The process of the British and American strategic bombing campaign against Germany

In January 1940, the British Air Force began bombing Germany, but on a small scale. On May 15, 1940, 99 aircraft were dispatched to bomb the area east of the Rhine River, and the strategic bombing of Germany began. The entire operation can be divided into five stages. May 1940 - December 1942

The bombing of Germany was carried out solely by the British, targeting the oil industry and large cities such as Cologne and Berlin. Since neither side had air supremacy, the British Royal Air Force began a series of raids on Germany in order to seize air supremacy. From 1940 to 1941, the main bombing targets were submarine bases, the oil industry, and the aviation industry. In 1942, cities began to be used as important targets, aiming to undermine the morale of the German people. From March to June, night bombings were carried out on several cities in the Ruhr area. Due to the extensive use of radar by the Luftwaffe, coupled with the emergence of the FW190, the Luftwaffe gained a considerable advantage, and the British Air Force's losses slightly exceeded the Luftwaffe's. In the first stage, the British and American aviation forces invested less troops, and due to technical limitations, the bombing effect was not great. The output of the German arms industry still increased by 50% in 1942, and aircraft production continued to increase significantly.

The turning point was when the British Air Force dispatched more than a thousand aircraft to bomb Cologne on May 31, 1942. The degree of damage exceeded the total bombing effect of 1,346 sorties in the previous nine months, and the aircraft loss rate was greatly reduced, becoming a centralized use Example of bombing aviation. The importance of this event did not lie in the material effect achieved, which was not great; nor in the blow to German morale, but the night bombing of Cologne and the subsequent air raids made it clear to the Luftwaffe General Staff , the predictions about the bombing promoted by the BBC Radio Network will be implemented as planned. The U.S. 8th Air Force began participating in the strategic bombing of Germany on August 17, 1942. The U.S. military carried out precision bombing of key targets during the day, and the British army carried out area bombing of large cities at night. Although only the German occupied areas in Western Europe were bombed by the end of the year, the amount of bombs dropped was very small. Since the number of troops dispatched was not large, the bombing effect was not obvious. However, the Luftwaffe General Staff was forced to withdraw its forces from the Soviet front and transfer them to the rear for local air defense. In 1941, 61% of the Luftwaffe was on the Eastern Front, while in 1943, this proportion dropped to 20%. The German ME-110 fighter, Ju-88 and DO-217 squadrons that formed the army's air protection umbrella returned to the German hinterland in large numbers to serve as night fighters. The Stuka dive bombers protected by fewer and fewer fighters became less willing to risk fighting with the Soviet Union. The fighter jets engaged.

But the UK needs time to improve its air raid methods. One of the important developments was the establishment of navigation aircraft units. These units were established based on the German 200th Bomber Group. The 200th Group carried out continuous air attacks on the British mainland in the winter of 1940. The navigation aircraft flew to the target before the main bomber force, in the dark. Flares are used at night to mark transition points to assist less experienced navigators, and flares are dropped over targets to facilitate target identification. They used red and green flares to mark the bombing range until the bombers dropped the bombs. January 1943 - January 1944

In the spring of 1943, Britain and the United States had achieved air supremacy on the Western Front, while on the Eastern Front, Germany's air superiority had also disappeared. Britain and the United States unified bombing targets and gradually increased their troop strength. In January 1943, the United Kingdom and the United States determined at the Casablanca Conference that the purpose of strategic bombing was to weaken Germany's military, economic and industrial strength, destroy the Germans' fighting spirit, and make them lose their ability to resist military action. The order of bombing is the submarine industry, aviation industry, transportation system, oil industry, etc. To implement this decision, Britain advocated area bombing at night, and the United States advocated precision bombing during the day. The two countries each go their own way, with little coordination. The British Air Force was put in charge of Sir Charles Porter and the American Air Force was put in charge of General Ira Clarence Ecker. Allied air squadrons increased rapidly in 1943, and twin-engine aircraft were gradually replaced by British Stirling bombers, Lancaster bombers, Halifax bombers, and American B-17 and four-engine B-24 bombers. During this period, the British Air Force conducted three air campaigns targeting cities.

The Ruhr Air Campaign

From March to July 1943, 43 air raids were carried out on several cities in the Ruhr area. The bombing aviation carried out 18,506 sorties, shooting down 876 aircraft and injuring 2,126 aircraft. Despite such heavy losses, more than 593 aircraft carried out daily bombing missions in February. By August 1943, the number of aircraft participating in bombings per day reached 787, including Duisburg, Essen, Cologne, Dortmund, etc. The city and factories were severely damaged. On the night of May 16-17, Guy Gibson commanded 19 heavy bombers of the elite 617 Squadron to destroy the Ruhr Dam using specially designed bombs. The bombing was completely successful, but the squadron was caught in a terrible anti-aircraft artillery net, and eight aircraft and crews were lost. The precision bombing had amazing results, power generation dropped, the Ruhr factories were short of water, and the valley was There was flooding, but by the fall the dam was repaired.

The Battle of Hamburg

From July 24 to August 3, 1943, Hamburg was bombed four times at night, two of which the U.S. Air Force also carried out daytime supplementary bombing.

The *** dispatched 17,021 bomber sorties, 659 aircraft were destroyed and 1,123 were injured. Germany suffered huge losses. 60% of the houses in Hamburg were destroyed, 100,000 people were killed, and nearly 5,000 factories were destroyed. In one of them, electronic jamming tactics were first used, dropping a large pile of metal aluminum chaff strips to interfere with the opponent's radar to reduce the loss of the aircraft. On August 17-18, the Royal Air Force also conducted air raids on the factory in Peenemünde that manufactured V-type rocket engines. After this bombing, Luftwaffe Chief of Staff Hans Jeshunek was forced by Hitler to shoot himself in his office.

Berlin Air Battle

On November 23, 1943, the United Kingdom and the United States began air raids on Berlin. By March 1944, the British Army dispatched 20,224 aircraft sorties to attack Berlin 16 times and other aircraft. There were 12 air raids on the city. This was a failed battle for the British Air Force. Due to interceptions by German fighter jets, it suffered heavy losses. 1,047 aircraft were shot down and 1,682 aircraft were damaged.

The U.S. Army’s daytime bombings

During the three major battles of the British Air Force, the U.S. Eighth Air Force, headed by General Ecker, also penetrated deep into the hinterland of Germany and attacked its production of aircraft and man-made aircraft. Fiber and ball bearing industrial cities, but the loss to the United States was great. On October 14, 1943, the Schweinfurt Bearing Factory was bombed. The 291 Flying Fortresses dispatched were intercepted by German planes because the fighter jets could not escort them all the way. 60 of them were shot down and 138 were damaged. The aircraft loss rate was unprecedentedly high in the history of air combat. .

By the end of 1943, Operation Direct Shot reached a crisis point, and the air offensive against Germany had produced significant results, but the cost was huge. Before October 1943, Germany had been increasing the number of fighter aircraft. Their anti-aircraft fire was ruthless, not to mention that many industrial cities in Germany were located outside the range of Allied fighter aircraft. Thanks to the efforts of Albert Speer, German arms production increased in the first half of 1943, reached a peak for a while, then declined, and rose again in the early months of 1944. The originally expected collapse of German morale failed to materialize.

The Allied air chiefs took certain steps to improve the effectiveness of the air campaign. From November 1943, the U.S. Fifteenth Air Force and the Royal Air Force's 205th Air Group, commanded by James Doolittle, were stationed. Italy, greatly expanded the scope of Allied aviation activities. New long-range fighters, especially the American P-51 Mustang fighter, can accompany Allied bombers to attack any European place occupied by Nazi Germany and greatly reduce losses. Improved aluminum-containing explosives It also increases the destruction rate of bombing.

On November 7, 1943, German Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels wrote in his diary: "Yesterday we lost 30 fighters over Berlin. We cannot sustain such losses. During the air attack, the American bombers were escorted by excellent quality fighter planes, and our fighters were greatly inferior to them. "Seven months ago, Goebbels wrote: "The president of the German Physical Society once gave me a report about Germany and Anglo-Saxon. A memorandum of comparison of the current state of physics. The trend is depressing. Anglo-Saxon physics is far ahead of us, especially in research work. As a result, Britain and the United States are also ahead in the practical application of physics to war, both in This can be seen in both air and submarine operations."

In January 1944, General Carl Andrew Spaatz was appointed commander of the Strategic Air Forces in Europe, and the Eighth Air Force was assigned to Doolittle. Command, Fifteenth Air Force was under the command of General Nathan Twining. Round-the-clock bombing began. Each bombing mission lasted 10-12 hours and included 1,000-1,200 aircraft. The week of February 20-25, 1944 was particularly important. During this period, British and American aircraft groups attacked the German deployment. Continuous assaults were launched at the aircraft manufacturing centers of Renweisk, Leipzig, Regensburg, Gota, Augsburg and Stuttgart. Bombers dispatched 6,167 sorties, dropped 19,000 tons of bombs, and recovered 383 aircraft destroyed. The cost of damage to targets was It was not irrecoverable, but the losses suffered by German pilots and aircraft production could never be made up.

The bombing of Ploiesti carried out by the Eighth and Fifteenth Air Forces on Romania in April and May had a significant effect, destroying 75% of the gasoline production capacity of the oil field. The Battle of Berlin continued in the first three months of 1944, with the Luftwaffe suffering heavy losses from P-51 Mustang fighters. In the face of the Allied air assault, the German arms industry, led by Albert Speer, performed a miracle of adaptation and survival. The number of aircraft factories increased from 80 in 1943 to 550 in 1944. Some important ones had concrete protection layers of more than 10 meters. However, because the manufacturers were forced to disperse, Germany's communication lines became very vulnerable to air raids. , parts become useless when they cannot move together to assemble.

Due to Allied air strikes, Germany was forced to sacrifice its frontline strength and engage in home defense, thus exhausting the potential of the war. Due to the urgent need for fighter jets, it was unable to produce bombers to attack Allied gathering areas. The losses of aircraft were increasing and the pilots were increasingly lacking, causing the quality of training of the Luftwaffe to decline sharply. At the same time, the combat effectiveness of Allied pilots continued to improve.

Just as Speer admitted, "There is no doubt that if there had been no air raids, hundreds of thousands of soldiers could have been saved in 1943 to replace the soldiers who gave up their training and work to eliminate the rubble." What's more, every air raid All result in millions of man-hours lost and workers' productivity significantly reduced due to lack of sleep. After a relatively peaceful night, Goebbels wrote: "It is absolutely ridiculous, but ten noisy bombers are enough to drive 15 to 18 million people out of their beds and into the basement." February - June 1944

At the beginning of 1944, the Allied leaders were faced with how to make the air force make a better contribution in the invasion of France (the Normandy landing campaign). Generals Spaatz and Ecker were responsible for the air operations against Germany. They actually believed that Invasion was a waste of time. It was claimed that bombing alone could dismantle Germany's war power. Based on this idea, the proposal was Operation Cam Ranh, a limited invasion, maintaining only a bridgehead on the mainland and waiting to destroy the German war industry before attacking Push forward. However, as the German military industry continued to expand, it strengthened the views of those who advocated a full-scale invasion. From February 1944, the scale of bombing increased. On March 25, 1944, the military leaders of the Allied Powers held a meeting and decided to shift part of their strategic aviation forces from bombing Germany to supporting the Normandy landings. The mission assigned to the Allied Air Forces at the meeting focused on bombing railway hubs, bridges, airports and other transportation in Belgium and northern France. systems and aircraft manufacturing plants and other aviation industries, and conducted assaults on V-1 missile and V-2 missile launch sites. Command of the Strategic Air Forces on the Western Front was temporarily transferred from the British and American Joint Chiefs of Staff to General Dwight David Eisenhower, commander of the invasion force.

In order to isolate the German army, Allied tactical air squadrons attacked bridges on the Seine River to prevent the north-south movement of the German troops stationed in France. At the same time, they also attacked bridges on the Albert Canal and the Meuse River to create an illusion. , seems to be about to land north of the Seine. Tactical air forces would also attack radar sites deployed along the French coast. Because the attack targets are concentrated, the force used is larger and the effect is better. By the time of the Normandy landings, the Allies had gained control of the air in the theater and successfully carried out air blockades to isolate the German forces in the landing area. However, some important forces had to cancel their plans to deal with the serious threat posed by V-2 missiles. Although Allied bombers violently bombed 88 missile bases along the coasts of France and the Netherlands with 40,000 tons of bombs in early 1944, Germany continued to design better camouflaged and stronger launch positions. By the time of the Normandy landings in June of the same year, they had gained air superiority. Since then, the bombing has become larger and more effective. July 1944 - April 1945

In order to end the war as soon as possible, the Allies gradually strengthened their attacks regardless of bad weather. Due to the liberation of France and Belgium, the German Air Force radar stations retreated, and the Allies The losses of the military air force became less and less, and the air raids became more and more effective, focusing on the German oil industry, transportation system and arsenal, while continuing to bomb the big cities. Within nine and a half months, the number of bombs dropped exceeded the total number of bombs dropped in the previous years. There were 35 bombings on the oil industry in July, 20 in August, and more than a dozen bombings by thousands of planes in September, with tens of thousands of tons of bombs dropped every month. By April 1945, Germany's monthly synthetic petroleum production was only 5% of the previous year. The German army was unable to carry out large-scale combat operations due to a severe shortage of fuel. The jet fighter was Germany's last ace, but it had a long runway and was easily spotted and destroyed on the ground.

With the smooth development of the war situation in Western Europe, the Allied forces have intensified their attacks on transportation lines since January 1945 and increased the scale of air raids on cities. In early 1945, Allied aircraft concentrated their attacks on western Germany, attacking targets east of Bremen to Coblenz. When the British and American troops crossed the Rhine in mid-March, the Ruhr Industrial Area was actually separated from the rest of Germany. On March 11, 1,038 heavy bombers dropped 4,500 tons of bombs on Essen, and the next day, 1,150 heavy bombers dropped 5,000 tons of bombs on Dortmund. Since the Allies had strategic air superiority, the bomber losses were very small and the bombing effect was significant. Germany faced collapse both economically and militarily.

In April 1945, the Battle of Berlin began. The British and American air forces were mainly used to support ground troops. On April 16, 1945, Carl Andrew Spaatz, commander of the U.S. Strategic Air Forces in Europe, announced the end of the strategic bombing of Germany. To conduct such a campaign, Spaatz and his British colleague Arthur Travers Harris commanded 28,000 combat aircraft and 1,335,000 men. 40,000 aircraft and 90,000 pilots were lost. Due to the high cost of the air war and the failure of saturation bombing to break the will of the Germans, accusations were immediately made after the war that the entire air campaign was a mistake. Yet it was fascist Germany that first carried out massive bombings of Poland, the Netherlands and Britain, and as Dunoy said: “Germany’s crime was to force the Western world into a dilemma, either to refuse to imitate their way of fighting and to sit back and perish; Also take this approach, brutality against brutality." From July 1944 to April 1945, the Allied air forces dropped more bombs than in the previous years combined.