von Bohlen und Halbach, who has run his wife’s business since 1909, suffers a stroke when he sees the burning ruins. Having made brutal use of slave labor, especially in eastern Europe, he will be indicted after the war for war crimes but not prosecuted because of failing health. He will die in 1950 of complications from syphilis.

 

• Ninety-six B-17s and two YB-40s attack synthetic rubber factories at Hannover. Sixteen bombers are lost. Fifty-four B-17s hit the U-boat yards at Hamburg. Two bombers are lost. Eighteen B-26s attack the Saint-Omer airfield in France without loss. Forty-nine B-17s attack a coastal convoy. Six bombers are lost.

 

Motor lifeboat dropped from RAF Hudson to B-17 North Sea 26 July 43"

[cardboard_killer]

[80 years ago yesterday] "Operation Gomorrah

 

• After nightfall, 787 aircraft guided in by Pathfinders using H2S radar bomb about 2 miles east of Hamburg’s city centre. Due to the unseasonally dry conditions, a firestorm is created in the built-up working-class districts of Billwärder-Ausschlag, Borgfelde, Hammerbrook, Hamm, and Rothenburgsort. Seventeen bombers are lost.

 

 

- The destruction is more concentrated than Bomber Command is usually able to manage at this stage of the war. In just over half an hour it is estimated that 550-600 bomb loads fell into an area measuring only 2 miles by 1 mile the fire spreads eastwards. With unusually dry summer conditions, a firestorm is created, consuming approximately 16,000 multi-storyed apartment buildings and killing an estimated 30,000 people, most of them by asphyxiation when all the air is drawn out of their basement shelters. It only stops when there is literally nothing left to burn.

 

- In some areas it will take two days for the streets to cool down enough for rescue teams to look for survivors.

 

- Fearing further raids, two-thirds of Hamburg's approximately 1,200,000 people flee the city in the aftermath, effectively shutting it down."

[cardboard_killer]

[80 years ago] "• One hundred and twenty B-17s are dispatched to the Fw-190 plant at Oschersleben, Germany. Escorting P-47s, even with drop tanks, are not able to reach all the way. Only thirty-seven bombers hit the target. Twenty-two bombers and one P-47 are lost, as are nine Focke-Wulf fighters, some of whom fire rockets at the bombers.

 

• Hamburg, which will have built 394 U-boats by war’s end, is still burning.

 

Deutsche Werft AG submarine construction yard Hamburg 28 July 1943"

Edited July 28, 2023 by cardboard_killer

[cardboard_killer]

[80 years ago today] "

Operation Tidal Wave

 

• One hundred and seventy-seven B-24s of the US Eighth and Ninth Air Forces fly from Libya to attack Romanian oil facilities outside of Ploeşti and nearby Câmpina. Unfortunately, a raid of thirteen aircraft in 1942 had done little damage but prompted the Germans and Romanians to beef up defenses with radar and additional anti-aircraft guns and fighters. Ploeşti is considered the most heavily defended Axis bomber target outside of Germany.

 

- The bombers are unable to coordinate effectively due to radio silence. They take heavy losses from the dense AA belts and from fifty-two German and Romanian Bf-109s, Romanian IAR-80s, and German Bf-110 night fighters that scramble in daylight.

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Zk5YeOjYVw

 

- One IAR-80 downs a B-24 that crashes into the Ploeşti women’s prison, killing all but forty of the inmates.

 

- While returning over Bulgaria, the bombers are intercepted by ten Bulgarian Bf-109s and fourteen Avia B-534 biplanes, with four more bombers being downed and others damaged. Fifty-four B-24s are lost with seven damaged aircraft landing in Turkey, where they are interned. 310 aircrewmen are killed, 108 captured by the Axis, and 78 interned in Turkey.  Just under half of the bombers return to base, many with battle damage.  Five German and two Romanian fighters are downed.

 

- Despite propaganda claims and dramatic photographs, a comparison of July and August production determines that there is no curtailment of petroleum output. Given the large and unbalanced loss of aircraft and the limited damage to the targets, Operation Tidal Wave is considered a strategic failure.

 

 

Romanian 37mm gun credited with downing three B-24s that flew directly overhead and interior of one of the crashed bombers"

[cardboard_killer]

[80 years ago today] "• B-24 Liberators from North African bases bomb the Messerschmitt works at Wiener Neustadt. This is the first Allied attack on an Austrian target.

 

• B-17s attack the Dornier Assembly Plant at Meulan, France. Two escorting P-47s are lost and nineteen bombers are damaged.

 

B-17s bound for Meulan 13 Aug 43"

[cardboard_killer]

[80 years ago today] "• The below Ju-52 MS minesweeping aircraft is caught and shot down by a sweep of Hawker Typhoons off Lorient.

 

 

• 596 Royal Air Force bombers attack the German ballistic missile research station at Peenemünde on the Baltic coast for the first time. The British bombers fly a route intended to trick the Germans into thinking Berlin is the target, then veer North to hit Peenemünde while night fighters are deploying to defend the capital. Peenemünde is caught by surprise and nearly 800 scientists, slave workers, and security troops are killed. 23 Lancasters, 15 Halifaxes and 2 Stirlings are shot down. Damage halts rocket tests until October 6th.

 

- During the confusion engendered during this raid, Generaloberst Hans Jeschonnek, Luftwaffe Chief of Staff (who was the one that suggested switching from attacking radar sites and airfields to terror bombing London in 1940) erroneously orders the Berlin air defenses to target a group of two hundred German night fighters, downing several of them. Already depressed over friction with Göring, he shoots himself in the evening.

 

Peenemunde launch site bomb damage from a later raid"

[cardboard_killer]

[80 years ago today] "• Bomber Command resumes the bombing of Berlin with a raid by 727 bombers. Poor target marking and the difficulty H2S navigation radar has in identifying landmarks in Berlin lead to wide scattering of bombs, although the Germans suffer nearly 900 casualties on the ground.

 

- For the first time, the Germans employ new “Zahme Sau” (Tame Boar) tactics – the use of ground-based guidance to direct night fighters into the British bomber stream, after which the night fighters operate independently against targets they find – and the British lose 56 bombers, the highest number so far in a single night and 7.9% of the participating aircraft."

[cardboard_killer]

[80 years ago today] "• 246 US Eighth Air Force B-17s attack Emden using pathfinders equipped with British radar. Large numbers of German fighters attack the bomber formation with Werfer-Granate 21 rockets only to be surprised by 262 escorting Thunderbolt fighters that dive on them from very high altitude. For the first time, the P-47s are using new 108 gallon Papier-mâché drop tanks to escort the bombers all the way to a target in Germany. Seven B-17s and one P-47 are lost; the Americans claim downing fifty-three Germans. The claims may be more accurate than usual since Jagdgeschwader 11 alone loses fourteen confirmed aircraft with ten of the pilots being killed.

 

{In 1939, Chief of the US Army Air Corps Henry “Hap” Arnold had prohibited allocation of funding to develop drop tanks to extend the range of US Army fighters. He considered them unnecessary at the time since American bombers would not need escorts due to their speed, armor and defensive armament. He only lifted the ban in spring of 1942.}

 

Loading Werfer-Granate 21 rockets onto an Fw-190

 

Paper drop tanks awaiting filling and attachment to fighters"

[cardboard_killer]

[80 years ago today] "• With Hannover and Bremen still burning from RAF night-time raids, the USAAF dispatches 378 heavy bombers to eastern Germany and Poland. The main Focke-Wulf plant had been moved earlier in the war from Bremen to Marienburg, East Prussia (modern Malbork, Poland) to put it out of range of RAF bombers. This plant produces more than half of all Fw-190 fighters. Today, 96 B-17s attack the aircraft construction complex while 106 B-17s attack Anklam, 109 B-17s attack the port of Gdynia and 41 B-24s attack the U-boat yards at Danzig. 

 

- With multiple raids, the only fighters responding to the Marienburg raid are those of the Focke-Wulf Corporation’s private air force. All total, twenty six B-17s and two B-24s are lost. Production is reported to be “significantly impacted”, and the raid is used to promote the efficiency of daylight precision bombing.

 

- After the war, the American corporation ITT, which owns 29% of Focke-Wulf, will receive $27 million in reparations from the Allies for damage inflicted on its Focke-Wulf factories.

 

Bombing the Focke Wulf Plant again in 1944"

[DD_Arthur]

2 hours ago, cardboard_killer said:

- After the war, the American corporation ITT, which owns 29% of Focke-Wulf, will receive $27 million in reparations from the Allies for damage inflicted on its Focke-Wulf factories.

 

Bombing the Focke Wulf Plant again in 1944"

 

WTF!?

[cardboard_killer]

[80 years ago today] "• In a raid on Kassel, the RAF initiates Operation Corona, using native German speakers, nearly all of them German Jews who had fled in the 1930s, to impersonate German air defense officers and give countermanding orders to night fighters. This greatly reduces the efficiency of anti-bomber operations and the raid is particularly effective. The Luftwaffe assumes that the spoofers are on the bombers and will respond by replacing male fighter controllers with female ones, telling pilots to ignore orders given by male voices. The British will counter by using German speaking Women’s Auxiliary Air Force personnel.

 

WAAF Corona radio operators. Corona operations enrage the Germans and the airwaves are often flooded with “acrimonious exchanges”."

[cardboard_killer]

[80 years ago today] "• 627 British bombers attack Düsseldorf with the loss of 20 aircraft. Some of the bombers employ the G-H blind navigation and bombing aid in combat for the first time. A diversionary raid on Cologne by another 62 bombers suffers no losses.

 

• 139 B-17 and B-24 bombers operating from Tunisian airfields attack the Messerschmitt subsidiary at Wiener-Neustadt in Austria. The attack causes heavy damage to the plant and is estimated to deprive the Luftwaffe of more than two hundred Bf-109G-6 deliveries over the next two months."

[cardboard_killer]

[80 years ago today] "• Sir Arthur Harris, the chief of Bomber Command, declares that the RAF will bomb Berlin until the heart of Nazi Germany stops beating. At the same time, Goebbels’ diary reveals much about the impact of the bombing campaign:

 

"The [second] heavy attack equalled the first in intensity... The damage was quite as extensive as the night before. It was mainly the inner city that was hit and also the working-class suburbs. Unfortunately only about twenty planes were shot down. Our fighters took a hand but arrived too late and meanwhile the anti-aircraft was forbidden to shoot. The English therefore got away pretty cheaply with this attack. Conditions in the city are pretty hopeless. The air is filled with smoke and the smell of fires.

 

Gradually we are learning to accustom ourselves again to a primitive standard of living. In the morning in Goering Strasse there is no heat, no light, no water. One can neither shave nor wash. One must get up in the shelter by the light of a burning candle. All telephone lines are down; I can reach the outside world only with the help of messengers. Most of the Reich ministries have been bombed out. Ministers and departmental heads can be found only with difficulty.

 

The streets must be cleared before repairing the worst damage. For this, however, the manpower available is not sufficient. The Wehrmacht must therefore help, not only with troops stationed in this defence area, but from others as well. The Wehrmacht supported my plans willingly and promised to furnish me in twenty-four hours with two-and-a-half divisions, or 50,000 men. These 50,000 men are to do nothing except clear the main traffic arteries of the Reich capital so that motorized transport may be resumed, and the most necessary articles of food and necessities conveyed into the bombed-out sections.

 

This morning no papers came out. I am doing everything possible to see that at least a few newspapers make their appearance on the streets. The papers with a circulation outside Berlin, especially, must resume publication because of the effect on foreign countries. The Deutscher Verlag remained unhurt, thank God, so that we can have most of the Berlin dailies printed there. What the enemy press is writing about the raids on Berlin simply can’t be beaten for impudence. Their triumphant tone is enough to make one go mad. Accompanying their reports is an ultimatum to the German people to the effect that the end of the Reich capital will have come unless it offers to capitulate. Churchill, Roosevelt, and Stalin allegedly are to meet soon to launch this ultimatum." "

[cardboard_killer]

[80 years ago today] "• Canadian built de Havilland Mosquitos enter service with RAF squadrons.

 

• Five War Correspondents are given permission by Sir Arthur Harris to go on the Berlin raid over Germany scheduled for the night. Norwegian Nordahl Greig, Australian Norman Stocton, and American Lowell Bennett are all killed when heavy losses are inflicted. Of 458 RAF aircraft, 40 bombers are lost (37 Lancasters, 2 Halifaxes, and 1 Mosquito). A shaken Edward R Murrow gives a detailed report on the mission."

 

 

 

[cardboard_killer]

[80 years ago today] "• In one of the largest USAAF raids to date, 663 heavy bombers escorted by 592 fighters strike aviation industry targets at Braunschweig, Halberstadt, Oschersleben, and Osnabruck, Germany, encountering heavy opposition in the form of an estimated 500 German fighters and losing 60 bombers and five fighters. Former Flying Tiger pilot Major James Howard finds himself alone in defending a B-17 group from 30 German fighters and claims two German aircraft shot down, one probably shot down, and two damaged without loss to the B-17s; he becomes the only American fighter pilot in the ETO to be awarded the Medal of Honor.

 

Spoiler

Major Howard and his crew chief updating his P-51B"

 

[cardboard_killer]

[80 years ago today] "• RAF Beaufighters sink the German cargo vessels Entrerios and Wittekind off Farsund, Norway.

 

Beaufighter attack on a German convoy

 

• 552 American bombers escorted by 645 fighters strike twenty V-1 flying bomb sites in the Pas-de-Calais area of France, with the loss of three bombers and three fighters.

 

• 458 British bombers carry out the first major raid on Braunschweig. 38 Lancasters are lost. Most of the bombs land in small towns and open countryside, and Braunschweig itself suffers only 10 houses destroyed and 14 people killed."

 

[cardboard_killer]

[80 years ago today] "• 648 RAF bombers attack Magdeburg for the first time.  55 bombers and 4 German nightfighters are lost, incuding that of top scoring German nightfighter ace Heinrich Alexander Ludwig Peter Prinz zu Sayn-Wittgenstein. He is credited with 83 victories, and killed either by an RAF Lancaster or an escorting Mosquito nightfighter."

 

From Wikipedia's page on Sayn-Witgenstein:

 

Quote

Night fighter pilot Wilhelm Johnen commented on the arrival of Sayn-Wittgenstein at his unit: "... A madman, I thought, as I took my leave. Once outside I got into conversation with the Prince's crew. Among other things they told me that their princely coachman had recently made his radio operator stand to attention in the plane and confined him to his quarters for three days because he (the radio operator) had lost his screen [radar contact with the enemy] during a mission."[31][32]

 

Herbert Kümmeritz recalled that Sayn-Wittgenstein often used his seniority and rank to ensure that he would get the best initial contact with the incoming bombers. He would often wait on the ground until the best contact was established. If another fighter had already engaged the enemy before Wittgenstein arrived, the prince would announce on the radio "Hier Wittgenstein—geh weg!" (Wittgenstein here, clear off!)[33]

 

Wolfgang Falck felt that Sayn-Wittgenstein was not officer-material. Falck described him as: "...not the type to be a leader of a unit. He was not a teacher, educator or instructor. But he was an outstanding personality, magnificent fighter and great operational pilot. He had an astonishing sixth sense—an intuition that permitted him to see and even feel where other aircraft were. It was like a personal radar system. He was an excellent air-to-air shot."[34]

 

His mother, Princess Walburga, commented that: "... he was boundlessly disillusioned and boundlessly disappointed. In 1943 he contemplated the thought of shooting Hitler. It was only out of sense of honor and duty that Heinrich went on fighting, carried along by the ambition to overtake Major Lent in his score of enemy aircraft shot down".[35]

 

In her memoirs, Tatiana von Metternich reported that Wittgenstein planned to kill Hitler after the ceremony at which he received his Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross in 1943. He said, "I am not married, I have no children—I am expendable. He will receive me personally. Who else among us can ever get as near to him?"[36]

 

 

[cardboard_killer]

[80 years ago today] "• 561 Lancasters, 314 Halifaxes, and 16 Mosquitos attack Berlin, Germany, dropping over 2,500 tons of bombs in the heaviest raid to date. The industrial Siemensstadt area is damaged. 26 Lancaster and 17 Halifax bombers are lost. Despite being seriously wounded by cannon fire from a German night fighter (his foot had been almost shot off), Australian Flight Sergeant Geoffrey C. C. Smith, the rear-gunner of a Lancaster bomber, refuses to leave his position until the aircraft has safely recrossed the coast. For his stubborn heroism, Smith will be awarded the Conspicuous Gallantry Medal.

 

Navigator aboard a Lancaster in February 1944"

[cardboard_killer]

 

[cardboard_killer]

[(As stated at other times, a friend of mine posts these daily, and I try to pick out the ones with either great historical interest or specific to the air war. This posting contains personal information on my friend's family.) 80 years ago today] "• The US Eighth Air Force begins Operation Argument, a six-day campaign to defeat the Luftwaffe by staging major attacks on the German aircraft industry while luring Luftwaffe aircraft into aerial combat; the operation later becomes known informally as "Big Week." On the first day, 1,003 bombers escorted by 835 fighters strike targets in Germany, including Leipzig-Mockau Airfield, Tutow Airfield, Abnaundorf, Bernburg, Braunschweig, Gotha, Heiterblick, Neupetritor, Oschersleben, Rostock, and Wilhelmstor.

 

- RAF Bomber Command will assist by striking aircraft factories as well. Despite USAAF claims of victory, the effort will cost the Allies 392 bombers and 35 fighters (one of them my uncle's P-38 - see below), while the Germans will lose 355 fighters with the Bf-110 and Me-410 units being especially hard hit.

 

• Carl Edmund Jackson had spent the first twenty months of America’s part of the war as a P-40 flight instructor on the US East Coast. In August, 1943, he transferred to the 55th Fighter Squadron in England and transitioned from P-40s to P-38s. In January, he was promoted to Captain and assigned as CO of the 79th Fighter Squadron.

 

- Today, his P-38J is damaged by flak over Braunschweig, Germany and he is returning to England on one engine when the other one catches fire at low altitude near Lisse, Holland. He belly lands in a field, suffering fractures of three lumbar vertebrae, and is helped by Dutch civilians. Attempting to reach France, will be captured near the Dutch-Belgian border. In his 24 combat missions, he shot down three confirmed Fw-190 and one Bf-109.

 

- He is taken to Dulag Luft for interrogation, then transferred to Stalag Luft I on the Baltic coast. He will be promoted to Major while there and liberated by the Red Army in 1945. After the war, US Army Intelligence will mail him the below photo of his aircraft, which was found in a Luftwaffe intelligence file.

 

- Post-war, he will become a test pilot. In 1954, on a routine flight from Denver to Spokane, his T-33 will catch fire on take off:

 

"COLONEL CARL E. JACKSON, 3852A, distinguished himself by heroism involving voluntary risk of life at Lowry Air Force Base, Denver, Colorado on 3 July 1954. While on a take-off in a T-33 aircraft, COLONEL JACKSON, discovered that the ship was not responding normally, decided to abort the attempted flight two thirds of the way down the runway. Leaving the end of the runway, he retracted the gear to avoid going through the fence and onto a busy highway. Hearing the airman aboard the aircraft cry for help, COLONEL JACKSON pulled the canopy jettison handle. The instant the canopy fired, the entire aircraft was engulfed in flames. COLONEL JACKSON dived over the left side of the burning cockpit, landed on his head and rolled over on his back. Though stunned, COLONEL JACKSON, hearing a cry of agony from the airman still in the blazing plane, rose to his feet, jumped to the left wing and reached for the passenger's safety belt with his right hand. Though the intensity of the flames made it impossible for COLONEL JACKSON to see, he succeeded in dragging the badly burned Airman Sergeant R. D. Schneideker from the aircraft. COLONEL JACKSON'S valiant actions and supreme self-sacrifice on behalf of a fellow airman demonstrated heroism at its highest and were in the finest tradition of the Armed Services."

 

- Sergeant Schneideker dies the same day. Carl Jackson will spend six weeks at Fitzsimmons Army Medical Center in Aurora, Colorado before also succumbing to complications from the burns. For unexplained reasons, the Army physicians refuse a request to bring in the Air Force Burn Unit Team, and a request by his wife to transfer him to the burn center at Brooks Air Force Base in Texas is denied.

 

- Carl is buried at Arlington National Cemetery. He left behind his wife and five children, the youngest of which was born three days before his death.

 

Carl E Jackson in his P-38 with Technical Sergeant John Duffey at RAF Kings Cliffe"

[357th_KW]

Here's a diagram of the Feb 20th mission by the 8th Air Force from Donald Caldwell's "Day Fighters in Defense of the Reich: A War Diary 1942-45"

 

 

And a quote highlighting the challenges on the German side, from his companion volume "The Luftwaffe Over Germany - Defense of the Reich":

 

Unit histories and pilot logbooks confirm the confusion of the day. The experience of 3./JG 11’s Fw. Heinz Hanke is perhaps representative. He has provided the following extensive account:

 

Our Gruppe of 40 Fw 190s made a Blitzverlegung [rapid transfer] from our Husum base [south of Denmark] to Oldenburg [west of Bremen]. The morning was hazy with blue skies above, but fog then moved in and covered the airfield, and our Kommodore ordered the quickest possible takeoff. The entire Geschwader took off successfully and assembled at 8,300 meters [27,000 ft.] over the North Sea. The controller reported that the the American bombers had split into three waves, two crossing the Dutch coast while the third “circled over the German Bight.” We were led northeast toward Denmark, exactly retracing our route earlier that morning. After 75 minutes the aircraft in the rear of the formation began reporting low fuel. The cloud deck below us was now solid, and pilots began to break away to seek a landing ground. Finally there were only seven left. As my Fw 190 had the red cowling stripe of a Schwarmführer, I gathered the six around me, three to either side. We flew north; I was hoping to spot Husum or Neumünster through the clouds and land to refuel. Suddenly I spotted a formation of 200–300 B-17s to the east at 6,000 meters [20,000 ft.]. I ordered my comrades, “Attack from the front!” But the hellish defensive fire made me change my orders to a freie Jagd [free hunt], every man for himself … The B-17s dove from 6,000 to 4,500 meters [15,000 ft.] to gain speed. My red fuel lamp blinked, then glowed steadily—eight minutes of fuel. I climbed slightly, then dove to attack the rear B-17 at a speed of 700 km/h [435 mph]. I was buffeted in the slipstream but fired all six guns from 200 meters. My barrage hit the cockpit and then moved back to the tail. It was a good job—the cockpit exploded, parts dropped off the fuselage, and the left wing and its two engines burst into flames. I saw five men bail out. But when I again glanced forward I got a terrible shock. My speed had carried me into the middle of the formation. The blood drained from my face as I half-rolled to dive away—but it was already too late. My aircraft was hit, and strong oil fumes and aluminum shards filled my cockpit. At this moment my controls went out …

 

After the usual difficulties Hanke succeeded in bailing out, striking the tail with his shoulder and ankle, and landed on the Danish island of Fünen, covered in oil and in great pain. Coincidentally, the other six members of his flight all force-landed on the same island. Hanke did not encounter them, but did meet the crew of the 100th Bomb Group B-17 that he had shot down. Ironically, the bomber had passed directly over Hanke’s Husum base that morning en route to bomb Tutow, after Hanke had flown south. He managed to carry on a conversation with one man, who gave him his flight jacket decorated with the B-17’s name, Miss Behavin, and 18 mission bombs. The jacket later burned in an air raid, but after the war Hanke tried to locate the man, remembering only that his jacket had the name “Mark” in it, and that he was from Minneapolis. In 1976 Miss Behavin’s copilot, Orlin Markussen, responded, and the two men became close friends.

 

Heinz Hanke attached a 3./JG 11 pilot roster to his letter. Of the 29 men who served with him, 23 were killed in action, one committed suicide, and two remained missing. The three survivors were all injured; Hanke listed himself as 70 percent disabled. A 90 percent pilot fatality rate was fairly typical of RLV units.

 

 

[cardboard_killer]

[80 years ago today] "• During a raid on a German airfield in Ålborg, Denmark, a B-17G named “Mi Amigo” is damaged by anti-aircraft fire. Unable to return to base, Lieutenant John Kreighauser decides to put her down in a park in Sheffield. 8 year old Tony Foulds and his friends are playing there and see the B-17 heading towards them with the pilot waving frantically. Not understanding, they wave back and watch as the pilot pulls up to avoid hitting them and crashes into the treeline. All ten aboard are killed.

 

- Wracked with guilt, Tony Foulds will set up a memorial to the crew and tend it himself for years, until the RAF Association takes over and plants ten American oaks around the spot. The BBC will hear about Mr Foulds desire for a commemorative flyby and arrange with the RAF to have one on the 75th anniversary, when Mr Foulds is 82 years old.

 

 

 

[357th_KW]

February 25th, 1944 marked the last day of Operation Argument (Big Week).  The 8th AF launched raids against Augsburg, Stuttgart, Regensburg and Furth, while the 15th AF struck Regensburg as well.  As mentioned above, this was a costly week for all the forces involved.  But a big reason why this was seen as a success by the Americans was in the breakdown of losses and victories.

 

Bomber Command lost 131 bombers, with a loss rate of roughly 5.7% per sortie.  The 8th AF lost 157 bombers, but this amounted to only a 4.5% loss per sortie rate - far better than the 6.6% rate suffered for the whole of 1943 and in another league when you consider that they had successfully struck targets like Schweinfurt and Regensburg during Big Week - targets that had cost them loss rates of 15% or greater in 1943 with no long range fighter cover. 

 

The 15th AF lost 90 bombers during the week of deep penetration raids, for an unsustainable 14.6% loss rate.  At this time the 15th had 3 groups of P-38s and 1 group of P-47s and serviceability rates in the P-38 units were always problematic.  While the 8th was generally putting up 750-900 escort sorties per mission, the 15th only averaged 126 sorties per mission during Big Week (roughly 32 sorties per group, where normal strength would be 48 + spares).

 

Of the 350+ fighters lost by the Luftwaffe during Big Week, 326 had been lost opposing daylight raids, and 257 of those against 8th AF raids.  8th AF Fighter Command (and their attached 9th AF units) had claimed 217 victories during the week.  The most promising point here, was that 66 of that total (30%) had come from the two new P-51 units, the 354th and 357th FGs.  Despite these units being among the least experienced in theater, they had punched well above their weight, considering that they only made up 12% of the fighter force.  In addition, the 363rd Fighter Group was just becoming operational (they had conducted some 'milk run' escorts over the channel and Belgium on the 24th and 25th) and the 4th FG would convert to the Mustang beginning in March.  8th AF commanders were understandably optimistic that they had cracked the code of daylight strategic bombing.

Edited February 25, 2024 by 357th_KW

[357th_KW]

 

80 years ago today, the US 8th Air Force flew a full strength raid against Berlin for the first time.  Two abortive attempts had been made on the 3rd and the 4th, but had to be called back due to weather (though a few groups missed the recall notice on the 4th and did fly over the cloud covered city).  No attempt at deception was made today - the lessons of Big Week had stuck and the 8th Air Force would now seek direct confrontation with the Luftwaffe going forward.  The Americans launched 730 bombers along with 943 escort sorties.  On the German side 463 sorties were flown, allowing the formation of two large battle groups of roughly 100 aircraft each.  Heavy fighting resulted in the loss of 69 bombers and 11 escorts, along with 75 interceptors.

 

This would prove to be one of the last raids where dedicated night fighter units were employed against daylight attackers.  From Donald Caldwell's "The Luftwaffe Over Germany":

                  Few fighters from either side penetrated the Berlin Flak zone deliberately; four that did were night fighters from III./NJG 5, one of which was piloted by Lt. Günther Wolf. Wolf recalled: We were in no formation, led by no one! We had no orders, only “tips” to attack stragglers and stay away from compact formations, which was only common sense. We caught sight of the enemy bomber formation and, keeping a wary eye for enemy fighters, wondered how we were going to tackle them. Then we saw a straggler all alone below the formation. Not a word was said on the radio, but all four Messerschmitts swung after what looked like an easy target. I closed on my prey from behind. Suddenly, when I was at about 600 meters [660 yards], just outside firing range, my airplane shuddered under an impact of bullets. The canopy was smashed and glass flew in all directions. I never saw what hit us.

                  Wolf ’s right engine burst into flames, streaming black oil and smoke. He ordered his gunner to bail out, but his gunner told him that his chute had been ruined by gunfire. Wolf had to make a crash landing. He entered a steep diving turn while throttling back. His opponent, a 357th Fighter Group P-51 pilot, thought the Bf 110 was out of control and claimed it as destroyed. At the last moment Wolf pulled up and made a belly landing in a field northeast of Berlin. Many of his comrades were not as lucky; 11 of the 16 night fighters sent up were shot down and eight crewmen were killed. The prowling 357th Group Mustangs were now seeking out German fighters attempting to return to base after completing their attacks. Oblt. Gerhard Loos of III./JG 54, a Knight’s Cross holder with 92 victories, was caught at low altitude and shot down. Loos succeeded in bailing out, but his parachute harness ripped apart and he fell to his death.

 

Continuing the trend of Big Week, 43 of the 81 (53%) victory claims filed by the US escorts came from the three Mustang groups flying that day (out of 19 groups - 15% of the escort force).

[cardboard_killer]

[80 years and three days ago] "• A young P-51 pilot named Chuck Yeager is shot down on his eighth mission over France. He will escape to Spain with the help of the French Résistance and return to England in May.

 

- Allied policy is that pilots who have been helped by Résistants are barred from flying over enemy territory again in order to preclude compromising the groups should they be captured. In June, Yeager and another pilot will successfully petition General Eisenhower to overturn the policy since by then the groups are openly fighting alongside the Allies and little of use could be revealed to the Germans. Yeager will finish the war with 11.5 victories, one of them over an Me-262.

 

Yeager’s second P-51, named for his fiancé. The first Glamorous Glen was a P-39."

[357th_KW]

On March 8th, 1944 the 8th launched a follow-up raid on Berlin with 623 heavy bombers taking part.  The Luftwaffe again put up a heavy defensive effort, with 366 sorties flown.  37 bombers were lost, along with 18 escorts on the American side, while Luftwaffe losses totaled 48 interceptors.  The next day the 8th Air Force launched the 3rd raid on Berlin four days, sending out 526 heavy bombers.  This time the Luftwaffe chose to stay on the ground and no defensive sorties were flown.

 

Many writers have stated in the past that Big Week, or the Berlin raids marked US victory in the strategic bomber campaign.  The reality is a bit more complicated.  While the introduction of long range escort fighters had changed the equation, the Luftwaffe's lack of response on March 9th wasn't the end of the battle of attrition by any means.  Some of the most intense fighting of the entire campaign was still to come.

[cardboard_killer]

The strategic bombing campaign, both the US's and especially Great Britain's, was a failure. Whether looking at goals or costs, it failed badly. It probably lengthened the war, and certainly caused a massive increase in unnecessary civilian deaths.

 

9 hours ago, 357th_KW said:

Many writers have stated in the past that Big Week, or the Berlin raids marked US victory in the strategic bomber campaign.  The reality is a bit more complicated. 

 

[357th_KW]

On 3/11/2024 at 2:16 AM, cardboard_killer said:

The strategic bombing campaign, both the US's and especially Great Britain's, was a failure. Whether looking at goals or costs, it failed badly. It probably lengthened the war, and certainly caused a massive increase in unnecessary civilian deaths.

 

There's a lot to unpack there, and I don't disagree with regards to Harris' goal of defeating Germany by crushing their civilian morale.  But on the US side of the strategic bombing campaign, it's hard to describe Pointblank as a failure.  The goal was to destroy or cripple the Luftwaffe in time for Overlord, and it's pretty hard to argue that didn't occur.  Likewise the followup transportation and oil plans, ultimately resulted in the collapse of the Reichsbahn and the destruction of the Ploesti complex and the German synthetic oil industry. 

 

 

 

[cardboard_killer]

1 hour ago, 357th_KW said:

The goal was to destroy or cripple the Luftwaffe in time for Overlord, and it's pretty hard to argue that didn't occur.

 

That goal was already accomplished. And how much quicker that goal had been if the WAllies had put all those resources into the prior four years of strategic bombing into other needs, such as closing the Atlantic gap and producing more and better fighters and developing a coherent tac air system.

1 hour ago, 357th_KW said:

Likewise the followup transportation and oil plans, ultimately resulted in the collapse of the Reichsbahn and the destruction of the Ploesti complex and the German synthetic oil industry.

 

Again, the war was all but won when that happened, and might have been won even quicker if the WAllies had not been sidetracked into a strategic bombing campaign. The SAC was not simply not necessary, not effective and yet consumed massive resources.

[357th_KW]

2 hours ago, cardboard_killer said:

 

That goal was already accomplished. And how much quicker that goal had been if the WAllies had put all those resources into the prior four years of strategic bombing into other needs, such as closing the Atlantic gap and producing more and better fighters and developing a coherent tac air system.

 

Again, the war was all but won when that happened, and might have been won even quicker if the WAllies had not been sidetracked into a strategic bombing campaign. The SAC was not simply not necessary, not effective and yet consumed massive resources.

So you’re arguing that in June of 1943, before Operation Pointblank becomes the primary mission of the 8th Air Force, the Luftwaffe had already been crippled and the Allies had air superiority in the West?  I doubt anyone involved in the air battles over Germany in the second half of 1943 would agree with that assessment.  US leadership certainly didn’t given that they considered Pointblank a requirement for Overlord to go ahead, and neither did the Germans as they continued to funnel more and more of their war production into the air battle. 
 

We’ll have to agree to disagree, as there is no point in arguing hypotheticals and muddying up this thread any further.

[cardboard_killer]

[80 years ago today] "• There is an 810 bomber night raid on Berlin. 73 aircraft are lost. Aboard one burning Lancaster, Flight Sergeant Nicholas Alkemade’s parachute is wrecked by fire. The tail gunner jumps anyway, preferring to die by impact rather than fire. He survives an 18,000 foot fall, landing through pine branches into a deep snowdrift with only a sprained leg. He is captured almost immediately, and the Germans are suspicious of his claim until they examine the aircraft.

 

• In what will come to be known as “The Great Escape”, seventy three POWs escape by tunnel from Stalag Luft III outside of Żagań in modern day Poland. They had dug three tunnels (Tom, Dick, and Harry) but one had been discovered and the other covered up by new camp construction, so only Harry was available to be used. It is 102 meters long and has been dug 9 meters down. It was planned to have a mass breakout but the tunnel came up short of the forest, leaving the exit in view of a guard tower.

 

A path showing the entrance of tunnel Harry with the outline of the former barracks shown and a rock memorial in the distance at the exit.

 

- The 77th man out is spotted and the Germans quickly seal off the exit and capture four men. Over the next two weeks all but three of the escapees will be recaptured. Of these three, two are Norwegian and will be smuggled into Sweden by Swedish merchant sailors while the third, a Dutchman, will reach Spain with the aid of the Dutch Underground and the French Résistance.

 

- Hitler directs that fifty of the escapees be executed as a warning against further escapes. A banner is placed in the camp that says “Escape is no longer a sport”. The Gestapo decides that at least one of each nationality that escaped be shot, and murders 21 British, 6 Canadian, 6 Polish, 5 Australian, 3 South African, 2 New Zealand, 2 Norwegian, 1 Belgian, 1 Czech, 1 French, 1 Greek, and 1 Lithuanian airman.

 

- During the investigation, camp commandant Friedrich Wilhelm von Lindeiner will feign mental illness to avoid punishment, and be placed as second in command of a Luftwaffe field unit.

 

- The 1963 film “The Great Escape” starring Steve McQueen, James Garner, Charles Bronson, Richard Attenborough, and Donald Pleasance is based on the breakout. Other than the fact that no Americans took part in the historical escape, veterans of Stalag Luft III describe the film as being extremely authentic.

 

- Donald Pleasance will double as an advisor for the film, having been a Lancaster wireless operator who had been shot down and imprisoned in Stalag Luft I.

 

Stalag-Luft-III-Layout-of-Tunnel-Harry"

[DD_Arthur]

On 3/12/2024 at 4:15 AM, 357th_KW said:

We’ll have to agree to disagree, as there is no point in arguing hypotheticals and muddying up this thread any further.

You’re quite right here but for historical perspective there’s good evidence that Britain’s efforts to mount a strategic bombing campaign did more damage to the British war economy than the German war economy.

 

Interestingly, ten years after the end of WW2, Britain’s enormous effort to equip itself with a nuclear deterrent also had a similarly adverse effect on our postwar recovery. Politicians of every stripe have gone to considerable lengths over several decades to conceal the adverse effects of these decisions from the British people.

Edited March 25, 2024 by DD_Arthur

[cardboard_killer]

[80 years ago last night] "• Bomber Command suffers its heaviest single loss of the war, when 795 aircraft (572 Lancasters, 214 Halifaxes, and 9 Mosquitos) attack Nuremburg by making a direct approach rather than with the usual complex diversionary manoeuvres. 94 aircraft are shot down, mostly by night fighters, while another 14 that return are written off due to damage. Nearly 700 airmen are lost. The RAF is compelled to temporarily abandon deep penetration raids on German cities.

 

Lancasters taking off at dusk for a raid

 

April 1944 image from RAF bomber over Europe with ground tracers and nightfighter fire"

[cardboard_killer]

[80 years ago today] "• Three Hundred B-17s and B-24s flying from Italy bomb Bucharest, Romania. About a hundred and fifty German and Romanian fighters attack the formation, shooting down ten bombers. The bombers and escorts claim fifty enemy fighters downed.

 

• In an effort to cope with the chaos in Berlin created by Allied bombing, Hitler has suspended civil law and administration and installed Joseph Goebbels as Stadtspresident with unlimited powers. Under the relentless air attacks, Berlin's fire-fighting services have broken down, relief organizations have failed to provide enough food and clothing for bombing victims, and wide-spread looting has been reported. There have been repeated outbreaks of disorder, and the destruction of police records in one raid has allowed what the authorities call "undesirable characters" to evade arrest and roam the city.

 

• Allied aircraft make the first photo-reconnaissance flight over Auschwitz."

[cardboard_killer]

[80 years ago today] "• A German pilot defects to Switzerland with a new Bf-110G-4 nightfighter. The G is the new heavily armed version with upgraded engines and two separate frequency radars put into service following the failure of the Me-210. Fearful of Allied inspection of the aircraft, Göring demands that it be returned or destroyed.

 

Bf-110G-4 nightfighter

 

- The Swiss negotiate the destruction of the aircraft under German supervision, in exchange for twelve new Bf-109 fighters.  The Germans will deliver Messerschmitts with factory defects and reused worn components and these Bf-109Gs will be withdrawn from service before the Bf-109Es that the Swiss purchased in 1940.

 

During this period the Swiss Air Force is painting prominent red and white neutrality markings on their aircraft to avoid them being mistaken for German."

[BOO]

@cardboard_killer  keep it up!  This has been a fantastic thread. Kudos for sticking at it.