Issue 49.13
Those people in high military planning places who thought that daylight, long range, strategic bombing would never work almost had their way. Heads that were more level and forward thinking prevailed in a sliver thin way at the beginning of World War 2. A few Flying Fortresses were built to start with. They proved their worth in other war theatres but now they must prove their worth in the big league of ariel warfare, the war over Germany. The American heavy bomber effort was maddeningly slow to build up in numbers and crews. The first bombing missions flown by B-17’s and B-24’s were to German military installations in occupied France and the Low Countries. These missions were mostly escorted by short range American and British fighter planes. Bomber losses were mostly tolerable. Targets were Submarine pens, German air fields, war material factories and even Ford and General Motors truck manufacturing plants located in Belgium. These American bombers were built for the purpose of destroying German war material manufacturing capacity. As the supply of four engine bombers both B-17’s and B-24’s and the number of trained crews increased, they were now able to go on missions further into the heart of Germany. Missions further into Germany became more effective and more costly. There were a few missions where three hundred bombers were sent out and sixty were shot down. In addition, many bombers came home as complete wrecks that would never fly again and also many wounded and dead came home.
During one ferocious battle, the tail gunner of one crew crawled up to the waist position leaving a trail of blood as he dragged himself alone. The waist gunners thought he came for medical help but he shouted above the din “I’m out of ammunition. Help me get a box back to my tail guns.” At that rate our losses were twenty per cent which meant that there would be a complete turnover of bombers and crews every fifth mission. For the last half of 1943 and the first half of 1944 production of bombers and crews was hard pressed to build up bomber numbers. Missions sent out at that time would encounter perhaps five times as many enemy fighters as the number of bombers. German fighters were pulled from the Russian and Italian fronts. On some of these wild missions, American gunners claimed to have shot down over two hundred enemy fighters. The Germans were so desperate that they even threw into battle the black painted night fighters. American industry provided a steady buildup of Flying Fortresses and Liberators and the dozens of training bases provided the replacement crews. There was one mission that was a text book example of how effective one mission could be. The crewmen were now professionals. On July 24th, 1943 the mission was a very far distance to Heroya, Norway. This turned out to be bomber people’s dream. This was an island connected to the mainland by a causeway. On the island, the Germans had built many buildings to house the means to electrically refine aluminum and to process magnesium and nitrates. The facility was not yet in operation with much machinery awaiting installation. All of the 570 tons fell on the target and completely destroyed everything including a ship about to be unloaded at the dock.
One Fortress was lost but it made it the short distance to Sweden and the crew was safe, but interned for the war’s duration.