AIR FORCE STORY v1c14: "Schweinfurt and Regensburg August 1943" USAF (1953)

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More at http://scitech.quickfound.net/aviation_news_and_search.html "EIGHTH BOMBER COMMAND'S FLYING FORTRESSES SMASH THE MESSERSCHMITT FACTORY AT REGENSBURG AND BALL BEARING PLANTS AT SCHWEINFURT." Official history of the United States Air Force, volume 1 chapter 14, June 1943. v1c13: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=906DQahkP8E v1c15: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aTSPXfEhWzY playlist (in progress): http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL87B91BF8DAF07103 USAF film SFP 263-14 Public domain film from the National Archives, slightly cropped to remove uneven edges, with the aspect ratio corrected, and mild video noise reduction applied. The soundtrack was also processed with clipping reduction, volume normalization, noise removal and equalization. http://www.usaaf.net/ww2/atlanticwall/awpg3.htm ...As the Luftwaffe fighter defense became more dangerous, most U.S. air power leaders acknowledged the need for a long-range fighter escort. VIII Bomber Command, however, clung to the belief that the self -defending bomber needed no escort. Nevertheless, in June, Arnold gave Maj. Gen. Barney Giles, the chief of the Air Staff, six months to develop a fighter that could protect the bombers all the way from the United Kingdom to Germany and back. Meanwhile, the bombers continued to fly missions, and the losses mounted. Early in August, the Eighth Air Force finalized plans for its largest mission to date. The targets were the ball-bearing plants at Schweinfurt and the Messerschmitt aircraft plants at Regensburg. By attacking these two critical industrial sites, the United States hoped to slow or even stop German aircraft production and thus help to achieve air superiority. The plan called for two waves of heavy bombers spaced a few minutes apart. The first wave would bomb Regensburg and fly on to North Africa, misleading the German fighter pilots who would expect the Americans to return to England. The second wave would attack Schweinfurt while the German fighters were on the ground refueling, thus achieving surprise and lowering U.S. losses. On August 17, the Eighth Air Force launched more than 300 bombers in two waves. The first wave took off on schedule, but fog delayed the second wave's takeoff, destroying any chance for surprise. After the short-range Allied fighter escort turned back, the Luftwaffe rose to meet both waves of U.S. bombers, and a tremendous air battle ensued. For more than six hours, the German fighters slashed at the American bombers with machine guns, cannons, mortar rockets, and even bombs. Attacking en masse, they hit the bomber formations head-on. As the German fighters exhausted their fuel and ammunition, they landed and a fresh unit from the next base took off. The U.S. losses were devastating. The Germans shot down 60 bombers and damaged approximately 130 others. A navigator in the second wave, wondering why so many haystacks were burning below, discovered that they were B-17s shot down by the enemy. Despite these losses, the Americans did a good job. At Regensburg, they covered the entire area with high explosives and incendiary bombs, damaging almost every important structure in the plant and destroying many finished single-engine fighters on the flight line. Schweinfurt suffered eighty high-explosive hits on the two main ball-bearing plants. As a result, their production decreased from 140 tons in July to a low of 50 tons in September. Perhaps even more important, the raid prodded the Germans to disperse the ball-bearing and aircraft industries, thus reducing their potential aircraft production by 50 percent. However, the cost to the Eighth Air Force was so great that the mission could only be considered a Pyrrhic victory. For the next few weeks, the Eighth Air Force resumed the easier task of bombing airfields and aircraft factories in France, Belgium, and Holland. With fighter escort, the loss rate for the bombers dropped to barely 4 percent...