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AMERICAN STATIGIC BOMBING CAMPAING IN EUOPE IN WORLD WAR II

A COSTLY AND EFFECTIVE CAMPAIN AGINST GERMANY

Dave Sivewright

HIST 122 ± American History Since 1877

April 30 2011
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The American strategic bombing campaign in Europe during the Second World War played a

vital role for the allies to end the war with Germany. It was a battle for the skies over France,

Italy and finally Germany that would take many lives. While bombing missions included the

destruction of cites such as Dresden, Hamburg and Berlin, it also consisted of the destruction of

rail yards, aircraft factories and fuel. There are those that believe that the leveling of German

cities were unjust as the war was brought to the civilian sector. It was these bombing campaigns

that brought war to the makers of war and brought with it the demoralization that would help

bring Germany to their knees. It was also the daring and courageous bomber crews that helped

bring the end to the war in Germany. The Eighth Air Force would lose more men in the missions

from 1942 to 1945 than the Marines would lose over the entire Pacific.1

By the time the United States entered the Second World War after the attack on Pearl Harbor,

the British had already been engaged in bombing missions over France and Germany. Missions

that started out as night time strategic bombing of industrial plants, factories and naval targets

soon changed. Now it¶s missions included area bombing that would cause collateral damage.

For the United States Army Air Corp, collateral damage on targets was unacceptable. Their

primary targets would be the German industry that waged war through daylight bombing. Ball

barring plant, aircraft factories, U-boat pens and oil refineries would be the targets of the

strategic efforts to bring the German war machine to a halt.

In 1942 the American¶s began building up their bomber command in England. These bases

began to pop up all over the English country side and would fall under the, the Eighth Air Force.

There would also be some 350,000 men alone in the Eighth Air Force that consists of pilots,

crew mechanics and other essential personal.2 Planes, parts, fuel, ammunition, bombs and tools

had to be shipped from America in order to keep the bombers up in the air to do their job. Of

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course this meant that the ships that this cargo floated on had to cross the Atlantic and the threat

of German u-boats.3 One of the most used American bombers in the European war the B-17

Flying Fortress. It was the most produced bomber of the war. The plane had a crew of ten. It

carried eleven .50 caliber machine guns for its protection and could carry a bomb load up to 6000

pounds.4 Not only did the plane get its name from all the armament it had, but it was a plane that

could take a lot of damage and still get its crew home. The other heavy bomber that was used

was the B-24 Liberator which carried the same amount of armament and could carry up to 8000

pounds of bombs.

Throughout the early part of the Strategic bombing campaign, the American Eighth Air Force

would soon find out how costly the day light raids would be. In one mission alone, the raid on

Schweinfurt, The Eighth lost 10.3% of their air craft and lost 17% of the crews.5 This was out of

a total of 1000 bombers that were sent out. Though they succeed in the mission on hitting the

German ball bearing plants, a second raid was need. Due to the heavy losses the American

suffered there would not be a second raid. The day of the mission became known as, ³Black

Thursday´.6 The heavy loss of men and planes would continue to play out on each mission that

bombers and their crews went out. The losses that the allied bombers would sustain compared to

the effectiveness of their hitting their targets and causing damage was high. Some believed that

the losses being sustained were not acceptable 

the losses that were taking place on a daily

basis. Yet the bomber crews went back up every day. As Donald L. Miller points out in an

interview about his book, ³Men kept fighting and dying because they didn¶t want to let their

fellow crewmates down.´7

The crews that flew in the B-17¶s and B-24¶s had never been in a plane let alone flown in one.

The average age of a bomber crew was between 19 and 20. The conditions that these men had to

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deal with were incredible. Frost bite and oxygen deprivation became and often element in

bombing missions. James McMahon, A waist gunner on a B-24 had recounted the time he saw

the other waist gunner while on their way to Bremen. The pilot had to drop altitude because the

waist gunner was dying from no oxygen. He had also suffered from frost bite.8 The bombers

would climb to an altitude of 36,000 feet. At this high the temperature was usually 57 degrees

below zero. Oxygen masks had to be worn. A kinked hose and or rips of cut in the gloves that

the crew wore could be costly. One of the biggest things that the crew had to deal with was the

physiological aspect. Seeing other bombers go down from fighter attacks or flack burst was

often hard to watch. Many saw good friends go down with their plane or parachuted only to

become prisoners of war. cWhen it came to surviving 25 missions, one in four would survive. 9

The Germans had an incredible defense system which gave them the advantage. Along the

coast of France set a line of radar stations that could detect the bomber formations approaching.

German fighter groups were also spread throughout France and Germany. Once the Allied

bombers were picked up on radar, German fighters would scramble to meet them. The other

weapon that the Germans had was the 88mm anti aircraft batteries that could fire a round 5000

feet in the air. These shells would explode causing shrapnel to spread all over. To the bomber

crews it was known as flak. What would take place would be several attacks by German fighters

in order to break up the formations and shoot down as many bombers as possible. They would

continue until the bomber formations were in range of the anti aircraft batteries. Once the

mission was complete, the onslaught of the fighters would resume.

By July of 1943 things took a dramatic change in the bombing campaigns. The P-47 and P-

51 fighters¶ came into play.10 These were long range fighters that could escort the bombers to

and from the missions. Once the target had been hit, the escort fighters would break off and seek

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targets of opportunity, such as German air fields, railroad yards and anything that would hinder

the German war machine. By the time that Americans began bombing Germany, the targets they

were destroying and damaging began to make a difference not only on Germanys means to wage

war but also on the moral of its people. American bombers were now able to reach their targets

now with a substantial loss due to fighter escort.

Prior to D-Day on June 6, 1944, bombers had been concentrating on the missions deep into

Germany that included Berlin. The fight in the air was intense as James McMahon pointed out.

³I saw one FW-190 shoot down one of our planes which went into a dive and
went straight down. Then all hell broke loose. The Flack was terrible and the
fighters everywhere. The group behind us was catching hell with fighters«´11
Missions over Germany became more extensive targeting all the aircraft
industries which began to put pressure on the Germany¶s ability to replace its
loss.´ 12

Things once again were about to change. With the invasion of France at hand, mission

priority changed in order to support the upcoming invasion. The main targets were the rail yards.

Much of the Germany army relied on the rail system to bring up their reserves and supplies.

With the successes of destroying the rail system there was no way the Germans could reinforce

Normandy during the invasion. The Germans also were forced to fight their engagements

without enough ammunition and artillery support. The strikes that crippled the rail system in

effect helped account for the success of the invasion of Normandy and the push into France.

By mid 1944 bombers were still being lost to fighters and flak even though they had fighter

escort. Their main targets were now petroleum industry. What the Germans began to realize was

that they could not keep up with their losses and were amazed at how quick the Americans were

able to offset the losses in both bombers and crew. Many of their hardened fighter pilots were in

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most cases gone. Fuel was becoming a short commodity and the new pilots were not

experienced. What was once a major threat to the US bombers was now becoming less of a

threat. By 1945 the air war over Germany became a campaign of attrition. Area bombing was

now included to the missions to cripple the German war machine and its morale. The continued

missions on Germany petroleum had been so successful that it had affected not only the aircraft,

but the German army¶s ability to use their tanks. There was no fuel to move them.13

By the end of the war in late 1945, most of Germany¶s major cities had been reduced to

rubble. Its ability to make war had been severed. It could not fuel its aircraft or its army.

Germany¶s air defense had been reduced to the point where Allied aircraft had free rain. In the

end, the use of Bombers in strategic missions helped bring the end to the war with Germany.14

The cost was staggering. As Donald L. Miller pointed out,

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Notes

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1
Laffyette.edu, ³Masters of the Air: About Masters of the Air. ³
http://sites.lafayette.edu/millerd/other-publications/masters-of-the-air/ (accessed April 12, 2011)
2
Air & Space.com, ³In the Footsteps of the Mighty Eighth.´
http://www.airspacemag.com/military-aviation/mighty_eighth.html (accessed April 24, 2011)
3
Bomber Field¸ ³B-17 Flying Fortress,´ http://www.bomberfieldusa.com/specs.htm (accessed
April 12, 2010)
4
Bomber Field¸ ³B-17 Flying Fortress
5
Williamson, Murry, ³War to be Won.´ (Massachusetts: Presidents and Fellows of Harvard
College 2002), 318
6
Williamson, 319
7
Laffyette.edu, ³Masters of the Air: About Masters of the Air. ³
8
Johnson, Michael P., ³Reading the American Past.´ (New York: Bedford/St Martin¶s 2009) p
200
9
Laffyette.edu, ³Masters of the Air: About Masters of the Air. ³
10
Laffyette.edu, ³Masters of the Air: About Masters of the Air. ³
11
Johnson, 202
12
Johnson, 203
13
Williamson, 341
14
Williamson, 341
15
Laffyette.edu, ³Masters of the Air: About Masters of the Air. ³

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Bibliography
Bibliography

Air & Space.com, ³In the Footsteps of the Mighty Eighth.´ http://www.airspacemag.
com/military-aviation/mighty_eighth.html (accessed April 24, 2011)

Bomber Field¸ ³B-17 Flying Fortress,´ http://www.bomberfieldusa.com/specs.htm (accessed

April 12, 2010)

Laffyette.edu, ³Masters of the Air: About Masters of the Air.´ http://sites.lafayette.edu

/millerd/other-publications/masters-of-the-air/ (accessed April 12, 2011)

Michael P. Johnson, ³Reading the American Past.´ New York: Bedford/St Martin¶s 2009

Murry Williamson, ³War to be Won.´ Massachusetts: Presidents and Fellows of Harvard

College 2002c

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