Plumes of smoke rise from exploding 500-pound bombs dropped on the ball bearing plants in Schweinfurt, Bavaria, on Oct. 14, 1943, a date known as ‘Black Thursday’ due to the large number of U.S. aircraft and aircrew lost during the raid.
After the American force entered Germany, it encountered the most intense German antiaircraft and aircraft resistance to date.
Faith; the 96th, at Grafton-Underwood; the 100th, at Thorpe Abbotts; the 385th, at Great Ashfield; the 388th, at Knettisham; and the 390th, at Framlingham. DAYTON, Ohio -- "Black Thursday" exhibit in the World War II Gallery at the National Museum of the U.S. Air Force.
(National Archives)This Flying Fortress was one of nine bombers the 100th Bomb Group lost by the end of the day.
The situation was aggravated somewhat by the Luftwaffe tactic of targeting one particular bomb group for heavy losses or, if possible, extinction, The 100th Bomb Group (BG) earned the nickname ‘Bloody 100th’ after it lost 12 out of 13 aircraft following an October 10 Munster mission, while the 492nd BG, a B-24 outfit, was nearly wiped out after becoming a ‘marked group’ the following year.Joseph W. Baggs, 384th BG lead bombardier, recalled that as early as August only eight of the group’s original crews were left.
Gunners were warned to keep chatter to a minimum and to not waste ammunition.‘The opening play is a line plunge through center,’ mission commander Peaslee later told Martin Caidin, author of the 1960 book Although they were still far from the target, smoking Fortresses started to fall out of formation-37 in all. What at first could be mistaken for mere specks on B-17 Perspex windshields became fighters—swarms of them, getting larger as they queued up to attack. ‘It was notMoreover, night bombers were not immune to fighter interception. Wright Cyclone radial engines coughed, shuddered, spat smoke and burst into life. ‘We lost an engine to flak and another to fighters, but the prop on one of the engines couldn’t be feathered. PHOTO DETAILS / DOWNLOAD HI-RES 1 of 3. (National Archives) These losses amounted to 25 percent of the attacking force.
The first sorties were against targets in France and the Low Countries, and the low losses incurred seemed to suggest that the American strategy was vindicated. Some bomb groups were almost annihilated, while others were untouched. The fact that bearing construction was concentrated in just a few plants, with Schweinfurt accounting for more than 40 percent of production, made the ball bearing industry in general—and Schweinfurt in particular—an obvious target. The 353rd and 56th fighter groups rendezvoused successfully with the bombers and eventually shot down 13 fighters, but the 4th Fighter Group could not locate its B-17s and returned to base.
During the week prior to Black Thursday, the Eighth Air Force lost nearly 90 bombers on three missions. In mid-1943, using air power to cripple the military and industrial capability of a nation was not the accepted fact that it became later in the war.
As it is, we can only look at grainy wartime pictures of the bombers going down in flames, and try to imagine what it was like for the men trapped inside.Maria Mitchell, the first female astronomer in the U.S.Yuri Romanenko, Soviet cosmonaut who set the record for the longest stay in space with 326 days aboard the Mir Space StationHistoryNet.com is brought to you by Historynet LLC, the world's largest publisher of history magazines. In fact it was not so, at least not yet.
Some had red or yellow surrounds to the insignia, and many crews had ‘grayed out’ the white areas of their markings to reduce visibility. The extra weight and drag resulting from the added weaponry made them much more vulnerable to Allied fighters—which meant that the Germans needed large numbers of fighters to penetrate the bombers’ defensive screen, and that they usually stayed outside the screen or waited for stragglers or cripples if they could only attack singly or in pairs.Had the bombers been completely naked to fighter attack, it would have been well into 1944 before the USAAF had enough escort fighters to cover the hundreds of bombers that took part in raids. The crew of a 379th Bomb Group B-17F return to their base in England.
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