Subject: Bomber Series--Boeing B-17 Fortress (21 of 27)

From: [email-masked] (joseph.f.baugher)
Date: 7 Sep 94 00:36:38 GMT

It was to be in the European theatre of operation that the B-17 Flying 
Fortress would acquire its reputation.  

The Eighth Air Force was formed in Britain to carry out daylight 
bombing raids against German targets in Europe.  These raids were to 
be carried out by unescorted Fortresses flying at high altitude in 
tight formations for protection against enemy fighters.  The defensive 
firepower of the B-17 was thought to be sufficient to fend off 
Luftwaffe attacks.  At the same time that the USAAF carried out its 
daylight attacks, the Royal Air Force was to fly coordinated nighttime 
raids.  

The first Eighth Air Force units arrived in Britain on May 12, 1942.  
The first Flying Fortress, B-17E serial number 41-9085, arrived at 
Prestwick in Scotland on July 1, 1942.  The first Flying Fortress raid 
over Europe was launched on August 17, 1942 by 18 B-17Es of the 97th 
Bombardment Group against railroad marshaling yards at 
Rouen-Sotteville in France.  Twelve planes made the actual attack and 
the remaining six flew a diversionary sweep up the coast.  Brig Gen 
Ira Eaker flew along on this raid in B-17E 41-9023 "Yankee Doodle".  
The formation was escorted by Spitfires.  No opposition was 
encountered from the Luftwaffe.  

On August 19, twenty four Fortresses took part in a raid on the German 
airfield at Abbeville in support of the disastrous raid at Dieppe.  
All planes returned safely to base, but the landing force at Dieppe
was decimated.  

The next ten raids went fairly well, with only two planes being lost.  

Deteriorating weather and the needs of the North African front caused 
a change in plans and most of the Eighth Air Force B-17s had to be 
diverted to the fight against Rommel.  The two most experienced bomber 
groups, the 97th and 301st were committed to *Operation Torch* as the 
nucleus of the newly-formed Twelfth Air Force.  On September 20, 1942, 
General James Doolittle formed the nucleus of the 12th Air Force in 
England, and early in October the 97th, 99th, 301st, and 2nd 
Bombardment Groups were transferred to the new formation.  The air war 
against the Germans in Europe had to be given a lower priority.  

In October 1942, attention of the depleted 8th Bomber Command was 
concentrated against German submarine pens situated along the French 
coast.  These pens were constructed of thick concrete and were highly 
resistant to bomb damage.  The attacks against these pens were largely 
ineffectual.  Many raids against the sub pens had to be scrubbed on 
account of bad weather, and those raids which were carried out were 
often inaccurate because of poor visibility over the target.  The 
bombing campaign against the submarine pens was extremely costly in 
terms of lost airplanes and crews and had no real effect upon the 
German submarine campaign.  

On January 3, 1943 the new bombing-on-the-leader technique was 
introduced.  Instead of each plane dropping its bombs individually, 
all bombardiers released their bombs when the saw the bombs leave the 
bay of the lead aircraft.  This technique usually resulted in better 
accuracy, since the most skilled bombardier was generally in the lead 
plane.  

The successful completion of the North African campaign resulted in 
the resumption of the bomber offensive against the Germans in northern 
Europe.  The first USAAF mission over Germany was a raid on January 
27, 1943 against the U-boat construction yards at the port of 
Wilhelmshaven.  It was carried out by a force of B-17Fs drawn from the 
92st, 303rd, 305th, and 306th Bomb Groups.  

March 18 saw first use of Automatic Flight Control Equipment (AFCE) in 
a raid on the Bremer Vulkan shipbuilding yards at Vegesack.  AFCE was 
a system in which the Norden bombsight controlled the aircraft during 
the final bomb run via a link with the autopilot.  Luftwaffe fighters 
put up strong opposition that day, but their attacks were 
uncoordinated.  

On April 17, 1943, the Focke-Wulf plant at Bremen was attacked by a 
force of 115 Fortresses.  The Luftwaffe came out in full strength that 
day, and 16 B-17s did not return, the heaviest loss rate to date.  
After that date, German fighter attacks began to become increasingly 
more effective and better coordinated, and bomber losses frequently 
were over ten percent of the attacking force, especially whenever the 
Fortresses went beyond the limited radius of their fighter escorts.  
The German fighters began to attack the Fortress formations from the 
"twelve o'clock high" spot directly head-on.  This innovation was 
supposedly introduced by Luftwaffe Oberleutnant Egon Mayer, who had 
noticed that the firepower from the B-17 was weak in the nose area, 
with there being significant blind spots that neither the nose guns 
nor the top-turret gunner could adequately cover from the front.  
Additional guns were hastily added to the nose in an attempt to beef 
up the forward firepower.  However, the much-publicized vulnerability 
to frontal attacks was due more to the lack of armor that was properly 
positioned to protect the crew against gunfire coming from the front 
than it was due to the lack of enough front-firing guns.  Another 
problem was the unfortunate tendency of the B-17 to catch fire when 
hit by flak or cannon fire, which was never really cured.  

In June of 1943, the famous "Memphis Belle" (B-17F-10-BO serial number 
41-24485 of the 324th Bombardment Squadron of the 91st Bombardment 
Group) became the first B-17 to complete its crew's quota of 25 
missions.  A film crew had gone along on the *Memphis Belle's* mission 
to Wilhelmshaven and this film was widely shown throughout the war.  
After the last mission, the *Memphis Belle* returned to the United 
States and carried out a morale-building tour selling US War Bonds.  

The next phase of the air war against Germany was to be the 
destruction of its aviation industry.  A critical part of the strategy 
was to be the elimination of the German ball-bearing industry, since 
just about any machine which had moving parts required ball-bearings.  
On July 24-31, 1943, the 8th Air Force attacked 16 major industrial 
targets in the greatest sustained air offensive to date.  On August 
17, 1943, a simultaneous attack was carried out on the ball-bearing 
factories at Schweinfurt and the Messerschmitt factories at 
Regensburg.  It was the deepest penetration into Germany to that date 
and was the largest force of B-17s yet dispatched.  The losses were 
catastrophic--the 8th AF lost 60 aircraft out of a force of 376 
bombers.  The crews claimed 288 German fighters shot down, which was 
undoubtedly grossly exaggerated.  

The Regensburg force went on to North Africa, and returned to England 
via the Focke Wulf works at Bordeaux.  The total losses for the week 
were over hundred B-17s.  Losses like this could clearly not be 
sustained--a couple of more weeks like this, and the 8th Air Force 
would be gone.  

During August and September of 1943, the new B-17G began to arrive in 
England.  The new chin turret helped meet the head-on attacks by the 
German fighters.  

On September 6, a force of over 400 bombers hit the VKF ball-bearing 
works at Stuttgart.  Weather prevented the attacking force from seeing 
the target, and bombs were released over the city in a haphazard 
fashion.  A total of 45 bombers were lost to fighters and to accurate 
flak.  

On October 14, 1943, Schweinfurt was visited again, and 60 Fortresses 
were lost out of a force of 291.  

In late 1943, the appalling losses and the meager results that had 
been obtained led USAAF commanders to rethink the wisdom of continuing 
with the daylight bombing offensive.  Winston Churchill was never a 
believer in precision daylight bombing and wanted the USAAF to go over 
to nighttime raids, as the RAF had done from the start.  In spite of 
the attacks on the German aircraft industry, it seemed that the 
numbers of German fighters rising to meet the attacking Fortresses 
actually increased rather than decreased.  The German aircraft 
industry was amazingly recuperative.  An efficient German labor force, 
plus the forced labor of captives, was able quickly to repair the 
damage and to get the damaged facilities back in operation within a 
few days.  In addition, a very effective decentralization program was 
carried out under the direction of Minister of Armaments Albert Speer.  

It soon became apparent that without fighter escort, deep penetrations 
into Germany would have to be seriously curtailed, if not abandoned 
altogether.  However, in spite of extreme losses, the B-17Fs were 
never turned back from a raid by enemy fighters or flak, although bad 
weather caused frequent mission cancellations and callbacks.  During 
the latter weeks of 1943, the 8th Air Force restricted its missions to 
targets that were within the range of the escort fighters that were 
beginning to become available, and there were no penetrations into 
Germany.  

In spite of the high losses, the decision was made to continue with 
the attacks on German industry.  In late 1943, the US Strategic Air 
Forces were organized in Europe under the command of LtGen Carl Spaatz 
to carry out heavy bomber attacks from England and Italy and to 
coordinate their efforts with the night attacks of the RAF.  

Effective fighter escort did not appear until late 1943 with the 
arrival of large numbers of Republic P-47 Thunderbolts and Lockheed 
P-38 Lightnings.  These aircraft were able to escort the B-17 
considerable distances into Germany.  The North American P-51D Mustang 
was the most effective of all the escort fighters, and began to appear 
in the spring of 1944.  It was able to escort the bombers all the way 
to Berlin.  

During the winter in Europe, the weather is generally atrocious.  In 
order to permit bombing during inclement or overcast conditions, a 
number of Fortresses were fitted with a British-devised radar 
installation known as H2S which scanned the grounds under the clouds 
and which could be read by a trained operator like a map.  The 
American version of this device was known as H2X "Bombing Through 
Overcast" radar, and was installed in the fuselage belly in place of 
the ball turret.  These planes acted as pathfinders, the remaining 
aircraft in the formation releasing their bombs on visual signals from 
the radar-equipped Fortresses.  This equipment was used for the first 
time in a raid on the port at Emden.  

On January 11, 1944, a 600-plane force of bombers were sent against 
German aircraft industry targets.  Because of the weather, only 238 
B-17s actually succeeding in reaching the target.  Sixty B-17s were 
lost.  

On February 20, 1944, five days of coordinated USAAF/RAF assaults on 
the German aircraft industry began, that historians later named "The 
Big Week".  On that day, the first thousand-plane raid took place, 
with fighter plane factories at Brunswick, Oschersleben, Bernberg, and 
Leipzig being attacked.  The cost of the "Big Week"was heavy, with 244 
heavy bombers and 33 fighter planes being lost.  However, these raids 
played an important role in helping to reduce the strength of the 
Luftwaffe, paving the way for the D-Day landings.  The onset of bad 
weather brought an end to the "Big Week", which was merciful since 
crews were exhausted and losses had been high.  Nevertheless, during 
this offensive, the back of the Luftwaffe was broken.  After this 
date, the Luftwaffe was never able to throw up the same amount of 
strength that it did before, and was generally effective only on 
sporadic occasions or when targets of critical importance were being 
attacked.  

The first B-17 raid on Berlin took place on March 4, 1944.  P-51 
Mustang fighters escorted the bombers all the way to Berlin and back.  
On March 6, 600 B-17s returned to Berlin.  The Luftwaffe was out in 
force, and accounted for 69 B-17s and 11 fighter escorts.  

In May of 1944, priority shifted to oil.  On May 12, 1944, attacks 
were begun on German oil-production facilities and synthetic 
oil-production centers.  These attacks caused a sudden and 
catastrophic drop in German fuel and lubricant supplies.  In only two 
months of attacks, German oil production was cut in half.  Especially 
successful were the attacks on the stubborn oil production facility of 
Ploesti in Rumania, which had been so resistant to previous attacks.  
By the time that Ploesti was taken by the Russians, 90 percent of this 
Rumanian oil production facility had been destroyed.  Destruction of 
the synthetic oil centers had the additional beneficial side effect of 
cutting the supplies of nitrogen and methanol, which essential in the 
manufacture of explosives.  The postwar Strategic Bombing Survey 
judged that the oil offensive was the most effective of all the 
strategic bombing attacks in helping to shorten the war.  

The B-17 was less widely used in the Mediterranean theatre.  The brunt 
of the air war in the Mediterranean was borne by the B-24 Liberator, 
although a few B-17s groups were also involved.  The four Bombardment 
Groups that had been diverted from the 8th Air Force to Africa 
participated in the Bizerta and Kasserine Pass battles in North 
Africa.  12th AF B-17s took part in the June 28 raid on Messina, the 
Sept 5 and 8 raids on Naples, and against the Wermacht counterattack 
at Salerno between Sept 13 and 18.  

Advances up the Italian boot brought German targets within the range 
of B-17s based in the Mediterranean theatre.  In November of 1943, the 
15th Air Force was organized to carry out raids on Germany from bases 
in Italy.  It resulted from a reorganization of Doolittle's 12th Air 
Force into the 15th Air Force with Doolittle in command, and the 9th 
Air Force with Lewis H. Brereton in command.  It was hoped that the 
15th AF stationed in the Mediterranean would be able to operate when 
the 8th was socked in by bad English weather.  The 9th AF would later 
move to England to serve as a tactical unit to take part in the 
invasion of Europe.  Once bases around Foggia in Italy became 
available, the 15th was able to reach targets in southern France, 
Germany, Poland, Czechoslovakia, and the Balkans, some of which were 
difficult to reach from England.  

The 15th Air Force began its operations on November 2, 1943, attacking 
the Messerschmitt factory at Weiner-Neustadt in Austria.  One of the 
important achievements of the 15th Air Force was the reduction of the 
oil Fields at Ploesti in July-August 1944.  

By the time of early 1945, the Wermacht and the Luftwaffe had been 
reduced to near impotence by the lack of fuel and supplies, due in no 
small part to the strategic bombing offensive against Germany carried 
out by the Lancaster, Halifax, and Stirling bombers of the RAF and the 
B-24 and B-17 bombers of the USAAF.  Due credit must be given to their 
crews who bravely went out day after day even in spite of appalling 
losses.  

Sources:

  Flying Fortress, Edward Jablonski, Doubleday, 1965.

  Famous Bombers of the Second World War, Volume One, William
  Green, Doubleday, 1959.

  Boeing Aircraft Since 1916, Peter M. Bowers, Naval Institute
  Press, 1989.

  United States Military Aircraft Since 1909, Gordon Swanborough
  and Peter M. Bowers, Smithsonian, 1989.

  Boeing B-17E and F Flying Fortress, Charles D. Thompson,
  Profile Publications, 1966.

  American Combat Planes, Ray Wagner, Third Edition, Doubleday, 1982.

  Jane's Fighting Aircraft of World War II, Military Press, 1989.

Joe Baugher			**************************************
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