This is a new history of the US Army Air Force's pioneering but costly
raids on Germany's Messerschmitt and ball-bearing factories in World War
II.
In 1943, the USAAF and RAF launched the Combined Bomber Offensive,
designed to systematically destroy the industries that the German war
machine relied on. At the top of the hit list were aircraft factories
and plants making ball-bearings--a component thought to be a critical
vulnerability. Schweinfurt in southern Germany was home to much of the
ball-bearing industry and, together with the Messerschmitt factory in
Regensburg, which built Bf 109 fighters, it was targeted in a huge and
innovative strike.
Precision required that the targets were hit in daylight, but the raid
was beyond the range of any existing escort fighter, so the B-17s would
go in unprotected. The solution was to hit the two targets in a
coordinated double-strike, with the Regensburg strike hitting first,
drawing off the defending Luftwaffe fighters, and leaving the way clear
for the Schweinfurt bombers. The Regensburg force would carry on over
the Alps to North Africa, the first example of US shuttle bombing.
Although the attack on Regensburg was successful, the damage to
Schweinfurt only temporarily stalled production, and the Eighth Air
Force had suffered heavy losses. It would take a sustained campaign, not
just a single raid, to cripple the Schweinfurt works. However, when a
follow-up raid was finally launched two months later, the losses
sustained were even greater. This title explains how the USAAF launched
its daylight bombing campaign in 1943, the technology and tactics
available for the Schweinfurt-Regensburg missions, and how these costly
failures forced a change of tack.
