Zaloga - Operation Pointblank 1944: deteating the Luftwaffe

Series editor Marcus Cowper

In late May through most of June 1944, the Eighth Air Force was diverted to missions over France to support the Operation Overlord invasion. Here, a weathered B-17 of the 100th Bombardment Group bombs coastal defenses near Boulogne on June 5, 1944, the day before D-Day. (NARA)

Operation Pointblank was among the most decisive air campaigns of World War II. Initiated in the summer of 1943, it aimed to cripple the German fighter force in advance of Operation Overlord the amphibious invasion of Normandy in 1944. Although the campaign ostensibly was part of the Combined Bomber Offensive by both the Royal Air Force (RAF) and the US Army Air Force (USAAF), in practice, the mission was undertaken primarily by the USAAF. The USAAFs conduct of the campaign is the focus of this book.

The initial stage of the campaign revealed serious flaws in USAAF doctrine, especially its reliance on self-defending heavy bombers to conduct daytime precision-bombing missions. Raids against the ball-bearing industry around Schweinfurt in the summer and autumn of 1943 proved unexpectedly costly, and delayed the start of the final phase of the campaign. The solution was the use of long-range escort fighters such as the P-47D Thunderbolt and P-51B Mustang. The Luftwaffe remained convinced through the end of 1943 that improvements in fighter weapons and tactics would continue to cause such severe attrition against the USAAF daytime bombers that the campaign would be defeated. By early 1944 the USAAF had accumulated sufficient heavy bombers and escort fighters to initiate the final phase of Operation Pointblank, codenamed Argument. In the final week of February 1944 the Eighth Air Force launched systematic bombing attacks on the German aircraft industry, while at the same time staging a broader campaign against German day fighters by means of more aggressive fighter tactics. This Big Week did not defeat the Luftwaffe, but it marked a major turning point in the air campaign. German losses, especially the loss of experienced fighter pilots, were so debilitating that the Luftwaffe never fully recovered. The relentless campaign in the spring of 1944 continued to batter the Luftwaffe fighter force and won daytime air superiority over Germany for the USAAF. By the time of the Normandy landings on D-Day in June 1944, the Luftwaffe fighter force had been decisively defeated and thereafter failed to present a significant barrier to Allied operations in northwest Europe.