Black Monday: The Eighth Air Force's 250th Combat Mission

it was March the 6th 1944 and the airmen of the United States 8th Air Force were conducting their 250th mission of the Second World War the mission was important not just because of the milestone being the eighth 250th mission but also because of the enormous size of the raid a stunning 1758 airplanes involved 814 bomber aircraft and 944 fighter aircraft to that date the largest air Armada ever assembled for a single mission in world history and it wasn't just the missions great size of the milestone of the 250th mission that made the mission interesting the 8th Air Force was attacking the very heart of the German Reich they were bombing the German capital city of Berlin in broad daylight Berlin was arguably the most heavily defended target that the 8th Air Force would face during the Second World War and the 250th Bomber mission changed the face of that war but at great cost the mission that became known as Black Monday deserves to be remembered it was not the first Allied bombing raid on Berlin area Bomber Command had been carrying out raids some very large on the German capital since 1940 it was not the first u.s. 8th Air Force raid on Berlin 3 days earlier some 300 bombers had flown a mission there but the raid on Berlin March 6 1944 was the first u.s. daylight bombing raid in force over the German capital a rate of unprecedented scale over what Hitler's most well defended targets some 500 miles from the 8th Air Forces bases in East Anglia it was a mission intended in the words of Eadie Miller of b-17 copilot in the 303rd bomber group to let Hitler know that the 8th Air Force existed the American strategic bombing strategy in the Second World War was designed around the Norden bombsight the remarkable device used an analogue computer the calculator the planes ground speed and direction it was connected directly to the planes autopilot the vice promised the ability to bomb accurately from high altitudes that was unprecedented but the device depended upon sighting the target to be used accurately he had to be used during the day daylight raiding made the US planes more vulnerable to anti-aircraft and the Bombers of the Royal air who preferred night raids that were less accurate but subjected the Bombers to fewer risks previous to 1944 Bombers of the eighth Air Force were forced to conduct raids deep into Germany without fighter escort small fighter aircraft simply did not have the fuel capacity to accompany the large four-engine bombers so far from their bases bombers instead can attend high altitude to protect them from the flak of the heavy anti-aircraft guns and tight bomber formations and the Dozen heavy machine guns carried by the Boeing b-17 Flying Fortresses and consolidated b-24 liberators to stave off the attacks by German focke-wulf fw 190 and Messerschmitt Bf 109 fighters the result was brutal to the air crews the German fighters firing heavy cannons with exploding shells an increasingly accurate German anti-aircraft fire took a massive toll on the US bomber aircraft and their crews a raid on October 14th 1943 against a ball-bearing Factory in the Bavarian city of Schweinfurt had resulted in the loss of nearly a quarter of the b-17 bombers on the raid a loss so dreadful that it became known to the 8th Air Force as Black Thursday in 1942 and 43 a bomber crew of the 8th Air Force had a less than one in five chance of completing their 25 mission combat tour meaning that some 80% would wind up killed captured or wounded so badly that they would be sent home army aviators had the highest casualty rate of the u.s. armed forces but the Allied bomber offensive had changed in 1944 long-range capable fighters such as the North American p-51 D's and Republic p-47 s equipped with droppable supplemental fuel tanks started to become available in large numbers allowing fighter protection for bombers even on raids deep into Germany for the previous two years the others have been trying to [ __ ] the German Luftwaffe by attacking aircraft of production the strategy had largely been a failure forcing Germany to relocate some production but not slowing their output of airplanes in fact German production of fighter aircraft increased throughout the war and the bf 109 became the most produced fighter aircraft in history but with the availability of long-range fighter aircraft capable of challenging the fighters of the Luftwaffe the 8th Air Force's new commander legendary pilot James Harold Jimmy Doolittle plan to draw the pilots of the Luftwaffe into a battle and destroy them in a war of attrition where bomber groups once avoided enemy fighters now they were seeking to force them to engage the raid on the six started with clear weather for takeoff something that Captain William R Obie O'Brien of the 363rd Fighter Squadron described as unique for England the raid was massive following Doolittle strategy of maximum effort I meant that deploying every aircraft that was deemed combat ready the entire bomber train stretched out over 93 miles the bomber force was divided into three air divisions and more than two dozen bomber groups flying from bases throughout East Anglia the 1st and 3rd air divisions were comprised of b-17s and so were grouped together with the 242 b-17s of the 3rd air division following the wake of the 262 b-17s of the 1st they were followed by the 2nd air division comprised of 226 b-24 who were targeting aircraft factories in Gonzaga south of Berlin the dangers faced by the crews were starkly illustrated when a b24 of the 390 second bombardment group crashed on takeoff killing its entire crew for the rest of the Bombers the trip from bases in Britain to their targets in Berlin would take nearly nine hours anti-aircraft fire the dreaded flak attacked the groups for the moment they crossed over the enemy coast the clear weather gave out over the continent with low scattered clouds making navigation difficult O'Brien noted that he hadn't seen a recognizable landmark since the zygors EBA in Holland in the scattered clouds the 1st and 3rd air divisions became separated the navigator on the lead plane of the 1st division then made a mistake failing to account for crossing headwinds he led the first air divisions south of their intended route the Navigator of the lead plane of the 3rd Air Division made the correct calculations putting the two divisions on different courses the difference would result in tragedy for the more than 2,400 men in the third division German radar had picked up the bomber groups across the channel and recognised the gap between the two divisions and concentrated their fighters on the 3rd division the Allies assuming the 1st division would be the first to encounter the German defenses had massed their defensive fighters over that division the German fighters had to intercept the Americans were now able to attack the third division defended by just eight p-47 fighters with more than a hundred me-109 s and FW 190s the unit the bore the brunt of the attack was the ban of the third Air Division bombers of combat wing thirteen B of the 418 squadron of the hundreth bomber group based at RAF Thorpe Abbott's in Norfolk ten bombers were shot down to the first attack having studied the American bombers the Germans favored attacking from the front where the Bombers were most vulnerable with a closing speed in excess of 200 yards per second the attack looked took less than a minute an attacking FW 190 collided with a bomber from the hundredth nicknamed the Nelson King nearly tearing off the Bombers rear stabilizer badly damaged with only two engines operating the crew realized they would be easily picked off if they tried to make it home alone they dropped their bombs to reduce weight and followed the rest of the formations over Berlin in all 34 of the 242 bombers of the third division did not make it home how did 21 were damaged 3 beyond repair 15 of the losses were from the hundredth bomber group which thereafter became known as the bloody hundreth but the navigation issues had a surprising impact over Berlin the 48 p-51 B's of the 357th fighter group including Obie O'Brien's had missed their rendezvous with the Bombers over shooting Berlin when they got their bearings they made 180-degree turn bring him into Berlin from the east it was a fortunate mistake as he came over Berlin they were in a perfect position to attack a group of Luftwaffe fighters they were heading for the Bombers of the first division Doolittle's plan had worked the Luftwaffe had no choice but to defend Berlin with all they had despite being a day raid they had for the first time sent up night fighters in daylight designed to track bombers at night using radar the twin-engine Messerschmitt 110 and 4/10 fighters were not as maneuverable as the p50 ones were easy targets O'Brien attacked enemy 110 that described as easy pickings the diverting plane crashed into a building and he later said he never saw such a fine explosion was plainly visible above 20,000 feet but his guns jammed after that he was forced to make for home fighter opposition was described in action report says some of the fierce of the war the Germans deployed as many as a thousand fighters I'm making as many as five sorties a b-17 of the 457 Bomb Group piloted by Lieutenant Eugenie Whelan was the victim of an attack by an emmy 109 Whelan's plane exploded crashing of the bomber piloted by Lieutenant Roy graves out of both crews only the tail gunner of grave crew survived was captured held as a P o w the flak was thick over Berlin lieutenant burned elma Corps pilot of a b-17 nicknamed Thunderbird of the 359 Bomb Group said over the target it looked like the fourth of July flak bursting in red flashes and billing that black smoke all around us the flak cover Berlin was the most accurate and most heavy flak we ever got into it seemed almost thick enough to drop your wheels and taxi around on it the raid which historian Donald L Miller called the greatest air battle ever came at a huge cost for the 8th Air Force 69 bombers and 11 fighters did not make it home several more manage to return to their bases but were damaged beyond repair among them the Nelson King hundreds more took significant damage monke course Thunderbird took hits to three of its four engines in both its vertical and horizontal stabilizers but his 350 ninth Bomb Group benefited from fighter cover throughout and all of its bombers returned home they were among the lucky though the losses on Black Monday far exceeded the losses of Black Thursday the previous October the 250th raid of the 8th Air Force represented the deadliest day for the 8th Air Force in the Second World War even worse the weather and disruption by the Luftwaffe meant that most of the bombing attacks were off target Aled headlines claimed that Berlin was without power like gas or telephone service but the bombing itself was actually ineffective at Miller noted that photo showed that not one of the 303rd bomber groups bombs if their target but Black Monday nevertheless represented a turning point in the war despite their grievous losses to the 8th Air Force the losses for the German Luftwaffe were much worse losing nearly 170 fighters that day in the battle of attrition the Allies had a training pipeline for their crews at a manufacturing base that allowed them to make good their losses the Germans stretched thin across multiple fronts did not between January 1944 when Jimmy Doolittle took over command of the 8th Air Force in June 1944 when the Allies invaded Normandy the German Luftwaffe lost more than a thousand experienced pilots in combat Jimmy Doolittle had drawn them into a battle from which they would never recover Herman Goering supreme commander of the German air force was reported to have said after the war the day I saw those Mustangs over Berlin I knew the war was lost you I hope you enjoyed this episode of the history guy short snippets of forgotten history 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Channel: The History Guy: History Deserves to Be Remembered

Views: 372,903

Keywords: history, the history guy, history guy, wwii, world war ii, us history, military history, us army air force, us eighth air force

Id: YxncrEvurpc

Length: 13min 16sec (796 seconds)

Published: Fri Jan 24 2020