How The USAAF 8th Air Force Turned Defeat Into Victory - 1942-1944

on the 14th of October 1943 351 heavy bombers of the United States 8th Air Force left their bases in Britain and headed east deep into Nazi Germany their task was to destroy the ballbearing works in the Bavarian town of schweiner however the bomber stream was Savaged by lifer Fighters which preed upon the B7 flying fortresses without any fighter escorts the American bombers were shot out of the sky one by one when they reached swinford the bombing failed to cause serious damage to the ballbearing works altogether 77 b7s were either shot down or scrapped following the mission the heavy losses suffered by the eth Air Force LED this day to become known as black Thursday the dearle of black Thursday caused a crisis in Allied High command the Western allies invested vast resources into the anglo-american combin bomber offensive against Germany which they hoped would bring the Nazi war machine to its knes in fact RAF bomber command leader sarur Harris believed that the war could be won by bombing alone without the need for a land invasion of Mainland Europe yet as the bomber fleets suffered High casualty rates throughout 1943 Germany continued to put up a stiff fight while atting General German industry the bomber offensive failed to critically hinder German fighter output however black Thursday finally convinced the British and Americans to make necessary and in some cases long overdue changes during the winter of 1943 to 44 leadership of the combined bomber offensive was overhauled and important tactical changes introduced furthermore new technology would give a decisive advantage over the Luft buffer in 1944 this video will look at how the American component of the combined bomber offensive learned from initial mistakes and helped to turn the tide in the skies above Europe break break break contact the US 8th Air Force suspended an escorted daytime missions over Germany from late October 43 to February 44 contrary to popular belief this was as much to do with poor winter weather as it was with the losses suffered in 1943 nonetheless this pause allowed Allied leadership to take stock of their situation the commander-in-chief of the United States Army Air Forces General Henry Hap Arnold had publicly boasted to the press that the 14th of October raid on schweiner had been a huge success privately he was horrified by the massive losses suffered by the bombers and began considering alterations to the bomber offensive Arnold and his staff quickly concluded there were several things that could not be changed first the us aaf could not discontinue daytime bombing and join RAF bomber command in bombing solely at night the B17 Flying Fortress had been specifically designed to operate during daytime and the air Crews had been trained for that same purpose furthermore Arnold wanted to stay independent from the RAF and continuing to bomb at daytime was the best way to avoid having to share precious resources the second was the overall strategy behind the air campaign at the 1943 Casablanca conference the Western allies agreed that any invasion of German occupied France would only be successful if the Luft faffer could be neutralized thus the point blank directive was issued which guided the combined bomber offensive by late 1943 the LT raffer had not been defeated in fact enemy fighter strength continued to grow in 1942 German industry had produced 5,358 Fighters for the entire year by the end of the following year this number had nearly doubled to 10,059 despite the Americans joining the Allied bombing campaign the F was also similarly threatened by an increase in German night Fighters General Arnold and his staff could fix the biggest problem faced by the US aa's daytime bombers the lack of fighter escort Deep Over German territory Arnold had been a proponent that the Flying Fortress could defend itself against enemy interceptors but the horrendous losses of 1943 finally convinced him that the bommer streams needed escorting Fighters which could make it all the way to Germany and back in the summer of 1943 Arnold wrote a memo to his Deputy Lieutenant General Barney Giles with a straightforward message within this next 6 months you have got to get a fighter to protect our bombers whether you use an existing type or have to start from scratch is your problem get to work on this right away because by January 44 I want fighter escort for all our bombers from the UK into Germany the supermarine Spitfire Mark 9 seemed like the perfect candidate for a long-range escort fighter It upgraded Merlin 61 engine along with better drop tanks now allowed the Spitfire to fly over 800 m round trips photo reconnaissance Spitfires regularly overflew Germany from the UK which seemingly confirmed that it could do the job of escorting bom strein as such General Arnold sent a letter to air Chief Marshall Sir Charles portal on the 14th of October 1943 inquiring whether RAF fighter command could spare enough Spitfires to escort americ American bombers over Germany unfortunately the chief of fighter command was the unimaginative and frankly incompetent air marshall s Trafford Lee mallerie fighter command's leading Ace Johnny Johnson described Lee mallerie as a man who did not pretend to know about fighter tactics despite his position he fundamentally misunderstood the capabilities of the Spitfire despite evidence that it could be done Lee mallerie was convinced that Britain's best fighter simply did not have the range to escort bombers to Germany and told air Chief Marshall portal to pass this message to Arnold furthermore Lee maler had a history of zealously hoarding his Fighters refusing to even consider lending them to the Americans and not even deploying them where they were most needed by the RAF most notably in Malta luckily a major breakthrough had been made back in the United States which could solve the longrange escort problem in early 1940 the British government was looking to beat up its fighter force and asked North American Aviation a small company in California if they would produce P40 warhawks under license from the Curtis Wright Corporation although the Warhawk was a capable aircraft at the time North American offered to produce a new modern fighter instead in January 1940 the ironically German born designer Edco smood Drew up the first sketches of what would become the P-51 Mustang the first prototype was produced Within 30 days and the British government was so impressed that it ordered 620 Mustangs the first of which arrived in the UK in October of 1941 however the early models of the P-51 had a major and fatal flaw the Allison engine was simply not powerful enough and could not perform at higher altitudes therefore the RAF mostly used the Mustang in lowlevel operations while the US aaf had no interest in the aircraft this changed in in October of 1942 when Ron Harker a test pilot for Rolls-Royce suggested the Mustang's engine be replaced with the new British built Rolls-Royce Merlin 61 the same engine which powered the Spitfire which produced stunning results and a glorious example of Anglo American cooporation the new and improved p-51b was now faster than the German fw190 and bf19 Fighters at 28,000 ft and above furthermore it had a faster dive speed and quicker roll roll rate than its counterparts along with a tighter turn radius it was cheaper to build than the p47 Thunderbolt which was the Workhorse of the us aaf at the time when drop tanks were added it had a longer range than the Thunderbolt Spitfire and P38 Lightning which was also being considered on a full load of drop tanks the p-51b could fly an astonishing 1,474 Mi meaning a roundtrip from Eastern England to the Polish border was possible the us aaf immediately ordered 1,350 Mustangs but these were not ready until the summer of 1943 finally General Arnold realized his new Sleek fighter would be a game changer and attached all available Mustangs to the Eighth Air Force at long last the Allies had an available fighter that could escort daylight bombing raids all the way to the Target and back as an added bonus the Mustang could outperform anything the LT fer could throw it yet General Arnold also knew the Mustang would not be a war-winning weapon unless it could be deployed properly to see this through Supreme Allied Commander Dwight Eisenhower and Arnold decided to reshuffle and restructure the leadership of the combined bomber offensive the commander of the e8th Air Force since it arrived in England in late 1942 was Arnold's old friend Lieutenant General Ira AKA like Arnold AKA strongly supported the strategy of Precision daylight bombing no matter the cost to air Crews he believed that his b7s could overwhelm enemy defenses without the need for fighter escort AKA even proposed stripping some flying fortresses of their bombing equipment to add extra machine guns in order to turn them into gunships that could support the bombers Lieutenant General AKA proved to be inflexible and showed a fundamental misunderstanding of the role of the fighter throughout 1943 Arnold grew frustrated that akr's solu solution to mounting losses was to simply request more bombers and more air Crews while RAF bomber command continued to develop Innovative tactics and Technology such as G OBO and H2S radar The Eighth Air Force used the same basic tactics for the entirety of 1943 whenever aom stream did require a fighter escort AKA instructed the fighters to provide close escort essentially shackling them to the bombers and making the fighters less effective at driving off enemy aircraft however AKA also gradually evolved in his view on strategic bombing after black Thursday AKA cabled Arnold to request that every single Reserve fighter be sent to the eth Air Force unfortunately for AA his Evolution had come far too late for Eisenhower and Arnold as newly appointed Supreme Allied Commander Eisenhower wanted to install his own handpicked staff to lead the American component of the bombing campaign in preparation for Operation Overlord the following month the Western allies met in Cairo to finalize the plan for Overlord here Arnold unveiled his plan to restructure the American bombing campaign he proposed the creation of the US Strategic Air Forces in Europe which would unite all US aaf Air Forces in Europe under one leader while remaining independent of the RAF this new position would also unshackle the air forces from US Army command eventually setting the stage for a fully independent us US Air Force Eisenhower and Arnold were in complete agreement on who should command this new post Lieutenant General Carl spartz sparts had become commander of the 15th Air Force in the Mediterranean theater and his strategic Acumen was universally respected by both the Americans and the British acting on his recommendation Eisenhower chose Major General Jimmy dlle as the new commander of the eightth Air Force dittle was an aggressive commander who had the right tactical vision for the Strategic air campaign especially regarding the use of Fighters do little propos letting escorting Fighters fly far ahead of the bom stream to take the fight to the lift buffer before they could attack the Heavies finally the weight of American industry was also able to churn out vast quantities of aircraft which replenish the losses suffered in the first year of the bombing campaign these aircraft were flown by pilots who were increasingly better trained and practiced than their German counterparts although the LT waffer was receiving plenty of new Fighters the Germans were falling behind in Pilot training even as early as 1943 by February of 44 the ler was forced to cut training Time by 40% in order to keep up with attrition rates by the end of 44 German Pilots were receiving an average of 170 hours of training compared to 300 hours for American Pilots by February of 1944 the US 8th Air Force had fresh lead leadership new tactics better aircraft and Superior Pilots compared to the previous year the harsh lessons learned during 1943 had laid the groundwork for a Resurgence in the American component of the combined bomber offensive which was about to take on its biggest challenge yet operation argument or big week would be the ultimate test to determine whether these changes would be enough to win the Skies over Europe we would like to thank our supporters on patreon who helped make these videos possible welcome to all our new patrons and a special thanks to our patron of the week Aaron Roberts our favorite Patron comment on this week's video is from Darth rust who says a captivating narrative you can almost trace the individual threads from this to what was reported in the Strategic bombing survey and from there into the modern evolution of the air tasking order cycle it's sometimes profound how much of the World War II lessons are still in practice today we've just updated our patreon and all patrons now get early access to all our videos completely added and sponsor free you can also get regular updates about what we're up to behind the scenes and have the chance to vote in polls that drive our content as submit questions for our Q&A videos on the Intel report if you would like to be part of our patreon community and get access to patreon exclusive benefits follow the link in the description below

Channel: The Intel Report

Views: 270,663

Keywords: ww2, documentary, history, strategic bombing, combined bomber offensive, usaaf, b-17 flying fortress, air force, 8th air force, b-24 liberator, schweinfurt, regensburg, big week, spitfire

Id: wsiRPmqH4kI

Length: 14min 25sec (865 seconds)

Published: Fri Sep 29 2023