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The Air War in EuropeStrategic Bombing Campaign
The Most Hazardous Duty for an American Serviceman During World War II
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In Memory of:
1Lt. Paul Dwyer; Navigator; B-24 Liberator;
448th Bombardment Group, 8th USAAF - 30 Missions (1944)
T/Sgt Thomas E. Bourgeois, Jr.; Flight Engineer/Aerial Gunner
B-26 Martin Marauder; 558th Bombardment Sqdrn.,
9th USAAF - 13 Missions (1945)
(1918 – 2011)2
(1921 – 2009)
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1939 – 1942 in the Air over Europe
German / British initial bombing campaign
Luftwaffe invasion of Norway, Denmark, Holland, Belgium & France
Battle of Britain The “Blitz”
British daylight bombing Heavy Losses
Arrival of Air Marshall Arthur Harris “Bomber Harris” Controversial figure
Switch to night bombing – Large Cities 1,000 plane raid – Cologne – May 1942 Displace the population
The arrival of the Americans June 1942
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Americans in EuropeGoal to Help Support the British in the
Air Against Germany
American 8th USAAF elements arrive in England in June 1942
17 August 1942 – 1st American Bomber Raid over Europe
12 B-17’s Attack the railway marshaling yards at Rouen, France Co-Pilot - Major Paul Tibbets
End of December 194227 missions completed (2% loss)
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Boeing B – 17 Flying Fortress
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Data Statistics B – 17 Flying FortressHeavy – Strategic = 4 Engines
12,731 Built
Crew = 10
Pilot / Co-Pilot Bombardier Navigator Flight Engineer Radio Man Four Aerial Gunners
Bomb Capacity = 4,000 – 6,000 lbs. (fragmentation/incendiary)
2,100 mile range – 200 mph
Used primarily as a Daylight Bomber in both Europe and the Pacific
13 Machine Guns / .50 Cal
Officers (Lt. – Cpt.)
Enlisted (Sgt – TSgt)
Initially developed in early – mid 1930’s
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Consolidated B – 24 Liberator
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Data Statistics B – 24 LiberatorHeavy – Strategic = 4 Engines
18,482 Built (most of any bomber)
Crew = 10 Pilot / Co-Pilot Bombardier Navigator Flight Engineer Radio Man Four Aerial Gunners
Bomb Capacity = 6,000 – 8,000 lbs. (fragmentation/incendiary)
2,200 mile range – 220 mph 2,800 gallons of fuel (1/4 weight
of plane)
Used primarily as a Daylight Bomber in both Europe and the Pacific
10 Machine Guns .50 Cal
Henry Ford – Willow Run Plant Half a mile long! Every 63 minutes a B-24
rolled out!
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Avro Lancaster Heavy Bomber
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Avro Lancaster Heavy BomberHeavy – Strategic = 4 Engines
7,377 Built
Designed after war began!
Entered service in 1942
Crew = 7 Pilot Bomb “Aimer” Navigator Flight Engineer Radio Man Two Aerial Gunners
Bomb Capacity = 12,000 lbs. (Tallboy / Bunker Buster)
Used primarily as a Night Bomber
10 - 12 Twin Machine Guns of either .303 or .50 Cal.
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B-29 “Superfortress”
Served only in the Pacific!
Longer Range – 6,000 miles
Larger Bomb Load Capacity
Pressurized Cabin
Used Radar
16,000 lbs. Bomb Capacity
3,970 Built
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Casablanca Conference, North AfricaJanuary 1943
Concept of “Round – the – Clock “ bombing Germans will get no rest or time to repair
damage to factories, rail centers or infrastructure
8th USAAF Daylight Precision bombing Norden Bombsight Factories / Industrial targets High Altitude (20,000’+)
RAF Bomber Command Nighttime Area bombing Cities – population centers Low Altitude (under 10,000’)
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“Keep ‘em Flying”
Life Magazine Full Spread Photographic Article
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Aircraft was not pressurized at high elevations!
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Body Armor Introduced / Not all Wore Parachutes!
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Pacific Theater Focused on Water Survival / Threat of Sharks!
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B-17 Aircrew Positions
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Average of Pilot’s / Co-Pilots
21 - 24 (Youngest = 19) Some College Volunteer High Attrition Rate in Training Search of adventure Wanted to avoid the Infantry!
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Bombardier / Navigator
Many were “washed out” of pilot training
Wanted to remain in the USAAF
Flight Pay a good incentive to stay with the USAAF
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Norden Bomb Sight
Bombardier and Bombsight actual fly aircraft on bomb run over target!
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B-17 Aircrew Positions
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Two months prior to the start of the Air War in Europe!
Gun Cameras
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Not really worried about the effects of smoking!!
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B-17 Aircrew Positions
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B-17 Aircrew Positions
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Waist Gunners / Open Windows / Plexiglas Later Added
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B-17 Aircrew Positions
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Ball Turret Gunner / Most Exposed Best Defensive Position for Twin 50 Cal. M.G.
Smallest crew member Only entered once in the air Retracted for take off and
landing Constant danger of “falling
out of aircraft” No “real” protection Possibility of death on crash
landings if aircraft damaged!!
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Mission Requirements for Each Airman
Royal Air Force Bomber Command
30 missions
6 months staff time
20 missions
Non-flight status
8th USAAF (Bombardment Units)
August 1942 – 25 missions
37% made it!
Memphis Belle - May 1943
Early 1944 – 30 missions
More aircrew available
January 1945 – 35 missions
Fighter Escort
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Captain Bob Morgan’s Crew
Memphis BelleMargaret Polk – Memphis, TN
Begin Missions on:
7 November 1942 – Brest, France (U-Boat Pens)
Completed Missions on:
17 May 1943 – Lorient, France(U-Boat Pens)
Transition to B-29’s In Pacific 26 Missions 1st Firebomb Mission on Tokyo!
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Jimmy Stewart
Overseas 21 Months8th USAAF – B-24’s
20 Combat Missions
5 Combat MissionsAerial Gunner / Film Producer
8th USAAF – B-17’s
& Clark Gable
Hollywood did it’s Part in World War II
“Frankly my dear, I don’t give a damn!”
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Airfields in England in World War II
Concentrated in East Anglia Closest to Germany!
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American (8th / 9th USAAF) Airfields in England
Kimbolton – B-17Seething – B-24
July 2008
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Seething, UK
July 2008
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Bomber Formations Over England
The “Judas Goat”War Weary Aircraft!
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1,000 Plane Raid 3 hours to clear
England!
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Creation of the Massive Bomber Formations10 Hours in the Air!
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Combat “Box” Formation
Focus the Greatest .50 Cal. Machine Gun Firepower Concentration Against
German Fighter Interceptors
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Straying Outside of the Bomber Formation on a Mission Bomb Run
13 November 1944
94th Bomb Group
Berlin Raid
Horizontal tail stabilizer hit by bomb from above!
No Chutes Observed!!
31 December 1944
100th Bomb Group - Hamburg Raid
Upper plane moved from formation – became impaled!
Planes crashed on German coast – 10 of the 20 crewmen survived including the pilot / co-pilot on the bottom aircraft!
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20 December 1943 – Bremen, Germany Raid
B-17 “Ye Old Pub” / 379th BG, Kimbolton, UK / 1st Mission!Heavily Damaged – Tail Assembly / Nose-Compass Destroyed Flying on Two-Engines / Half of Crew Dead or Wounded
Me-109 “Escorted” B-17 from Germany Back to the North Sea Coast / Did Not Shoot Plane Down!
Me-109 Pilot 1Lt. Franz Stigler (Ace) (L)
B-17 Pilot 2Lt. Charlie Brown (R)
Wings of the North Airshow July 2004 Both died in 2008
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Key Targets within Germany – Industrial / Military
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Fire Bombing of Hamburg, Germany, July 1943
One of the most destructive Allied raids on Germany in the whole of World War II
Major Port City / Shipyards / Armaments Industry
45 - 50,000 dead 55 – 60 % destroyed 250,000 homes / apartments destroyed 1500’ “tornado” of fire People suffocated in bomb cellars
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Ploesti, Romania
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Schweinfurt “Ball Bearing” Plant Raid
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Interdiction Missions - D-Day Preparations & After
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Air Crew Nightmare # 2 (Fighters #1!)
German Anti-Aircraft “Flak” - “Fliegerabwehrkanone ”
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German Anti-Aircraft “Flak” “Fliegerabwehrkanone ”
88 mm – 4 to 5 mile range upward
“Flak Towers”Built as tall as 18 – 20 Story Building
Berlin, Hamburg and Vienna Served as air-raid shelters, hospitals, barracks Not cost effective to demolish at end of war!
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Five of the Six Remaining Flak towers in Vienna, Austria
July 2014
Currently being used as:
• Rock Climbing Wall
• Aquarium• Storage Area• Office Building
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German Anti-Aircraft -- “Flak” Crews Older – injured men Fixed or mobile positions Younger crew members towards end of
the war – drafted at 15 – 16 years old! Pope Benedict XVI
Accounted for more Allied aircraft losses than any other cause by war’s end!
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Berlin – June, 2007Desperate for Food – Zoo
Animals are Eaten!
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Winkel Turme (Towers) 2015
Darmstadt Rail Yards - 2015 Built to provide protection during
air raids to railyard and
factory workers –capacity 50 - 500
people (size difference)
Kaiserslautern
Darmstadt
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Neunkirchen - 2015
More than 200 made between 1936 and 1944 – Five Different Types
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Flares
Casualties on board!
Priority for landing!
Ambulances & Medical personnel on field!
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Cambridge American Cemetery, England
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B-17G Flying Fortress “Banshee”
15 October 1944 - 27,000ft
Hit by German Flak over Cologne (Koln) Germany
Bombardier Blown out – KIA
Navigator Wounded
Pilot - 1Lt. Lawrence DeLancey
Flew aircraft back to England Came in for a “normal” landing
Silver Star
Navigator – 2Lt. Raymond LeDoux
Ignored Wounds to plot return Distinguished Flying Cross
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Seriously Damaged Aircraft – Two Options
Switzerland / Sweden
2,000 American aircrew interned during
the war
Impounded the aircraft
Men kept in semi-prison conditions
Some tried to escape
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American Fighter Escort Aircraft / Luftwaffe Fighter Aircraft
P-51 “Mustang”
Fw-190
P-47 “Thunderbolt”
Me-262
Me-109
“Drop Tanks” introduced in 1944
“Drop Tanks” extended the range
of the fighter escorts
P-38 “Lightning”
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German Fighter “Aces” (1939 – 1945)
Adolf Galland Chief German Fighter Command 104 Victories (5 in Me-262) Post war aviation businessman Friends with his former enemies
Erich Hartmann 352 victories East & West Highest aerial
ace in History!
Gerhard Barkhorn 301 victories East & West
Gunter Rall 275 victories East (3 in west)
The top three German “Aces” all survived the War!!
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American Fighter “Aces” (1942 – 1945)
Richard Bong – 40 Pacific - P-38 Lightning
Thomas McGuire – 38 Pacific - P-38 Lightning
David McCampbell – 37 Pacific – F6F Hellcat
Francis Gabreski – 28 Europe P-47 Thunderbolt
POW July 1944!
Robert Johnson – 27 Europe P-47 Thunderbolt
Broke Rickenbacher’sWWI Record
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1LT. Bill Overstreet - Spring 1944 Flying his “Berlin Express” – P-51-C Escorting bombers over France Chases and shoots down a Me-109G after flying
under the Eiffel Tower in Paris
The Story of the “Bad Angel”
Lt. Louis Curdes.
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He arrived at his 82nd Fighter Group, 95th Fighter Squadron in April 1943
and was assigned a P-38 Lightning. Ten days later he shot down three
German Messerschmitt Bf-109 fighters.
A few weeks later, he downed two more German Bf -109’s. In less than a month of combat, Louis was an Ace.
During the next three months, Louis shot down an Italian Mc.202 fighter
and two more Messerschmitt’s before his luck ran out. A German fighter
shot down his plane on August 27, 1943 over Salerno, Italy.
Captured by the Italians, he was sent to a POW camp near Rome. No
doubt this is where he thought he would spend the remaining years of the
war. It wasn’t to be. A few days later, the Italians surrendered. Louis and a
few other pilots escaped before the Nazis could take control of the camp. One might think that such harrowing experiences would have taken the
fight out of Louis, yet he volunteered for another combat tour. This time,
Uncle Sam sent him to the Philippines where he flew P-51 Mustangs.
Soon after arriving in the Pacific Theater, Louis downed a Mitsubishi
reconnaissance plane near Formosa. Now he was one of only three Americans to have kills against all three Axis Powers: Germany, Italy, and
Japan.
Up until this point, young Lt. Curdes’ combat career had been stellar. His story was
about to take a twist so bizarre that it seems like the fictional creation of a
Hollywood screenwriter.
While attacking the Japanese-held island of Batan, one of Louis’ wingmen was
shot down. The pilot ditched in the ocean. Circling overhead, Louis could see that
his wingman had survived, so he stayed in the area to guide a rescue plane and
protect the downed pilot.
It wasn’t long before he noticed another, larger airplane, wheels down, preparing
to land at the Japanese-held airfield on Batan. He moved in to investigate. Much
to his surprise the approaching plane was a Douglas C-47 transport with
American markings.
He tried to make radio contact, but without success. He maneuvered his Mustang
in front of the big transport several times trying to wave it off. The C-47 kept to its
landing target. Lt. Curdes read the daily newspaper accounts of the war, including the
viciousness of the Japanese soldiers toward their captives. He knew that whoever
was in that American C-47 would be, upon landing, either dead or wish they
were. But what could he do?
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Audaciously, he lined up his P-51 directly behind the transport, carefully sighted
one of his .50 caliber machine guns and knocked out one of its two engines. Still
the C-47 continued on toward the Batan airfield. Curdes shifted his aim slightly and
knocked out the remaining engine, leaving the baffled pilot no choice but to ditch
in the ocean.
The big plane came down in one piece about 50 yards from his bobbing
wingman. At this point, nightfall and low fuel forced Louis to return to base.
The next morning, Louis flew cover for a rescuing PBY that picked up the downed
Mustang pilot and 12 passengers and crew, including two female nurses, from the
C-47. All survived.
For shooting down an unarmed American transport plane, Lt.
Louis Curdes was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross.
Thereafter, on the fuselage of his P-51 “Bad Angel”, he proudly
displayed the symbols of his kills: seven German, one Italian, one Japanese … and one American flag.
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Medium Bombers – Two EnginesB-25 “Mitchell”
Doolittle Raid – April 1942 5 - 6 Man crew 24,000’ Altitude 3,000lbs. Bomb Capacity 300 Mph @ 15,000’ 1,350 Mile Range 9,984 Built
B-26 “Marauder” Martin Co. – Baltimore, MD 6 – 7 Man crew 21,000’ Altitude 4,000 Bomb Capacity 290 Mph @ 5,000’ 1,200 Mile Range 5,288 Built
B-26 had lowest loss rate of any bomber in WWII !
Both usually operated between 10 – 12,000’
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V-Mail
Flight Engineer
B-26 Martin Marauder
13 Combat Missions over Germany (Jan. –Apr. 1945)
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Prisoner of War Experience
8th USAAF Operations began in Summer 1942
1st Aircrew Prisoners of War = Summer 1942 7,600 American USAAF P.O.W’s
Stammlager (Stalag) (Wehrmacht)(Enlisted)
Offizierlager (Oflag) (Wehrmacht)(Officers Only)
Stammlager Luft (Stalag – Luft) (Luftwaffe)(Both)
Marinelager (Marlag) (Kriegsmarine)
Moosburg, GermanyJuly 2012
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Prisoner of War Experience
The Great Escape
Stalag Luft III (Sagan – today Poland)
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Two American Fighter Pilots ended up here and Died!Flossenburg Concentration Camp (April 1945)
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The Results – Was it Worth It?USAAF Strategic Bombing Survey
1,200 American personnel collected facts relating to the air war in Europe in immediate post-war period. Correlated to USAAF operations and mission reports.
1.5 million German personnel involved in defending Germany
(Not being used in combat against ground forces!)
April 1945, Americans stopped bombing Germany – No targets left!!
50 principal cities of Germany reduced to rubble
3,600,000 German dwellings destroyed (20%)
7,500,000 Germans homeless
300,000 Germans KIA / 780,000 Germans WIA
40% of German war production dedicated to the air forces
much of which used to halt the Allied raids!
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2,700,000 tons of bombs dropped
1,440,000 bomber sorties flown
2,680,000 fighter sorties flown
1,300,000 Americans in air combat commands
28,000 aircraft at peak of operations
79,265 Americans killed in sky over USA/Europe/Pacific (26,000 – Europe)
18,000 American aircraft lost (all theaters)
35% of American war production devoted to the air-forces
One-third of all American aviation deaths were due to training accidents in the
United States, Europe and the Pacific
Youngest full Colonel in the Army was aged 24 (started out as 21 year old 2nd Lt.)
B-17 Group commander in Europe!
American Operations in Review
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WWII veteran Art Lacey purchased B-17 as surplus in 1947 in Kansas
Flown back to Oregon
Largest gas station in the 1960’s – 40+ pumps!
Closed in 1986 – plane still there!
Today sits next to restaurant that sells “Bomber Burgers”.
What to do with
old aircraft?
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Aircraft “Boneyard” Kingman, Arizona – 1950’s
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Air Mobility Command Museum
Dover Air Force Base Delaware
April 2014
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Produced during the War – More “Authentic – Accurate”
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Two Entertaining Movies that Depict the Air War over Europe
(“Hollywood’s View”)
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Worth a Read, Done in Nine Hours --- Christmas Day Plus One!
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In Memory of:
1Lt. Paul Dwyer; Navigator; B-24 Liberator;
448th Bombardment Group, 8th USAAF - 30 Missions (1944)
T/Sgt Thomas E. Bourgeois, Jr.; Flight Engineer/Aerial Gunner
B-26 Martin Marauder; 558th Bombardment Sqdrn.,
9th USAAF - 13 Missions (1945)
(1918 – 2011)88
(1921 – 2009)
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Cambridge, EnglandAmerican Battle
Monuments Commission
Cemetery
Their Sacrifice is
not forgotten
May God bless them!
