VIII Bomber CommandDuring September 1943 there were some changes to the command structure of VIII Bomber Command, when an organisation known as an Air Division was introduced between Command and the Wings. Designed to regularise the Provisional Combat Wings that had tactical operational control over two or three groups apiece it amounted to little more than changes of designation for existing organisations. The 1st, 2nd and 3rd Bombardment Wings were renamed 1st, 2nd and 3rd Bombardment Divisions respectively, and the Provisional Combat Wings became Combat Bombardment Wings while taking the numbers of regular established wings. All organisations continued to function in much the same fashion, from the same bases and with the same commanders, although where a man had been both group and provisional combat wing commander on a base, he now relinquished the former assignment. The term combat wing remained in use for the battle formation flown composed of two or three group boxes. During the first few days of June 1944 the Eighth's total effort was against tactical targets in a "softening up" of areas in Northern France pending the cross-Channel landings. On most of these days the heavies continued to operate at near maximum strength, their numbers swelled still further by yet two more new Liberator groups. The 3rd Division's 490th Group flew its initial mission from Eye on May 30th, as did the 2nd Division's 489th Group from Halesworth, and a rather inauspicious debut it was for both. The 491st, the last Liberator group to join the 2nd Division, took off from its Metfield base on the afternoon of June 2nd to join the 489th Group in the first full 95th Wing raid (there were only two groups assigned to this Wing).
Theoretically the B-24 was a better bomber than the B-17, being superior in speed, range and bomb load. In practice, it was not so well suited to the invironment of daylight operations as the Fortress, due to a number of factors that made the margin between control and loss of same much narrower than with the Boeing. Among measures to improve stability was the removal of ball turrets which began in June 1944. The benefits derived in high altitude flight were now considered to far outweight the defensive value of the turret. However, the record of the Liberators during the early months of 1944 had brought Doolittle and many of his staff to consider the of the better vehicle for their purposes. The mixture of B-17s and B-24s in the 3rd Division had already presented problems and it was planned to convert the five Liberator groups to Fortresses at any early opportunity. Expanding the B-17 force began in mid-June when the fourth squadron of the 305th Group was reformed. This Group had been operating with only three squadrons since the previous October when its 422nd Bomb Sqdn. had been transferred to night leaflet dropping operations. On June 19th the 858th Bomb Sqdn. belonging to 492nd Group was taken off operations and transferred to Cheddington to become the new night leaflet squadron; in truth, this was little more than a changing of designations as the operational personnel and aircraft complement remained substantially that of the 422nd, although the CO of the old 858th and a number of ground men did move to Cheddington and conversion from B-17s to B-24s followed. The aircrews and B-24s of the original 858th were divided amongst the three remaining squadrons at North Pickenham. On the very day this move was carried out (June 20th) the Luftwaffe was to take—in effect— another squadron from the 492nd Group. Support for the ground forces in the crucial stages of strengthening the hard won bridgehead held precedence throughout June and July for the Eighth's heavies but at not infrequent opportunities Doolittle and Spaatz were able to return the B-17s and B-24s to strategic targets, principally oil. Indifferent weather brought indifferent results when part of the Eighth visited refineries at Misburg, Hamburg, Bremen and Hanover on June 15th and 18th. With fair conditions on the 20th a record force of 1,402 heavies plus 718 escort fighters set out for twelve such installations and other targets. Third Division B-17s and B-24s had primaries in the Magdeburg and Hanover areas: 1st Division B-17s at Hamburg, while the 2nd Division B-24s made the deepest penetration to Politz and Ostermoor. Anticipating the probable target area of the B-24s, the Germans marshalled a large twin-engined Zersterer force at a point where Mustangs would be less likely to appear. As the Liberators turned in from the Baltic over the Greifswalder Bodden they were assailed by Me110s and Me410s, firing rockets into the rear and flanks. The 14th Wing, in the van of Division, were singled out for particular attention and the trailing low group, the 492nd, suffered most. When a count was taken back at North Pickenham it appeared that fourteen of the Group's Liberators had been shot down. All told, 34 were missing from 2nd Division; but the picture was not as grim as first feared. Bulltofta airfield near the southernmost point of neutral Sweden had gathered many ailing US bombers during the past months, but the Swedes were somewhat startled when no less than 16 Liberators arrived on this fine June afternoon. In all, 19 B-24s and a B-17 put down in Sweden that day, five from the battered 492nd Group. Early in August many changes in organisation occurred. On the Command side Major General Hodges had been transferred from the 2nd Division and Major General Kepner was moved to this command from VIII FC (which would later lose its fighter wings to the jurisdiction of the three divisions). There were other changes at Headquarters involving senior commanders, with Brigadier General Orvil A. Anderson being made Deputy Commander of Operations. The move to build up the B-17 force in preference to using the B-24 began to take effect. The 92nd Wing's two stations at Sudbury and Lavenham were inoperative during the last two weeks of July while converting to B-17s and on August 1st both the 486th and 487th Groups were ready with the Fortress. At first there was resentment at the change, established loyalties being not easily revoked, but soon aircrew were generally enthusiastic about their new charges. Pilots were aware of the easier handling of the Fortress, particularly in high altitude formations; navigators and bombardiers found the nose compartment more spacious for their work, and the whole crew considered the heating system superior. The former Liberators of the 486th and 487th Groups went to depots for overhaul, and were stored for use as replacements in the 2nd Division. This also applied to aircraft of the three other 3rd Division groups which made the change between the end of August and mid-September. The various special operational units that had been necessary prior to the invasion had resulted in the Eighth having outgrown its authorised establishment. The situation was now regularised and the authorities looked at the two provisional groups and the one provisional squadron—the 801st Group who were engaged in "Carpetbagger" duties at Harrington, the 802nd Reconnaissance Group at Watton, and the 803rd Bomb Sqdn. on radio counter measures. On the final Eighth Air Force mission of October, 264 P-51 s and 179 P-47s were sent to escort heavies into Germany where fine weather and good visibility was forecast, but over the North Sea unpredicted heavy cloud appeared and spread. Colonel Zemke, on what was probably his last flight before being transferred to a desk job at Wing HQ, was leading the 479th Mustangs when, somewhere near Celle, they became engulfed and scattered like leaves by the elements. Three, including a squadron CO and the Colonel, did not return to base. Zemke's Mustang was thrown onto its back by rough air and went into a power dive during which a wing came off, forcing the Colonel to bale out. His place was taken by Lt Col Riddle, who had been shot down in August and evaded capture to return to the 479th as Zemke's deputy. It was Zemke's joke when he returned from a prison camp—which he ran with the same zest as he ran his fighter commands—that Riddle had sawn half-way through his Mustang to regain leadership of the Group. There was another outcome from the loss of this most distinguished pilot. A fighter pilot's tour was 300 hours combat flying. In the Mustang the Eighth's fighter pilots had a superb machine of exceptional all-round performance; good firepower and excellent endurance. The G-suit allowed pilots to turn quickly with confidence—the Luftwaffe did not provide its own combat pilots with similar equipment. Now, in the late summer of 1944, another item of equipment was added to give the Mustang pilots yet another advantage over their opponents —the K-14 Gyroscopic Gunsight, known familiarly as the "No Miss Um". Like many other items of equipment used by the Eighth, it originated with the British. Specifications of this gun sight were given to USAAF in June 1944 and production was arranged in the US. To aid the Ninth Air Force in combating any interference to its fighter bombers from the Luftwaffe, two of the Eighth's fighter Groups were placed one each under the control of the IX and XIX Tactical Air Commands. It was further decided to move their air echelons to the Continent. C-47s collected about a hundred essential ground men from Bodney and Little Walden and 150 Mustangs and pilots from the 352nd and 361st Groups flew to Y-29 Asch, and A-64 St Dizier in Belgium. The few Mustangs and pilots left with the groups at their English bases were airborne on Christmas Eve in a maximum effort call to all Eighth Air Force units to support tactical bombing or airfields and communication centres in the rear of the German thrust. Considerable opposition was encountered. Captain Julius Maxwell of the 78th Group brought about a fitting climax to the Group's use of the Thunderbolt. He spotted a lone FW190, apparently blissfully unaware that there were any Allied aircraft within miles of him, and by the time the German found out it was too late. This victory made the Group's total 400 and the last it would achieve with the P-47. After a final small P-47 mission two days later its conversion to the Mustang was complete, leaving the 56th as the sole Thunderbolt group in the Eighth. Like the 56th, the 78th had been one of the three original P-47 groups of VIII FC, and the change was very unpopular at first, particularly as the transition was made during weeks of bad weather which aggravated the difficulties of getting to know the quirks of the more sensitive steed. The proud 56th wanted nothing of the Mustang. It had been the first in the USAAF with the P-47, it had proved its worth and shown the way for the Eighth's other fighter groups, and would not lose faith. But the P-47D was hindered by range limitations in the escort fighter role and the new FW190D appeared to outmatch the Thunderbolt by its turn of speed and climb. The makers had given the P-47 a new wing with greater internal fuel capacity and a more powerful engine but this model, the P-47N, would not be available until the spring (a few examples arrived in the last few days of the war but never reached the 56th). The engine for the new P-47, the R-2800-57, was available and Republic fitted this to the P-47D airframe as an interim model, the P-47M. Production ran to the 130 and these were sent to England for the 56th, which received its first on January 3rd, 1945. The new engine gave the P-47M a top speed in level flight as high as 473 mph, a considerable advance over the 433 mph maximum of the latest P-47Ds. There were also many other performance advantages, particularly in rate of climb which enabled the M to reach 30,000 ft nearly 5 minutes faster than the D. While the new Thunderbolt did nothing with the range problem—in fact it proved hungrier than the D—it did give the 56th a fighter which kept abreast of improvements by the enemy. During the last days of December the Eighth's bombers had been able to raise their numbers to well over the thousand sortie mark on three occasions when seeking Rhineland communication targets. The persistent ground fog which enveloped much of the Continent as well, could have been responsible for the little aerial opposition to these raids, although at the time the Luftwaffe was preparing its forces in the west for a monumental strafing attack on Allied airfields in France and Belgium. Nevertheless, on the last day of the year a Gruppe of FW190s made contact with a box of B-17s to produce an incident of some significance. On this day, Eighth Air Force had chosen to return the 3rd Division to strategic bombing of oil installations and a jet aircraft factory while 1st and 2nd Divisions continued to disrupt German communications. The final days of April 1945 held suspense for Eighth Air Force airmen: would they, or would they not, be called upon to undertake further missions to the few remaining strongholds of the crumbling Nazi empire. With each day the prospect seemed more unlikely. Then, on the last day of the month, a field operation order went out to 3rd Division: but it demanded the services of Fortresses as agents of goodwill, riot as purveyors of destruction. Wehrmacht divisions in Western Holland had been isolated by the Canadian and British advances into the North German plain. Flooding of the countryside and disrupted communications aggravated a situation whereby the Dutch population were reduced to starvation level. The Allies arranged with the Germans, through neutral sources, for food supplies to be dropped from the air and US participation was handed to 3rd Division. Special routes and dropping points were designated, outside of which the Germans would not guarantee the supply aircraft undisputed passage. The first day of May saw 396 B-17s set course over the Suffolk coast, coming down to 500 feet upon reaching Holland and unloading over 700 tons of '10 in 1' rations at two airfields and a race track at The Hague, and an open space near Rotterdam. There was some apprehension that the German gunners might not keep the agreement, but all went well. Over the next six days, with the exclusion of May 4th, supply missions of similar strength were run. For aircrew this was a most satisfying task "The pleasantest missions we ever flew" People waving their appreciation from the fields and streets, "Thank you boys" and similar messages spelled out in fields with white linen, were in marked contrast to the kind of reception B-17s had received over the same country during past months. These flights were not considered combat sorties and the only credits given were to the crews of 15 385th Group B-17s who apparently wandered into a flak area. Ground staff took the opportunity to have their first view of the Continent and went along to push out ration boxes. Yet even these mercy missions took their toll. That old hazard collision claimed two B-17s during assembly and the blazing remains fell at Bocking in Essex. On the final "Chow Hound" mission, the 95th Group's B-17 44-8640 had an engine on fire. As it threatened to engulf the whole aircraft the pilot ditched in the North Sea but in so doing hit a swell, the bomber breaking up and sinking almost immediately. Air Sea Rescue pulled two men out of the water; only one survived. To give ground personnel an opportunity of seeing something of the destruction they had helped to promote over the past years, a programme of observation flights over the Ruhr valley was commenced with the cessation of hostilities on May 7th. Known as "trolley runs", some 10,000 men enjoyed these sight-seeing tours, including those from fighter stations who were transported in B-17s and B-24s of their respective divisions. The ruins of factories, bridges and marshalling yards evoked amazement amongst men who had led a hectic but safe war at English airfields. While these trips were running other B-17 units were engaged in the so-called "Revival" missions, the transportation of Allied prisoners of war and displaced persons from Austria to France. Each B-17, with a five man crew, had up to forty passengers crammed in on each flight, twenty of them often travelling on timber platforms stretched across the bomb bay. There were no complaints the 8,000 US and 1,500 British POWs flown out by May 14th were only too pleased to find such a quick means of leaving their former domicile. For the fighter groups the first days of peace provided few duties outside a stepped up training programme. The expectation of seeing action in the Pacific theatre of war led to study and lectures on Japanese equipment and tactics. The Mustang groups were assigned a P-47 for pilots to fly, as the new long-range P-47N was scheduled for extensive use in the war with Japan. 
top of pageback a page | ||||||||||
| ||||||||||
| Links & Recommended Sites | Oneliners, Stories, etc. |
| Questions? Anything Not Work? Not Look Right? My Policy Is To Blame The Computer. |
| About The Military And Wars | Link To Us | Site Navigation | Parting Shots |