Second Raid on Schweinfurt

The second Schweinfurt raid[9] was a World War II air battle that took place on 14 October 1943, over Nazi Germany between forces of the United States 8th Air Force and German Luftwaffe fighter arm (Jagdwaffe). The American bombers conducted a strategic bombing raid on ball bearing factories to reduce production of these vital parts for all manner of war machines. This was the second attack on the factories at Schweinfurt. American wartime intelligence claimed the first Schweinfurt–Regensburg mission in August had reduced bearing production by 34 percent but had cost many bombers. A planned follow-up raid had to be postponed to rebuild American forces.

Second Schweinfurt raid (Eighth Air Force Mission 115)
Part of Operation Pointblank
Date 14 October 1943 Location Schweinfurt, Nazi Germany Result German victory[1][2][3]
Belligerents
Eighth Air Force	Luftwaffe
Units involved
1st Air Division: 91st, 92nd, 303rd, 305th, 306th, 351st, 379th, 381st and 384th BGs; 3rd Air Division: 94th, 95th, 96th, 100th, 385th,388th, and 390th BGs.[4]	JGs 1, 3, 11, 25, 26, 27, 54
Strength
291 B-17 Flying Fortresses 60 B-24 Liberators[5] (diverted)
Casualties and losses
1 P-47 3 P-47 fighters [6] 77 B-17s lost^[a] 121 damaged[7] ~590 KIA, 43 WIA, 65 POWs[8]^:65	35–38 Messerschmitt Bf 109s & Focke-Wulf Fw 190 lost 20 damaged[7]

As the squadrons rebuilt, plans for the return mission were modified based on the lessons learned. Planners added additional fighter escorts to cover the outward and return legs of the operation and sent the entire force against Schweinfurt alone, instead of splitting the force. Despite these tactical modifications, a series of minor mishaps combined with the ever-increasing efficiency of the German anti-aircraft effort proved to be devastating. Of the 291 B-17 Flying Fortresses sent on the mission, 60 were lost outright, another 17 damaged so heavily that they had to be scrapped and another 121 had varying degrees of battle damage. Outright losses represented over 26 percent of the attacking force. Losses in aircrew were equally heavy, with 650 men lost of 2,900, 22 percent of the bomber crews. The American Official History of the Army Air Forces in the Second World War acknowledged losses had been so great that the USAAF would not return to the target for four months, "The fact was that the Eighth Air Force had for the time being lost air superiority over Germany".[3]

The operation was a failure. The bomber formations were left exposed to unrelenting attacks by German fighters and the improper preparations for the creation of reserves in the summer of 1943 meant that such costly operations could not be sustained. An escort of 24 squadrons of Spitfires equipped with drop tanks was provided on the first and last leg of the mission.[10]

The strategy of the Allied air forces was flawed. Arthur Harris, Air Officer Commanding RAF Bomber Command questioned the intelligence that claimed ball bearings to be vital to the German war economy. Harris refused to cooperate with the Americans, believing ball bearing targets to be a "panacea".[11] Post-war analysis has shown Harris's objections to be correct.[12] The Germans had built up enormous reserves of ball bearings and were receiving supplies from all over Europe, particularly Italy, Sweden and Switzerland. The operation against these industries would, even if successful, have achieved little.[13][14] By 1945, the Germans had assembled more reserves than ever.[15]

Mission

Factories in and around Schweinfurt accounted for a significant amount of German ball-bearing production. The Kugelfischer plant produced 22 percent, the Vereinigte Kugellagerfabriken I and II produced 20 percent, and another one percent came from the Fichtel & Sachs factory.

After the German ball bearing "bottleneck" had been identified in 1942 and ball bearings had been named the second-most-vital Pointblank industry for the Combined Bomber Offensive in March 1943, Schweinfurt's ball bearing plants were selected for a second air raid after being bombed during the August Schweinfurt–Regensburg mission.

Each of the three bomber wings was to be escorted by fighters from a single group with multiple squadrons of P-47 Thunderbolts. The fighters were inexplicably not employing drop tanks which limited their escort range.[16] One fighter outfit was sidetracked to escort a squadron of 29 B-24s that switched to a diversion mission to Emden because of the bad weather forecast. Some 229 of 291 B-17s hit the city area and ball bearing plants at Schweinfurt, Germany in two groups: the first group bombed at 1439–1445 hours, the second group at 1451–1457 hours. They claimed 186 Luftwaffe aircraft. 60 B-17s were lost, two damaged beyond repair and 13 damaged; casualties amounted to five KIA, 40 WIA and 594 MIA.

In addition, the bomber formations were spread out and vulnerable because of bad weather. The Luftwaffe military intelligence officers had suspected a deep penetration air raid because of the substantial raids. The Luftwaffe's Jagdgeschwader 3 Udet fighter wing intercepted the bombers as they crossed the coast but P-47s succeeded in shooting down seven Bf 109s while losing just one P-47. However one P-47 was also lost when it crashed at Herongate and another during a one-wheel landing on base.[17] Over the Netherlands elements of two more "named" Luftwaffe fighter wings, JG 1 Oesau and JG 26 Schlageter made repeated attacks. The 305th Bomb Group lost 13 of its 16 B-17s in minutes.[18] The B-17s were attacked after bombing by fighters that had refueled and rearmed (JG 11 downed 18 B-17s).[19]

A total of 13 bombers were shot down by German fighters and flak and 12 bombers were damaged so badly that they crashed upon return or had to be scrapped. Another 121 bombers returned with moderate damage.[7] Of 2,900 crewmen, about 254 men did not return (65 survived as prisoners-of-war),[20] while five killed-in-action and 43 wounded were in the damaged aircraft that returned (594 were listed as missing-in-action). Among the most seriously affected American units was the 306th Bomb Group. It lost 100 men: 35 died on the mission or of wounds and 65 were captured. The 305th Bomb Group lost 130 men (87%), with 36 killed.[21]

The defensive efforts of both JG 1 and JG 11 during the "Black Thursday" raid are said to have included substantial use of the BR 21 unguided stand-off rockets against the USAAF combat boxes, as both Luftwaffe fighter wings had started use of the ordnance some six months earlier.

Result

Although the Schweinfurt factories were badly hit, the mission failed to achieve any lasting effect. The production of ball bearings in the factories was halted for only 6 weeks[22] and Germany's war industry could easily rely on its substantial inventory of ball bearings as well as a large production surplus. In addition, the ball bearing facilities were dispersed to reduce their bombing risk.[23]^:191 Consequently, despite General Henry H. Arnold's claim that the Black Thursday "loss of 60 [downed/ditched] American bombers in the Schweinfurt raid was incidental",[8]^:67 unescorted daylight bomber raids deep into Germany were suspended until the February 1944 Big Week missions with P-51B Mustang escorts that included additional Schweinfurt day/night USAAF/RAF bombing on the 24th.

Another example of the strategy of using heavy bombers against a particular wartime resource, the Oil Campaign of World War II was essentially started by the RAF Bomber Command as early as August 1941[24] — two months after Hitler's invasion of the Soviet Union, and six months before the United States entered the war. It went forward relentlessly from that time with the USAAF joining in on the efforts by late June 1943 during daylight. The Oil Campaign had its priority diminished from time to time with important events, such as the lead-up to Operation Overlord, which by June 1944 demanded heavy bomber support for a time, but soon thereafter the relentless attacks by day and night resumed, starving the entire German Wehrmacht military of fuel and lubricants from the autumn of 1944 onwards.

Notes

^a 59/1 downed/ditched + 5/12 crashed/scrapped[25]

References

Citations

1. Caldwell and Muller 2007, p. 137.
2. Hall 1998, p. 201.
3. Cate & Craven 1983, pp. 704–5.
4. "Black Thursday" Robert L. Hughes
5. McKillop, Jack. "Combat Chronology of the USAAF: October 1943". The United States Army Air Forces in World War II. USAAF.net. Archived from the original on 31 May 2012 i8. Retrieved 26 March 2010. 229 of 291 B-17s hit the city area and ball bearing plants at Schweinfurt, Germany in two group[s]; the first group bombs at 1439–1445 hours, the second group at 1451–1457 hours; they claim 186-27-89 Luftwaffe aircraft; 60 B-17s are lost, seven damaged beyond repair, and 138 damaged; casualties are five KIA, 40 WIA and 594 MIA. Check date values in: |archive-date= (help)
6. . 30 September 2013 https://web.archive.org/web/20130930154643/http://lesbutler.co.uk/claims/allied_1943_issue_Idoc.zip. Archived from the original on 30 September 2013. Missing or empty |title= (help)
7. Price 2005, p. 151.
8. Hess 1994, p. 65-67.
9. Spaatz 1988, pp. 187–88.
10. Clostermann 1951
11. Mc Farland and Wesely-Phillips in Cargill, 1998, p. 197.
12. Webster and Frankland 1961, pp. 64–70.
13. Murray and Millett 2000, p. 313.
14. Luttwak 2002, p. 56.
15. Boog, Horst, Vogel and Krebs 2001, p. 75.
16. Terdoslavich, William. "Raids on Ploesti and Schweinfurt: August 1943 and October 1943", in Fawcett, Bill, ed. How To Lose WWII. New York: Harper, 2010, p. 147.
17. RAF & US Fighter Commands – with annotated text. Issue I 1943 : https://web.archive.org/web/20130928070316/http://lesbutler.co.uk/claims/allied_1943_issue_Idoc.zip
18. Caldwell and Muller 2007, p. 135.
19. Caldwell & Muller 2007, pp. 135–37.
20. Hess 1994, p. 65.
21. Hess 1994, pp. 65–67
22. Bowman & Boiten (2001), p. 74
23. Jablonski, Edward (1971). "Volume 1 (Tragic Victories), Book II (The Big League)". Airpower: 189–92.
24. Tedder, Arthur (1966). With Prejudice. Boston: Little, Brown & Co. p. 502.
25. Masters of the Air, by Donald L. Miller

Bibliography

• Boog, Horst; Krebs, Gerhard; Vogel, Detlef (2006). Cook-Radmore, D. (ed.). The Strategic Air War in Europe and the War in the West and East Asia, 1943–1944/5. Germany and the Second World War edited by the Militärgeschichtliches Forschungsamt (Research Institute for Military History), Potsdam, Germany. VII. Translated by Cook-Radmore, D.; Garvie, F.; Osers, E.; Smerin, B.; Wilson, B. (Eng. trans. ed.). London: Clarendon Press. ISBN 978-0-19-822889-9.
• Bowman, Martin W.; Boiten, Theo (2001). Battles With The Luftwaffe: The Bomber Campaign Against Germany 1942–45. New York: Harper Collins. ISBN 0-00-711363-3.
• Caldwell, Donald; Muller, Richard (2007). The Luftwaffe Over Germany: Defense of the Reich. London: Greenhill Books. ISBN 978-1-85367-712-0.
• Clostermann, Pierre (1951). The Big Show. London: Cassell Books. ISBN 978-0-304-36624-8.
• Craven, Wesley; Cate Lea, James (1949). The Army Air Forces in World War II: Europe, Torch to Pointblank, August 1942 to December 1943. II. Chicago: University of Chicago. OCLC 1068351234.
• Hall, Cargill (1998). Case Studies In Strategic Bombardment. Washington, D.C.: Air Force History and Museums Program. ISBN 0-16-049781-7.
• Hess, William N. (1994). B-17 Flying Fortress: Combat and Development History of the Flying Fortress. St. Paul, Minnesota: Motorbook International. ISBN 0-87938-881-1.
• Hooton, E. R. (2010). The Luftwaffe: A Study in Air Power, 1933–1945. London: Arms & Armour. ISBN 978-1-906537-18-0.
• Miller, Donald (25 September 2007). Masters of the Air. Simon & Schuster. ISBN 978-0743235457.
• Overy, Richard (1980). The Air War, 1939–1945. Washington, D.C.: Potomac Books. ISBN 978-1-57488-716-7.
• Price, Alfred (1973). Battle over the Reich: The Strategic Bomber Offensive over Germany. London: Ian Allan. ISBN 0-7110-0481-1.
• Webster, C. K.; Frankland, Noble (1961). The Strategic Air Offensive Against Germany, 1939–1945, Part 4: Endeavour. II. London: HMSO. OCLC 1068104819.

External links

External image
Schweinfurt facilities