Bowman - The Mighty Eighth at War: USAAF 8th Air Force Bombers Versus the Luftwaffe 1943-1945

In the summer of 1941 the Berlin correspondent of the Italian newspaper La Stampa began giving his readers pep stories. One of them was to the effect that a Nazi fighter pilot had alone brought down no less than nine Flying Fortresses out of a squadron of twelve in one single engagement. Actually, for the day he mentioned the Air Ministry stated the weather was so bad that not a single British bomber was operating.

But that is by the way.

A year later the absurdity of the claim was manifest to the whole world. For in the summer of 1942 the American Army Air Corps, based in Britain, began active co-operation with the RAF in attacking the strongpoints of the European mainland. The Flying Fortresses of the Americans flew high, by daylight, and their crews indulged in high-altitude precision bombing. Armed with .5-inch machine guns, they were able to trounce soundly any fighter opposition that came up to deny them right of way. In proportion to the numbers of aircraft employed and in view of the fact that the Fortresses were flying on offensive operations, it was the fighter defence that was defeated.

At first, the Forts flew with fighter protection, as when they roared over Rouen on the afternoon of 17 August and bombed the marshalling-yards, with their commander-in-chief, Brigadier-General Ira C Eaker, leading in an aircraft named Yankee Doodle.

It was a highly successful debut. Air Marshal Sir Arthur Harris, on behalf of Bomber Command, sent General Eaker the following message of congratulation:

Congratulations from all ranks of Bomber Command on the highly successful completion of the first all-American raid by the big fellows on German-occupied territory in Europe. Yankee Doodle certainly went to town and can stick yet another well-deserved feather in his cap.

Bomber Command was no longer alone on the offensive. The four-engined bombers of the American Air Force had joined in the invasion of German-held skies. The Americans systematically went to work, testing out their aircraft and teaching their bomber crews the art of modern war. For two months the Forts flew into Europe and strafed military targets in the hinterland. At the end of that time the Office of War Information in Washington issued a considered statement to the American public on the performance of the Fortresses and other American warplanes. It was a frank statement and it held many criticisms of some existing types of United States aircraft. But of the heavy Boeing B-17s it had this to say:

The actual employment of the B-17 (the Flying Fortress) over Europe has exceeded even the fondest expectations of its American proponents. It has shown the B-17 capable of high-altitude day bombing of such precision that it astounded Allied observers. The public is already familiar with some of the B-17s feats, such as the recent flight over occupied Europe wherein gunners in a flight of B-17s engaged forty German fighters. Ten Focke-Wulfs were knocked down and eight more claimed as probables. All the B-17s returned to their British bases, although one had been hit by six cannon-shells and over two hundred machine-gun bullets. In the October 10th raid over France the largest and most damaging raid ever staged over Europe 115 Flying Fortresses and Liberators, B-24s, accompanied by Allied fighters, proved their ability to fight their way through to the target and back again against large and fierce opposition by the Nazis newest and best Messerschmitts and Focke-Wulfs. We lost only four of our bombers, while over a hundred enemy planes were destroyed or damaged.

Possibly the Berlin correspondent of La Stampa rubbed his eyes when he read the announcement.

Two months later, in December, the Fortresses were probing deeper into Europe under the daylight skies of winter. The crews had learned much. The pilots of the Messerschmitts and Focke-Wulfs were still learning. On the afternoon of Sunday the 20th the Forts flew to Romilly-sur-Seine and attacked the German air depot there. They roared high over Paris, with Focke-Wulfs streaming after them and circling on their flanks, seeking for an opening through which to dart with cannon spurting. But again the Nazi fighter pilots came off second best. The American bombers kept close ranks and the Focke-Wulfs were given little chance to demonstrate their killer propensities.

One of the Forts flying on that occasion was captained by Captain Allen Martini. His aircraft was already famous in its squadron as Dry Martini and his crew were known as the Cocktail Kids. They had been together as a combat crew for several months when they went on the pranging job to Romilly, and sitting hunched up over his cannon in the Forts tail was a bright-eyed Filipino, Staff Sergeant Henry Mitchell. Mitchell was a man with a long score to settle with the Axis. His father was a major on the staff of General MacArthur during the Pacific battles but it was believed that his wife and child were prisoners in the hands of the Japanese. Henry himself was on a merchantman when the Wild Eagles of Tokyo descended on Pearl Harbor. He enlisted for service in the American Army Air Force as soon as he got ashore.

That afternoon he showed the race-prejudiced Aryans of the Luftwaffe that the colour of a mans skin has little to do with his ability to shoot straight. His straight shooting was largely responsible for the safe return of the Dry Martini.

The Cocktail Kids and their Fortress comrades played the old year out to the tuneful rattle of their .5-inch guns. On 30 December the Forts flew high over Lorient and gave the submarine pens a heavy strafing. On that occasion the Flying Fortress Boom Town got badly shot up but returned to Britains friendly shores covered in glory.

Boom Town winged over the pens on schedule and the bombardier let go the bomb load. Over the intercom the crew heard him shout excitedly, Bulls eye! While the words were still in their ears flak tore into the Forts hull and German fighters swooped down to attack.

The bombardier died at his post. The navigator, Lieutenant W M Smith, of Ashland, Wisconsin, was wounded in the arm. A shell splinter passed out through his flight jacket, knocking him off his seat. As he lay prone, stunned for the moment, bullets from the fighters tore through the space where he had been sitting a moment before. Then an exploding shell ripped the base out of the ball-turret. Sergeant Green, the ball-turret gunner, had his oxygen mask destroyed and his cases of spare ammunition were jammed so tightly against his side that he thought his leg had been torn off. Blinded by spurting oil and cordite fumes, he stayed there, perched over space, covering his target area with his gun. In the tail-turret Sergeant Krucher, of Long Island, was badly hit, but he remained sighting his gun as a Focke-Wulf swooped to finish off the mauled Fortress. Krucher waited until the Fw 190 was closing up in his sights and then gave it a long burst. His bullets ripped off half of one of the Germans wings and the fighter went spiralling down. Staff Sergeant Stroud, of Kansas, manning the right waist gun, covered another Fw 190 that attacked from the front. Stroud coolly waited until he could see the German pilots helmeted head in the Focke-Wulfs glasshouse.