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BIG WEEK
February 1944 was a decisive time for Allied air command. With long-range escorts the heavies could now breath easier and put the debacle of the October 1943 Schweinfurt raid behind them but it would still be tough going.
Operation Argument was the code given to the planned assault on Germany from February 20-25. It was headed up by Major General Fredrick Andersen. B-17 and B-24 bombers now had P-51B “little friends” to chaperone them all the way to the target. If the Luftwaffe took the bait it would be challenged in the air by fighters and destroyed on the ground as the heavies bombed aircraft assembly plants, airfields and other vital targets. Without planes to fly an air force soon becomes a ground force and that was the gamble the Allies were wagering.
SCHWEINFURT REPEAT?
One B-17 pilot on the missions was Glenn Infield of the 95th Bomb Group. He’d lived through Schweinfurt and was ready as he could be. The weather had been bad much of the time since Schweinfurt and at any rate the 8th A.F. made no further penetrations with bombers when it was since the cost had been so great. The 8th was really licking its wounds. This would be the first big show in four months.
Infield deciphered menu breakfast menu as to the mission difficulty. Fresh eggs meant a tough one, powdered eggs-a milk run. It was fresh eggs.
Briefing at 0430 detailed the routes. Liepzig and Rostock are at the ends of red lines on the wall map. These were location where Messerschmitt built 109s and 110s, where Junkers built their 88’s and 188s, where Focke Wulf manufactured 190s, and where many men would ponder their survival. Brunswig-Leipzig, Germany, Posen and Tutow, Poland were the places. Two routes would be followed, one through Belgium and straight to Leipzig and another across the North Sea and through Denmark. The southern route would hopefully pull much of the German fighter defense that way while the other groups came in over the North Sea.
General Kepner reasoned that icing would cut the efficiency of the weather sensitive P-38s in half but wouldn’t bother P-47s and P-51s. The slow bombers would be OK though.
Infield’s B-17 struggled past 80 MPH and lifted the wheels as the engines pulled 2,300 RPM at thirty-five inches. They began climbing into the overcast at 140 MPH. At 6,200 feet blue sky broke through and they began to form up. Time passed as planes took position in the formation.
Big show was truly the description of the assault. Besides the sixteen wings of bombers there were thirteen P-47, two P-38, and two P-51 groups plus sixteen top RAF squads of Spitfires and Mustangs. But right away icing conditions foiled the P-38s. Other fighters aborted for a variety of reasons but the bombers would go no matter what.
Synchronization was paramount. Delay forming up meant being late to meet the 100th and 390th Bomb Groups and if they were all too late the planned occupation of German fighters to the south by the little friends would not be effective. They began across the North Sea several planes short and no escort fighters to be seen. Fighters did hook up with other bombers though.
ON THE CONTINENT
The Luftwaffe had some ten combat wings in coverage for the general Brunswick-Liepzig area One well know German ace, Heinz Knoke, who ended the war with fifty-two kills in the West, was adept in taking out four-engine bombers.
Infield’s group was setting up for their Initial Point and had encountered light flak so far, but knew the heaviest was to come. All he though about was running the flak, dropping the 500 pounders and heading home.
“Bogies two o’clock!’ called a gunner.
Co-pilot of infield’s B-17 and “Red Leader” of the group, Major Brockman, reinforced that any fighters seen were likely to be enemy at this point and the twenty bogies were soon identified as 109s. Infield saw several with yellow noses from JG 26 in the gaggle as Sgt. Weislo in the nose called, “Look out. Here they come.”
The relative quiet was broken as Sgt. Topolski in the top turret unleashed his two fifties followed by every gun on the ship. The whole plane vibrated as all the guns fired steadily.
“One diving low. You take him Eddie…”
“Three bandits, twelve o’clock level….I got ‘em…”
“I got one of the bastards!” is heard as a 109 turns into a ball of fire.
Brockman calls for oxygen check to all stations but ball turret gunner Sgt. Sklar didn’t answer. Infield directed waist gunner, Kentuckian, Sgt. Baker, to check on Sklar but he did not hear in the confusion. Brockman hooked up him walk-around oxygen bottle to see what’s happening in back.
Alone in the cockpit Infield can see fighters pressing close attacks all over. A 109 comes in close inverted and Infield swore he could see the German grinning as he flashed by.
Baker drawled, “Smoke pourin’ outta number three engine.”
Infield called for Brockman to return.
“Flames shootin’ outta the cowling now, sir…looks bad” called Baker.
They were ten minutes from IP and 600 miles form home, reflected Infield as someone called, “ here they come again…one o’clock low.”
DOWN SOUTH
The ten wings to the south arrived but with fighters on them long before target was reached thanks to German ground radar direction. Four fighter wings pick at the B-17s and a plane piloted by 1st Lt. William Lawley of the 305th Bomb Group, out of formation was attacked by twenty 109s.
The co-pilot dead and many crewmen wounded, he gave the call to “bail or stick with it,” as he brought the plane under control and extinguished engine fires. The crew stuck since some were too bad off to bail out. The bomb racks were frozen and bombs could not be salvoed. Lawley lost control above the Rhine from loss of blood and the Fortress staggered down…
To the east a B-17 named “Mizpah” was hit by fighters near the A.T.G. Maschinenbau Gmb H aircraft plant near Leipzig. A squadron of all black FW 190 night fighters bore in with assistance from 109s and Ju 88s.
Twenty millimeters slammed into the Fortress as top turret gunner S/Sgt. Archie Mathies struggled to return fire. The ship was nosing down to the snow-covered landscape below. Mathies extricated himself from the turret and was shocked to see the pilot, Lt. Bartley, and his co-pilot, Lt. Nelson, seemingly dead. Navigator Lt. Walter Truemper emerged from the nose station to assist.
The men pulled the bodies out of their seats and struggle to control the big plane. It recovers below 10,000 feet with only the airspeed indicator alone not destroyed by 20 mms. The bombardier has already jumped out but Mathies refused to go when Truemper suggest they follow.
“I think Nelson moved,’ Mathies tells Truemper. “ I won’t leave him.” Truemper decides to stay too. The rest of the crew votes to ride the Fortress as well.
DECISION TIME
Back over Rostock the 95th noted that the German fighters were leaving. Infield’s number three is still burning. Ball gunner Sklar is reported to be okay. As Infield and Brockman ponder to hit the bail out bell the navigator, Fladeboe, calls out, “We’re over the IP. Turn right to one-seven-eight degrees.”
Brockman decides, “We’ll make the bomb run.”
They line up and tell the bombardier he has the plane. They take that time to feather number three engine and pull the CO-2 extinguisher handle and increase power of the remaining engines to compensate so the bombardier will have a smooth set up. Change in speed now would mean upset calculations and bombs off target.
The second fire bottle is employed to the burning engine as they hear “Bombs away!” The now lighter bomber climbs automatically and the fire is out. They turn left away from more flak.
“Brockman calls, “Red Deputy take the lead. Red Leader dropping out.”
The new leader responds, “Good luck Red Leader” as they reduce power to the three good engines to 135 MPH as the formation pulls away. They have 350 miles to go.
HEADING HOME
Lt. Lawley, of the 305th gained control of his stricken Fort aided by the bombardier and inched towards home at Cheveston.
But without warning one of his remaining engines sputtered and another caught fire. The flames could not be doused. He picked out a small fighter base and crash-landed with a full bomb load. All survived.
Staff Sergeant Mathies and Lt. Truemper were told by the C.O. of the 351st, Col. Eugene Romig, to level the plane and bail out, but they refused to leave the wounded. The able crewmen do bail out safely but Truemper and Mathies are determined to land the Fort.
They make two abortive landing attempts. On the third the wheels bounce and the B-17 ground loops and explodes, killing the three aboard.
Infield’s B-17 is now on two engines. The second’s oil pressure bottomed out and went dead a hundred miles out over the North Sea. Of the remaining two one is feathered and one is windmilling. They are down to 400 feet over the English countryside. They’ll have to land.
A mile ahead Horham Base fired a green flare as the last two engines pull maximum power.
At the last possible moment the gear dropped into the airstreams. At 125 MPH a stall is imminent but Infield reasoned that if he dumped flaps he’d lose directional control. The control buffeted on the edge of stall and the flaps were lowered. The B-17 bounced hard short of the runway and then rolled onto the hard surface.
The first mission of Big Week was over.
On February 21st maximum force was sent to Brunswick and western Germany targets. On the 22nd with fouled weather only 99 8th A.F. bombers hit their targets out of 255 that bombed at all from the 466 planes dispatched. The 15th A.F. got 183 bomber in the air and 118 bombed the Messerschmitt factory at Obertraubling near Regensburg.
On the 23rd only 102 bombers of the 15th A.F. damaged a ball-bearing plant at Steyr, Austria. With good weather on the 24th all bombers of the 8th were up and bombed Schweinfurt, Gotha, Tutow, Kreising and Posen. The 15th hit Steyr again. The final day of Big Week saw attacks on Regensburg, Augsburg, Stuttgart, and Furth.
LITTLE FRIENDS-LITTLE ENEMIES
Now the fighters were unleashed to pursue the Luftwaffe whenever met instead of stay with the bombers and men like those in the 4th Fighter Group, the likes of Godfrey, Gentile, Hofer, Goodson, Blakesley and Beeson began to run op their tallies.
Later in Big Week the little friends defended the big friends well. On the 24th Don Gentile, with about five hours in the new P-51B, tagged along with the bombers bound for Schweinfurt.
At 25,000 feet four FW 190s raced in head-on for the bombers at 21,000 feet. Leading Blue section, Gentile noted the German attack regimen- phalanxes of four attacked, rolled and fired as they passed through the formation. Gentile followed one as they dodged Forts and passed through .50 caliber streams of defensive fire.
Clear of the bombers Gentile fired one long and two short bursts from 500 yards. The 190 smoked and dove straight into the ground. Gentile pulled out at 8,000 feet and went back up.
On the 25th the group was protecting the heavies over the Stuttgart ball-bearing plant and the Augsburg Me 110 factory when FWs attacked. A lone B-17 at 10,000 feet was taking a beating. Gentile led his section down from 25,000 feet and picked out an enemy. He fired at 400 and again at 300 yards. From 75-yards behind he could see the strikes from the API as chunks of 190 tore off. German oil covered the P-51 and the pings of departing pieces showered his plane. The 190 plowed into the ground.
Thunderbolt pilots were scoring too. Hub Zemke’s 56th Fighter Group took out fifty-nine enemy aircraft during that week. Francis “Gabby” Gabreski and friends had the 150 gallon drop tanks that could extend the P-47’s range all the was to Leipzig.
On the 20th at 22,000 near Hannover fourteen Me 110 were spotted and Gabby broke for them, diving. The P-47 zeroed in on the second 110 from the rear and opened up from behind. He exploded when the Jug was only 50-yard behind. Line abreast, eight Thunderbolts opened up with their sixty-four .50s. Bob Johnson scored his kill number fourteen.
Gabreski allowed the Thunderbolt’s inertia to carry him on to a 110 in the forward formation and commenced firing at 500 yard with the same result. Johnson was covering Gabby and took down his fifteenth enemy plane. At 50-yards he broke as the plane came apart. Other 110s were suffering the same fate from the squadron as Gabreski hit at a 110 that dived into a cloud.
Zemke found that the 110s were from III/ZG26 and Luftwaffe records indicate that almost all the “damaged” claims from the 56th really ended up as kills. Gabby claimed a damaged also.
On the 22nd Gabreski took down an FW 190 and strafed a field at St. Anthonis, Holland damaging a Dornier parked there. Mike Gladych claimed two 190s in the air.
On the 23rd Zemke was leading the group over Holland. Just as the 56th was due to leave the B-17 to the P-51s they were attacked. Zemke rolled and went down, picking out a 190 with a wingman way behind him. 20mms exploded all around Zemke’s Jug. The wingman had fired with a long lead so he would fly into the shells as he dove. The electric gun sight was out and he tried to use the static post and ring back up sight as he stayed with the 190’s maneuvers easily. Soon down to tree top level and having no luck with the deflection shots that used 300 rounds, he wisely broke off.
By the 25th few Luftwaffe planes were seen and none pressed attacks.
At Arnheim, Holland Hein Knoke’s squadron got the alert of “concentrating enemy forces” as the bomber clusters wended their way eastward.
Heinz Knoke missed a Fortress and went with no claim on the 20th, but on the 22nd attacked one in a thirty-plane formation. Though the B-17 attempted to evade, the Bf 109G’s shells drove home and the crew bailed from the flaming Fort.
At 1600 on the 25th, with many comrades lost, he again climbs his Gustav to 15,000 and is met by planes from his 3rd squadron, vectored by ground control. “Climb to 25,000 due north…many heavy babies approaching over the sea sector Dora-Dora,” was the call.
He checked his supercharger, RPM, boost, oil and coolant temps as he climbed to 33,000 feet. Ground control informed him to watch for enemies to the left in sector Seigfried-Paula. The sight of 600-800 bombers 6,000 feet below with their vapor trails was awesome. He checked his Revi sight and guns, and then peeled off to dive in a frontal attack.
Thunderbolts were coming down behind them though. Knoke held the stick with both hands and, with forefinger and thumb, depressed his triggers feeling the recoil shake the plane. A wing crumpled on a B-17 though he wanted to hit the cabin.
But that was the only pass on the heavies possible since the Thunderbolts were all over the 109s. Knoke flicked around trying to gain firing position but always had several P-47s behind him. They were only outnumbered four or five to one in the melee until some P-38s join in.
A close miss forced Knoke into his favorite evasion maneuver- a tight climbing corkscrew. Looking below with another 109 to he right they saw four Lightnings down to the left and went after them.
But Knoke over shot and was now in the P-38’s sights. He pushed over into a tight spiral dive. Rivets pop from the wing root and the G force pummel him as he pulls out. Just then the P-38 streaked by trailing flame. His mate, Wenneckers, had saved him.
On February 21st top French ace, Pierre Closterman, got a scramble call. He was soon in his special high altitude Spitfire VII, one of two, climbing to a radar contact at 40,000 feet. Thinking it was one of the Ju 86P high altitude recon craft he vectored in.
Thinking of cutting off the retreat, the Spits strained up to 41,000 feet. To their surprise, they spotted a Bf 109G with drop tanks painted pale gray over sky blue and no nationality markings.
The German dived, no doubt using GM-1 nitrous oxide boost, Closterman reckoned, and speeds soon hit 600 MPH at 27,000 feet! Wingman Ian Blair, was ahead of Closterman and at 10,000 feet fired from 600 yards distance. The 109 tore apart. But by 8,000 feet both Spits gently pulled out to avoid crumpling the wings and returned safely to base. Perhaps the 109 was looking for where all those bombers had come from the day before!
EPILOGUE
General Hap Arnold declared the week successful. 3,300 bombers of the 8th and 500 of the 15th Air Forces had taken on the Luftwaffe. Later days saw better-coordinated escort from the 3,673 fighters involved too. 137 American bombers were lost with 2,600 KIA, missing and wounded. The British lost 157 during coordinated night raids.
But more importantly, Luftwaffe records showed, and General Galland agreed, a loss of 433 pilots killed, 341 missing and 277 wounded plus 2,121 aircraft destroyed in February. 10,000 tons of bombs were dropped during Big Week by American, and 9,198 tons at night by the British bombers. The 90% loss of production disruption was never really recovered from and it paved the way for D-Day in June by seriously weakening the Luftwaffe who conceded air superiority to the Allies.
Never again would the U.S. commit its entire aerial force. 1,000 plane raids would hammer the Reich and the Luftwaffe would put of fierce local defense but never its entire force again.
Lt. William Lawley received the Congressional Medal of Honor and Sgt. Mathies and Lt. Truemper got posthumous ones while DFC and Air medals were handed out like aspirins.
BIBLIOGRAPHY:
Baker, David
Adolph Galland
Windrow & Greene Ltd, London, 1996
Closterman, Pierre
The Big Show
Chatto & Windus Ltd. GB, 1951
Gabreski, Francis
A Fighter Pilot’s Life
Orion Books, NY, 1991
Galland, Adolph
The First And The Last
Ballantine Books, NY, 1954
Infield, Glenn
3,800 Bombers vs. The Luftwaffe
Atlas Publishing, NY 1963
Knoke, Heinz
I Flew For The F?ºrher
Berkley Publishing Corp, NY 1953
Johnson, Robert
Thunderbolt
Ballantine Books, NY, 1958
Spagnuolo, Mark M.
Don S. Gentile
College Press, MI, 1986
Zemke, Hubert
Zemke’s Wolfpack
Pocket Books, NY, 1988
BIG WEEK
February 1944 was a decisive time for Allied air command. With long-range escorts the heavies could now breath easier and put the debacle of the October 1943 Schweinfurt raid behind them but it would still be tough going.
Operation Argument was the code given to the planned assault on Germany from February 20-25. It was headed up by Major General Fredrick Andersen. B-17 and B-24 bombers now had P-51B “little friends” to chaperone them all the way to the target. If the Luftwaffe took the bait it would be challenged in the air by fighters and destroyed on the ground as the heavies bombed aircraft assembly plants, airfields and other vital targets. Without planes to fly an air force soon becomes a ground force and that was the gamble the Allies were wagering.
SCHWEINFURT REPEAT?
One B-17 pilot on the missions was Glenn Infield of the 95th Bomb Group. He’d lived through Schweinfurt and was ready as he could be. The weather had been bad much of the time since Schweinfurt and at any rate the 8th A.F. made no further penetrations with bombers when it was since the cost had been so great. The 8th was really licking its wounds. This would be the first big show in four months.
Infield deciphered menu breakfast menu as to the mission difficulty. Fresh eggs meant a tough one, powdered eggs-a milk run. It was fresh eggs.
Briefing at 0430 detailed the routes. Liepzig and Rostock are at the ends of red lines on the wall map. These were location where Messerschmitt built 109s and 110s, where Junkers built their 88’s and 188s, where Focke Wulf manufactured 190s, and where many men would ponder their survival. Brunswig-Leipzig, Germany, Posen and Tutow, Poland were the places. Two routes would be followed, one through Belgium and straight to Leipzig and another across the North Sea and through Denmark. The southern route would hopefully pull much of the German fighter defense that way while the other groups came in over the North Sea.
General Kepner reasoned that icing would cut the efficiency of the weather sensitive P-38s in half but wouldn’t bother P-47s and P-51s. The slow bombers would be OK though.
Infield’s B-17 struggled past 80 MPH and lifted the wheels as the engines pulled 2,300 RPM at thirty-five inches. They began climbing into the overcast at 140 MPH. At 6,200 feet blue sky broke through and they began to form up. Time passed as planes took position in the formation.
Big show was truly the description of the assault. Besides the sixteen wings of bombers there were thirteen P-47, two P-38, and two P-51 groups plus sixteen top RAF squads of Spitfires and Mustangs. But right away icing conditions foiled the P-38s. Other fighters aborted for a variety of reasons but the bombers would go no matter what.
Synchronization was paramount. Delay forming up meant being late to meet the 100th and 390th Bomb Groups and if they were all too late the planned occupation of German fighters to the south by the little friends would not be effective. They began across the North Sea several planes short and no escort fighters to be seen. Fighters did hook up with other bombers though.
ON THE CONTINENT
The Luftwaffe had some ten combat wings in coverage for the general Brunswick-Liepzig area One well know German ace, Heinz Knoke, who ended the war with fifty-two kills in the West, was adept in taking out four-engine bombers.
Infield’s group was setting up for their Initial Point and had encountered light flak so far, but knew the heaviest was to come. All he though about was running the flak, dropping the 500 pounders and heading home.
“Bogies two o’clock!’ called a gunner.
Co-pilot of infield’s B-17 and “Red Leader” of the group, Major Brockman, reinforced that any fighters seen were likely to be enemy at this point and the twenty bogies were soon identified as 109s. Infield saw several with yellow noses from JG 26 in the gaggle as Sgt. Weislo in the nose called, “Look out. Here they come.”
The relative quiet was broken as Sgt. Topolski in the top turret unleashed his two fifties followed by every gun on the ship. The whole plane vibrated as all the guns fired steadily.
“One diving low. You take him Eddie…”
“Three bandits, twelve o’clock level….I got ‘em…”
“I got one of the bastards!” is heard as a 109 turns into a ball of fire.
Brockman calls for oxygen check to all stations but ball turret gunner Sgt. Sklar didn’t answer. Infield directed waist gunner, Kentuckian, Sgt. Baker, to check on Sklar but he did not hear in the confusion. Brockman hooked up him walk-around oxygen bottle to see what’s happening in back.
Alone in the cockpit Infield can see fighters pressing close attacks all over. A 109 comes in close inverted and Infield swore he could see the German grinning as he flashed by.
Baker drawled, “Smoke pourin’ outta number three engine.”
Infield called for Brockman to return.
“Flames shootin’ outta the cowling now, sir…looks bad” called Baker.
They were ten minutes from IP and 600 miles form home, reflected Infield as someone called, “ here they come again…one o’clock low.”
DOWN SOUTH
The ten wings to the south arrived but with fighters on them long before target was reached thanks to German ground radar direction. Four fighter wings pick at the B-17s and a plane piloted by 1st Lt. William Lawley of the 305th Bomb Group, out of formation was attacked by twenty 109s.
The co-pilot dead and many crewmen wounded, he gave the call to “bail or stick with it,” as he brought the plane under control and extinguished engine fires. The crew stuck since some were too bad off to bail out. The bomb racks were frozen and bombs could not be salvoed. Lawley lost control above the Rhine from loss of blood and the Fortress staggered down…
To the east a B-17 named “Mizpah” was hit by fighters near the A.T.G. Maschinenbau Gmb H aircraft plant near Leipzig. A squadron of all black FW 190 night fighters bore in with assistance from 109s and Ju 88s.
Twenty millimeters slammed into the Fortress as top turret gunner S/Sgt. Archie Mathies struggled to return fire. The ship was nosing down to the snow-covered landscape below. Mathies extricated himself from the turret and was shocked to see the pilot, Lt. Bartley, and his co-pilot, Lt. Nelson, seemingly dead. Navigator Lt. Walter Truemper emerged from the nose station to assist.
The men pulled the bodies out of their seats and struggle to control the big plane. It recovers below 10,000 feet with only the airspeed indicator alone not destroyed by 20 mms. The bombardier has already jumped out but Mathies refused to go when Truemper suggest they follow.
“I think Nelson moved,’ Mathies tells Truemper. “ I won’t leave him.” Truemper decides to stay too. The rest of the crew votes to ride the Fortress as well.
DECISION TIME
Back over Rostock the 95th noted that the German fighters were leaving. Infield’s number three is still burning. Ball gunner Sklar is reported to be okay. As Infield and Brockman ponder to hit the bail out bell the navigator, Fladeboe, calls out, “We’re over the IP. Turn right to one-seven-eight degrees.”
Brockman decides, “We’ll make the bomb run.”
They line up and tell the bombardier he has the plane. They take that time to feather number three engine and pull the CO-2 extinguisher handle and increase power of the remaining engines to compensate so the bombardier will have a smooth set up. Change in speed now would mean upset calculations and bombs off target.
The second fire bottle is employed to the burning engine as they hear “Bombs away!” The now lighter bomber climbs automatically and the fire is out. They turn left away from more flak.
“Brockman calls, “Red Deputy take the lead. Red Leader dropping out.”
The new leader responds, “Good luck Red Leader” as they reduce power to the three good engines to 135 MPH as the formation pulls away. They have 350 miles to go.
HEADING HOME
Lt. Lawley, of the 305th gained control of his stricken Fort aided by the bombardier and inched towards home at Cheveston.
But without warning one of his remaining engines sputtered and another caught fire. The flames could not be doused. He picked out a small fighter base and crash-landed with a full bomb load. All survived.
Staff Sergeant Mathies and Lt. Truemper were told by the C.O. of the 351st, Col. Eugene Romig, to level the plane and bail out, but they refused to leave the wounded. The able crewmen do bail out safely but Truemper and Mathies are determined to land the Fort.
They make two abortive landing attempts. On the third the wheels bounce and the B-17 ground loops and explodes, killing the three aboard.
Infield’s B-17 is now on two engines. The second’s oil pressure bottomed out and went dead a hundred miles out over the North Sea. Of the remaining two one is feathered and one is windmilling. They are down to 400 feet over the English countryside. They’ll have to land.
A mile ahead Horham Base fired a green flare as the last two engines pull maximum power.
At the last possible moment the gear dropped into the airstreams. At 125 MPH a stall is imminent but Infield reasoned that if he dumped flaps he’d lose directional control. The control buffeted on the edge of stall and the flaps were lowered. The B-17 bounced hard short of the runway and then rolled onto the hard surface.
The first mission of Big Week was over.
On February 21st maximum force was sent to Brunswick and western Germany targets. On the 22nd with fouled weather only 99 8th A.F. bombers hit their targets out of 255 that bombed at all from the 466 planes dispatched. The 15th A.F. got 183 bomber in the air and 118 bombed the Messerschmitt factory at Obertraubling near Regensburg.
On the 23rd only 102 bombers of the 15th A.F. damaged a ball-bearing plant at Steyr, Austria. With good weather on the 24th all bombers of the 8th were up and bombed Schweinfurt, Gotha, Tutow, Kreising and Posen. The 15th hit Steyr again. The final day of Big Week saw attacks on Regensburg, Augsburg, Stuttgart, and Furth.
LITTLE FRIENDS-LITTLE ENEMIES
Now the fighters were unleashed to pursue the Luftwaffe whenever met instead of stay with the bombers and men like those in the 4th Fighter Group, the likes of Godfrey, Gentile, Hofer, Goodson, Blakesley and Beeson began to run op their tallies.
Later in Big Week the little friends defended the big friends well. On the 24th Don Gentile, with about five hours in the new P-51B, tagged along with the bombers bound for Schweinfurt.
At 25,000 feet four FW 190s raced in head-on for the bombers at 21,000 feet. Leading Blue section, Gentile noted the German attack regimen- phalanxes of four attacked, rolled and fired as they passed through the formation. Gentile followed one as they dodged Forts and passed through .50 caliber streams of defensive fire.
Clear of the bombers Gentile fired one long and two short bursts from 500 yards. The 190 smoked and dove straight into the ground. Gentile pulled out at 8,000 feet and went back up.
On the 25th the group was protecting the heavies over the Stuttgart ball-bearing plant and the Augsburg Me 110 factory when FWs attacked. A lone B-17 at 10,000 feet was taking a beating. Gentile led his section down from 25,000 feet and picked out an enemy. He fired at 400 and again at 300 yards. From 75-yards behind he could see the strikes from the API as chunks of 190 tore off. German oil covered the P-51 and the pings of departing pieces showered his plane. The 190 plowed into the ground.
Thunderbolt pilots were scoring too. Hub Zemke’s 56th Fighter Group took out fifty-nine enemy aircraft during that week. Francis “Gabby” Gabreski and friends had the 150 gallon drop tanks that could extend the P-47’s range all the was to Leipzig.
On the 20th at 22,000 near Hannover fourteen Me 110 were spotted and Gabby broke for them, diving. The P-47 zeroed in on the second 110 from the rear and opened up from behind. He exploded when the Jug was only 50-yard behind. Line abreast, eight Thunderbolts opened up with their sixty-four .50s. Bob Johnson scored his kill number fourteen.
Gabreski allowed the Thunderbolt’s inertia to carry him on to a 110 in the forward formation and commenced firing at 500 yard with the same result. Johnson was covering Gabby and took down his fifteenth enemy plane. At 50-yards he broke as the plane came apart. Other 110s were suffering the same fate from the squadron as Gabreski hit at a 110 that dived into a cloud.
Zemke found that the 110s were from III/ZG26 and Luftwaffe records indicate that almost all the “damaged” claims from the 56th really ended up as kills. Gabby claimed a damaged also.
On the 22nd Gabreski took down an FW 190 and strafed a field at St. Anthonis, Holland damaging a Dornier parked there. Mike Gladych claimed two 190s in the air.
On the 23rd Zemke was leading the group over Holland. Just as the 56th was due to leave the B-17 to the P-51s they were attacked. Zemke rolled and went down, picking out a 190 with a wingman way behind him. 20mms exploded all around Zemke’s Jug. The wingman had fired with a long lead so he would fly into the shells as he dove. The electric gun sight was out and he tried to use the static post and ring back up sight as he stayed with the 190’s maneuvers easily. Soon down to tree top level and having no luck with the deflection shots that used 300 rounds, he wisely broke off.
By the 25th few Luftwaffe planes were seen and none pressed attacks.
At Arnheim, Holland Hein Knoke’s squadron got the alert of “concentrating enemy forces” as the bomber clusters wended their way eastward.
Heinz Knoke missed a Fortress and went with no claim on the 20th, but on the 22nd attacked one in a thirty-plane formation. Though the B-17 attempted to evade, the Bf 109G’s shells drove home and the crew bailed from the flaming Fort.
At 1600 on the 25th, with many comrades lost, he again climbs his Gustav to 15,000 and is met by planes from his 3rd squadron, vectored by ground control. “Climb to 25,000 due north…many heavy babies approaching over the sea sector Dora-Dora,” was the call.
He checked his supercharger, RPM, boost, oil and coolant temps as he climbed to 33,000 feet. Ground control informed him to watch for enemies to the left in sector Seigfried-Paula. The sight of 600-800 bombers 6,000 feet below with their vapor trails was awesome. He checked his Revi sight and guns, and then peeled off to dive in a frontal attack.
Thunderbolts were coming down behind them though. Knoke held the stick with both hands and, with forefinger and thumb, depressed his triggers feeling the recoil shake the plane. A wing crumpled on a B-17 though he wanted to hit the cabin.
But that was the only pass on the heavies possible since the Thunderbolts were all over the 109s. Knoke flicked around trying to gain firing position but always had several P-47s behind him. They were only outnumbered four or five to one in the melee until some P-38s join in.
A close miss forced Knoke into his favorite evasion maneuver- a tight climbing corkscrew. Looking below with another 109 to he right they saw four Lightnings down to the left and went after them.
But Knoke over shot and was now in the P-38’s sights. He pushed over into a tight spiral dive. Rivets pop from the wing root and the G force pummel him as he pulls out. Just then the P-38 streaked by trailing flame. His mate, Wenneckers, had saved him.
On February 21st top French ace, Pierre Closterman, got a scramble call. He was soon in his special high altitude Spitfire VII, one of two, climbing to a radar contact at 40,000 feet. Thinking it was one of the Ju 86P high altitude recon craft he vectored in.
Thinking of cutting off the retreat, the Spits strained up to 41,000 feet. To their surprise, they spotted a Bf 109G with drop tanks painted pale gray over sky blue and no nationality markings.
The German dived, no doubt using GM-1 nitrous oxide boost, Closterman reckoned, and speeds soon hit 600 MPH at 27,000 feet! Wingman Ian Blair, was ahead of Closterman and at 10,000 feet fired from 600 yards distance. The 109 tore apart. But by 8,000 feet both Spits gently pulled out to avoid crumpling the wings and returned safely to base. Perhaps the 109 was looking for where all those bombers had come from the day before!
EPILOGUE
General Hap Arnold declared the week successful. 3,300 bombers of the 8th and 500 of the 15th Air Forces had taken on the Luftwaffe. Later days saw better-coordinated escort from the 3,673 fighters involved too. 137 American bombers were lost with 2,600 KIA, missing and wounded. The British lost 157 during coordinated night raids.
But more importantly, Luftwaffe records showed, and General Galland agreed, a loss of 433 pilots killed, 341 missing and 277 wounded plus 2,121 aircraft destroyed in February. 10,000 tons of bombs were dropped during Big Week by American, and 9,198 tons at night by the British bombers. The 90% loss of production disruption was never really recovered from and it paved the way for D-Day in June by seriously weakening the Luftwaffe who conceded air superiority to the Allies.
Never again would the U.S. commit its entire aerial force. 1,000 plane raids would hammer the Reich and the Luftwaffe would put of fierce local defense but never its entire force again.
Lt. William Lawley received the Congressional Medal of Honor and Sgt. Mathies and Lt. Truemper got posthumous ones while DFC and Air medals were handed out like aspirins.
BIBLIOGRAPHY:
Baker, David
Adolph Galland
Windrow & Greene Ltd, London, 1996
Closterman, Pierre
The Big Show
Chatto & Windus Ltd. GB, 1951
Gabreski, Francis
A Fighter Pilot’s Life
Orion Books, NY, 1991
Galland, Adolph
The First And The Last
Ballantine Books, NY, 1954
Infield, Glenn
3,800 Bombers vs. The Luftwaffe
Atlas Publishing, NY 1963
Knoke, Heinz
I Flew For The F?ºrher
Berkley Publishing Corp, NY 1953
Johnson, Robert
Thunderbolt
Ballantine Books, NY, 1958
Spagnuolo, Mark M.
Don S. Gentile
College Press, MI, 1986
Zemke, Hubert
Zemke’s Wolfpack
Pocket Books, NY, 1988
