How did level bombers attack airfields in WWII?

[=KG76=flyus747]

What was the focus? The runways? The buildings and facilities? The planes?

[Alexmarine]

Probably planes>facilities>runway in a decreasing order of importance. Considering that many airfields were dirt strips which wouldn't require complicated repair efforts (just filling some holes in the dirt), bombing the runway would have been probably something done only to large paved complexes

[=KG76=flyus747]

2 minutes ago, Alexmarine said:

Probably planes>facilities>runway in a decreasing order of importance. Considering that many airfields were dirt strips which wouldn't require complicated repair efforts (just filling some holes in the dirt), bombing the runway would have been probably something done only to large paved complexes

Do you have some sources I can look at?

[Eisenfaustus]

The airfield. Level bombers in WWII were happy to hit the airfields at all - regardless of nation. Our game accuracy is way beyond anything achievable back then. 
 

But at least for the Luftwaffe in 1940 the main effect to be achieved were aircraft destroyed. 

[Alexmarine]

2 minutes ago, T-34 said:

Do you have some sources I can look at?

 

No particular quote tbh, just what I perceived from various books and publications and even some posts from this very forum, but, as Eisenfausts pointed out, did you meant high altitude level bombing from heavy bombers or even mid to low altitude medium bombers attacks?

[=KG76=flyus747]

6 minutes ago, Alexmarine said:

 

No particular quote tbh, just what I perceived from various books and publications and even some posts from this very forum, but, as Eisenfausts pointed out, did you meant high altitude level bombing from heavy bombers or even mid to low altitude medium bombers attacks?

Level bombing from high alt. Think He111s or B17s bombing airfields. I recall seeing photos of allied bombing airfields and there’s just craters everywhere, as if they wanted to punch every inch of the ground regardless if there were buildings planes or runways. It just seems so trivial to hit dirt runways when it can easily filled up.

 

im not referring to low strafing attacks that would’ve been seen in pacific or eastern front soviet attacks.

12 minutes ago, Eisenfaustus said:

The airfield. Level bombers in WWII were happy to hit the airfields at all - regardless of nation. Our game accuracy is way beyond anything achievable back then. 
 

But at least for the Luftwaffe in 1940 the main effect to be achieved were aircraft destroyed. 

How do you know it was aircraft?

[Alexmarine]

11 minutes ago, T-34 said:

Level bombing from high alt. 

 

In that case consider the entire airfield premises as a big area target. I think that this kind of attacks on airfields where kinda rare though, except maybe on the western front by the allies who had enough bombers to truly saturate an airfield probably

[SYN_Ricky]

During BoB KG2 made some low level bombing attacks on airfields.

[Zeev]

They pressed "I" key.

Edited November 19, 2021 by Zeev

[Alexmarine]

Just now, SYN_Ricky said:

During BoB KG2 made some low level bombing attacks on airfields.

Indeed the Luftwaffe bombers where more likely seeing doing low level attacks, same story on the eastern front

[SYN_Ricky]

3 minutes ago, Alexmarine said:

Indeed the Luftwaffe bombers where more likely seeing doing low level attacks, same story on the eastern front

 

During BoB AFAIK the Luftwaffe attacked airfields both from high and low altitude, and in some cases fighters also made strafing  attacks.

[Feathered_IV]

Looking at Allied bombing assessment photos from Europe and the Pacific (a particular interest of mine, don’t judge me) the emphasis of level bombers appears to be churning up the runways/landing areas rather than pinpointing buildings and parked aircraft. 

Edited November 19, 2021 by Feathered_IV

[ITAF_Airone1989]

If I remember correctly, Saburo Sakai tells about some American attack to their airfields.

But it was made by attackers more than B17s, so they bomb&strafe whatever they see.

 

During BoB Ju88 and Do17 (that can be both use as level bomber) flew a lot of "squirrel altitude" sortie both to avoid radar detection and increase the bombing accuracy.

Probably, as already said, hit the airfield area from 3k+ was already a success.

 

At the end of the war the story was a little bit different: bomb sight were more accurate and German airfields has a concrete runway that require more work to be repaired.

Never found out if it was a legend or not, but I heard about German fighters that had to take off from the highway because airfields were too damaged.

 

Another thing:

In Italy in the last months of the war was really dangerous to take off from an airport cause was patrolled all the time by American fighters. So this was another tactic to "close" an airfield.

[Alexmarine]

48 minutes ago, ITAF_Airone1989 said:

If I remember correctly, Saburo Sakai tells about some American attack to their airfields.

But it was made by attackers more than B17s, so they bomb&strafe whatever they see.

 

 

Same from IJAAF accounts, lots of low altitude strikes from both side

[Eisenfaustus]

7 hours ago, T-34 said:

How do you know it was aircraft?

Sorry - I remember no single source.

 

I know it from reading a lot of different sources: The main task of recon sorties that had to assess damage done was to report the number of planes destroyed. That also was more or less the only number Göring was interested in. It also befits German prewar air superiority theory that emphazised destroying the enemy air force on the ground as first task for the Luftwaffe in any campaign.

 

[SYN_Ricky]

6 hours ago, ITAF_Airone1989 said:

If I remember correctly, Saburo Sakai tells about some American attack to their airfields.

But it was made by attackers more than B17s, so they bomb&strafe whatever they see.

 

B-25 and I guess A-20s too often did low alt attacks with parafrags.

 

 

[[TWB]80hd]

 

Aside from the Liberator, this could be a screenshot from a Wings of Liberty frontline airfield.

7 minutes ago, SYN_Ricky said:

 

B-25 and I guess A-20s too often did low alt attacks with parafrags.

 

 

 

And M-47 "Kenney Cocktails" such as the attack on Rabaul...

 

[LLv34_Flanker]

S! 

 

Finns bombed both runways and other targets on enemy airfields. Once even snuck in a bomber force into the stream of returning russian bombers at night. Bombed the crap out of them when they were landing and taxiing to parking areas. 

[[CPT]Crunch]

For the Japanese it wasn't a simple matter of filling in the holes, construction machinery was rare and in scares supply, it took dreadfully long just to open new airfields, something that hurt them badly in the long run.  Guadalcanal a prime example, while their opposition had seabee's who could erect a facility practically overnight.

[357th_KW]

Likewise for the Germans.  They were regularly towing airplanes with animals in 1944 onward.  Repairing a runway would be a huge effort.  Air superiority over Tunisia and Sicily in late 42-43 was largely won by bombing airfields.

[Eisenfaustus]

8 hours ago, VBF-12_KW said:

Likewise for the Germans.  They were regularly towing airplanes with animals in 1944 onward.  Repairing a runway would be a huge effort.  Air superiority over Tunisia and Sicily in late 42-43 was largely won by bombing airfields.

I‘m not sure about North Africa as I read lesser about that theatre of war but in Europe usually one Runway at least was operational again the next day from all I read. 
And towing animals is nothing special for Germany in the 40‘s. Just like the German farming industry the Wehrmacht was barely mechanised at all. And with fuel in limited supply it seems plausible that animals might have been used to save fuel for repair duty. 

[357th_KW]

You can see in Chris Shores’ “Mediterranean AIr War” books, which are basically a day by day war diary, that a significant source of Luftwaffe losses during the Tunisia and Sicily campaigns came from losses on the ground to bombing.  In Johannes Steinhoff’s book “Messerschmitts Over Sicily” (which can be read for free on Amazon Unlimited) he talks about hunting for new, hidden air strips as Allied bombing continues to cause havoc for them.  
 

While airfields could be (and often were) repaired after an attack, every time you have to do that it’s eating up precious man hours and resources.  In one specific case that’s relevant to BoBp, the 8th Air Force attacked various German fighter fields in Western Germany in late March 1945. All of JG27’s fields were hit (Achmer, Rheine, Hopsten, Hesepe).  IV/JG27 was caught on the ground and all of their 109s were destroyed resulting in the unit being disbanded.  The other 3 gruppen were relocated to other fields a few days later.

[Duce_de_Zoop]

On 11/19/2021 at 2:19 AM, T-34 said:

Do you have some sources I can look at?

 

In "D-day Through German Eyes Part 2" a luftwaffe pilot notes that the most damaging raids weren't the ones that hit the runway, as those holes could be patched within days. Taking out the reserve parts and facilities was what damaged their combat-readiness the most. Some planes simply could not take off because hydraulic fuel or some other component just couldn't be found. 

[sevenless]

On 11/19/2021 at 8:01 AM, T-34 said:

What was the focus? The runways? The buildings and facilities? The planes?

 

Hangars and Runways. This is Hesepe (jet airfield):

 

Einsatzhafen "Hostentor" Hesepe - Luftschutzanlagen - Osnabrücker Bunkerwelten (osnabruecker-bunkerwelten.de)

 

[Blitzen]

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