Schweinfurt–Regensburg mission

Schweinfurt-Regensburg mission
Part of World War II
Date August 17, 1943 Location Schweinfurt and Regensburg, Germany Result limited Allied victory
Belligerents
US Eighth Air Force RAF Fighter Command	Luftwaffe
Commanders and leaders
Ira Eaker	Hermann Göring
Strength
376 B-17s 268 P-47 sorties 181 Spitfire sorties	Approx. 400 Me 109, Me 110, FW 190 and other fighters
Casualties and losses
60 bombers, 3 P-47s, and 2 Spitfires lost 7 KIA, 21 WIA, 557 MIA or POW	318 Allied claims, 27 admitted fighter losses 203 civilians killed

The Schweinfurt-Regensburg mission was an air combat battle in World War II. A strategic bombing attack flown by B-17 Flying Fortresses of the U.S. Army Air Forces on August 17, 1943, it was conceived as an ambitious plan to cripple the German aircraft industry. The mission was also known as the "double-strike mission" because it entailed two large forces of bombers attacking separate targets in order to disperse fighter reaction by the Luftwaffe, and was the first "shuttle" mission, in which all or part of a mission landed at a different field and later bombed another target returning to its base.

After being postponed several times by unfavorable weather conditions, the mission was flown on the anniversary of the first bombing mission by the Eighth Air Force. While the first mission had been a shallow penetration of France by twelve bombers of a single bombardment group well-protected by escort fighters to attack a railroad yard, Eighth Air Force Mission Number 84 dispatched 376 bombers of sixteen bomb groups against German heavy industry well beyond the range of escorting fighters.

The mission plan

Because of diversions of groups to the invasion of North Africa, the bomber force in England had been limited in size to four groups of B-17s and two of B-24's until May 1943. At that time, and in conjunction with the Pointblank Directive to destroy the Luftwaffe in preparation for Operation Overlord, the B-17 force had expanded fourfold and was organized into the 1st and 4th Bombardment Wings (which due to their large size would soon be re-designated Bomb Divisions). The 1st Bombardment Wing, which included all of the original B-17 groups, was based in the English Midlands while the 4th Bombardment Wing stations were located in East Anglia.

Pointblank operations in April and July 1943 had concentrated solely on the production of the Fw 190 at factories in Bremen, Kassel, and Oschersleben, and although serious losses to the bomber forces had occurred, the attacks had been successful enough to warrant attacking those manufacturing Me 109s.

The production of ME-109's (and almost half of all German fighters) was located in Regensburg and in Wiener Neustadt, Austria. To attack these in sufficient force, "Operation Juggler" was conceived, in which the fighter production plants in Wiener Neustadt were targeted for attack by B-24 Liberators of the Ninth Air Force based in Libya, and Regensburg by B-17s of the Eighth Air Force. The original mission date of August 7 could not be met because of bad weather, and the B-24s flew Operation Juggler on August 13 without participation by the Eighth Air Force, which was still hampered by unacceptable weather conditions.

B-17F Flying Fortress of the 91st Bomb Group

To successfully complete its portion of the attack, the Eighth Air Force decided to attack a target in central Germany as well as Regensburg to saturate German air defenses. The 4th Bombardment Wing, using B-17s equipped with "Tokyo (fuel) tanks" for longer range, would attack the Me 109 plants in Regensburg and then fly on to bases in North Africa, catching the defenses by surprise. The 1st Bombardment Wing, following it, would turn northeast and bomb the ball-bearing factories of Schweinfurt (where almost the entire production of bearings was centralized) and by doing so catch German fighter aircraft on the ground re-arming and refueling. Because of limited range, escorting P-47 Thunderbolt fighters would be able to protect the bombers only as far as Eupen, Belgium, and most were assigned to the Regensburg mission.

Eighth Air Force bomber operations were calculated with one to two hours of climb and assembly into formations factored into mission lengths. In addition the mission length for the Regensburg force was anticipated to be of eleven hours' duration, so that commanders had only a 90-minute "window" in which to launch the mission and still allow the 4th Bombardment Wing B-17s to reach North Africa in daylight. Mission 84 planning indicated a takeoff window from dawn (approximately 06:30 British Double Summer Time) to approximately 08:00 without cancelling the mission.

At dawn on August 17, after airmen had gone to their airplanes, England was covered in fog. The mission takeoff was delayed until 08:00, when the fog had cleared sufficiently over East Anglia to allow the 4th Bombardment Wing to take off using instruments, a technique they had practiced. Although the timing of the mission was deemed critical to its success, the Regensburg force was ordered to take off, even though the 1st Bombardment Wing remained grounded at its bases by the adverse weather. By the time the fog had sufficiently cleared over the Midlands, the Regensburg force had already reached the coast of the Netherlands, which indicated that reacting German fighters would have sufficient time to land, replenish, and attack the second task force. As a result the launch of the Schweinfurt force was further delayed to allow U.S. fighters time to return to base and rearm for a second escort mission. In all the 1st Wing was delayed more than three hours behind the 4th Wing.

Regensburg strike force

The Regensburg task force was led by the 4th Bombardment Wing commander, Colonel Curtis E. LeMay. It consisted of seven B-17 Groups totalling 146 aircraft, each group but one flying a 21-aircraft combat box tactical formation. The groups were organized into three larger formations termed "provisional combat wings", three groups in a Vee formation wing box leading the procession, followed in trail by two wing boxes of two groups each in echelon formation with one group leading and the second trailing at lower altitude.

Regensburg Task Force organization
Prov. Wing	Group	UK Base	Sent	Losses
403d PCBW	96th Bomb Group	Snetterton Heath	21	0
	388th Bomb Group	Knettishall	21	1
	390th Bomb Group	Framlingham	20	6
401st PCBW	94th Bomb Group	Bury St. Edmunds	21	1
	385th Bomb Group	Great Ashfield	21	3
402nd PCBW	95th Bomb Group	Horham	21	4
	100th Bomb Group	Thorpe Abbotts	21	9
Fighter escort support
Times	Group	Leg	Sent	Claims
1000—1015	353rd Fighter Group	Haamstede to Diest	32 P-47	1
1015—1030	56th Fighter Group	Antwerp to Eupen	40 P-47	0

SOURCE: Decision Over Schweinfurt, Mighty Eighth War Diary

Approximately fifteen minutes after it crossed the coast at 10:00, the Regensburg force encountered the first German fighter interception, which continued with growing intensity nearly all the way to the target area. Several factors weighed against the Regensburg force in this air battle. The arrangement of two groups instead of three in the two following provisional wings meant a third fewer guns available to each for their mutual defense and made them more likely targets. The overall length of the task force was too great, with the last wing formation fifteen miles behind the first and nearly out of visual range. Two groups of P-47s (72 aircraft) had been tasked to escort the force to the German border, but only one arrived at the rendezvous point on time, covering the lead wing, and the second arrived fifteen minutes late. Finally, both P-47 groups were forced to turn back to base after only fifteen minutes of escort duty, without engaging the German interceptors. The last provisional wing in the task force was left without any fighter protection at all.

After ninety minutes of combat the German fighter force broke off the engagement, low on fuel and ammunition. By then at least 15 bombers had been shot down or fatally damaged, 13 from the trailing formation. However anti-aircraft fire ("flak") was light over Regensburg and visibility clear, and of the remaining 131 bombers, 126 dropped 298.75 tons of bombs on the fighter aircraft factories with a high degree of accuracy at approximately noon British time.

The Regensburg force then turned south to cross the Alps, confronted by only a few twin-engined fighters soon forced to disengage by lack of range. The German force had not been prepared for this contingency, but they were also in the process of re-arming to meet the Schweinfurt force, then forming over East Anglia. Even so, two damaged B-17s turned away from the Regensburg task force and landed in neutral Switzerland, where their crews were interned and the bombers confiscated. Another crash-landed in Italy and five more were forced down by lack of fuel into the Mediterranean Sea. In all 24 bombers were lost and more than 60 of the 122 survivors landing in Tunisia had suffered battle damage.

Schweinfurt strike force

The 1st Bombardment Wing, commanded by Brigadier General Robert B. Williams, was made up of nine B-17 groups organized into three combat wings. In a "maximum effort", however, it had a sufficient number of aircraft and trained crews to make four wing boxes. This was accomplished by eight of the nine groups providing a squadron or spare aircraft to form three "composite groups" created for this mission, distributing them among the others to form a fourth wing box. (This concept was possible because combat boxes normally used only three of a group's four squadrons on any given mission, and had been employed several times before.)

While individual group boxes were not as large as usual, the total force counted 230 bombers. The Schweinfurt force was divided into two task forces of two wings (six groups) each and was more than twenty miles long. Gen. Williams personally led the mission, flying as co-pilot of the lead aircraft of the lead formation, the 91st Bomb Group.

Schweinfurt mission organization
Prov. Wing	Group	UK Base	Sent	Losses
(first task force)
201st PCBW	91st Bomb Group	Bassingbourn	18	7
	101st Composite Group		19	6
	381st Bomb Group	Ridgewell	20	9
202d PCBW	351st Bomb Group	Polebrook	21	1
	306th Composite Group		20	0
	384th Bomb Group	Grafton Underwood	18	5
(second task force)
203d PCBW	306th Bomb Group	Thurleigh	21	0
	305th Bomb Group	Chelveston	20	2
	92d Bomb Group	Alconbury	20	2
204th PCBW	379th Bomb Group	Kimbolton	18	0
	103rd Composite Group		17	4
	303rd Bomb Group	Molesworth	18	0

SOURCE: Decision Over Schweinfurt

United States Army Air Forces strategic bombing raid on the ball bearing works at Schweinfurt, Germany.

The Schweinfurt task forces followed the same route as the Regensburg force. Because of the delayed start of the mission, eight squadrons of RAF Spitfire fighters (96 aircraft) from 11 Group and 83 Group had been added to escort the Schweinfurt force as far as Antwerp, where P-47s would take over and escort it to Eupen. The field order for the mission specified that the B-17s would fly at altitudes between 23,000 and 26,500 feet, but approaching the coast of the Netherlands at 1330, it was confronted with developing cloud masses not present earlier in the day. The commander of the first task force estimated that the bombers would not be able to climb over the clouds and elected to fly under them at 17,000 feet, increasing the vulnerability of the bombers to fighter attacks.

The first German attacks began almost immediately and employed different tactics from the morning mission. The lead wing was attacked continuously in head-on attacks by both ME-109 and FW-190 fighters, and although the RAF escorts claimed eight victories they were forced to return to base early in the engagement. The two groups of P-47s (82 aircraft) arrived eight and five minutes late, respectively, and despite some individual combats, they too were forced to break off virtually as soon as they arrived.

Inside German airspace rocket-launching twin-engined fighters, including night fighters, joined the battle as more than 300 fighters from 24 bases opposed the raid. The force diverged from the morning's route at Mannheim, alerting the German defenders that the target was Schweinfurt. Losses among the 57 B-17's of the lead wing were so severe that many among its airmen considered the possibility that the wing might be annihilated before reaching the target. However fifteen miles from Schweinfurt the opposing fighters, after shooting down 22 bombers, disengaged and landed to refuel and re-arm in order to attack the force on its way out. Five miles from Schweinfurt German anti-aircraft guns began firing an effective flak barrage into the path of the bomber force.

At 14:59 approximately 40 B-17s remained of the lead wing when it dropped its bombs on the target area containing five factories and 30,000 workers, followed over a 24-minute span by the remainder of the force. Each wing found increasingly heavy smoke from preceding bomb explosions a hindrance to accuracy. 183 bombers dropped 424.3 tons of bombs, including 125 tons of incendiary bombs.

Three B-17s had been shot down by flak over Schweinfurt. Fifteen minutes after leaving the target each task force circled over the town of Meiningen to reassemble its formations, then continued west toward Brussels. At approximately 15:30 German fighters renewed their attacks, concentrating now on damaged bombers. Between 16:20 and 17:00 a covering force of 86 P-47s and 85 Spitfires arrived to provide withdrawal support, claiming 22 fighters shot down, but eight more bombers were lost before the force reached the North Sea, where three more crash-landed. The Schweinfurt force lost a total of 36 bombers.

Schweinfurt fighter escort support
Times	Group	Leg	Sent	Claims	Losses
Penetration support
1340—1345	11 Group RAF	Walcheren to Antwerp	48 Spitfire	5	0
1340—1345	83 Group RAF	Walcheren to Antwerp	48 Spitfire	4	0
1353—1400	78th Fighter Group	Antwerp to Diest	41 P-47	1	0
1355—1410	4th Fighter Group	Diest to Eupen	41 P-47	0	0
Withdrawal support
1620—1640	56th Fighter Group	Nideggen to Leuven	46 P-47	16	3
1640—1700	353rd Fighter Group	Herstal to Ghent	40 P-47	0	0
1700—1715	11 Group RAF	Ghent to Ostend	48 Spitfire	3	1
1700—1715	83 Group RAF	Ghent to Ostend	37 Spitfire	2	1

SOURCE: Decision Over Schweinfurt, Mighty Eighth War Diary

Results and losses

55 crews with 552 crewmen were listed as missing as a result of the August 17 double-target mission. Approximately half of those became prisoners-of-war, and twenty were interned. 60 aircraft were lost over German-controlled territory, in Switzerland, or ditched at sea, with five crews rescued. 7 aircrew were killed aboard bombers safely returning to base, and 21 wounded.

The 60 aircraft lost on a single mission more than doubled the highest previous loss at that time. 87 additional aircraft were damaged beyond economical repair, or had to be left behind in North Africa because of a lack of repair facilities, for a total loss of equipment to the Eighth Air Force of 147 B-17's (many of the 60 left behind in Africa were repaired and continued service with the Twelfth Air Force). 95 additional aircraft were damaged. Three P-47 Thunderbolts of the 56th Fighter Group and two RAF Spitfires were shot down attempting to protect the Schweinfurt force.

Spitfire pilots claimed 14 German fighters shot down and P-47 pilots claimed 18. Gunners on the bombers claimed 288 fighters shot down, but Luftwaffe records showed only 27 lost.

Destruction of both targets was severe. In Regensburg all six main workshops of the Messerschmitt factory were destroyed or severely damaged, as were many supporting structures including the final assembly shop. In Schweinfurt the destruction was less severe but still extensive. The two largest factories, Kugelfischer & Company and Vereinigte Kugellager Fabrik I, suffered 80 direct hits. 380,000 square feet of buildings in the five factories were destroyed, and more than a million square feet suffered fire damage. All the factories except Kugelfischer had extensive fire damage to machinery when incendiaries ignited the machine oil used in the manufacturing process. Albert Speer reported an immediate 34 per cent loss of production, but both the production shortfall and the actual loss of bearings were made up by extensive surpluses found throughout Germany in the aftermath of the raid. The industry's infrastructure, while vulnerable to a sustained campaign, was not vulnerable to destruction by a single raid. Speer indicated in 1974 that the two major flaws made by the USAAF in the August strike were first in dividing their force instead of all striking the ball-bearing plants, and second, failing to followup the first strike for two months, by which time plans to disperse the industry were well underway.

203 civilians were killed in the strike.

The Schweinfurt mission in particular foretold the failure of deep penetration raids of Germany without adequate long-range escort. The 1st Bomb Wing was over German-occupied territory for three hours and thirty minutes, of which two hours and ten minutes, including all of the time spent over Germany itself, saw no fighter support whatsoever.

This mission was enshrined in fiction as the 'Hambrucken raid' in Beirne Lay and Sy Bartlett's novel, Twelve O'Clock High. It provides a reasonably accurate view of the thinking behind the planners' intention and the decisions that led to the abandonment of the goal of launching a double strike in such a way that the second strike would meet no aerial opposition; and of the action in the air itself. The Schweinfurt portion of the mission also formed the framework for the novel The War Lover, by John Hersey.

External links

• "Balaklava Redeemed", by Maj.Gen. Heywood Hansell, jr., orig. pub. in Air university Review, 1974, a detailed analysis of the concept and leaders by a World War II strategic bombing planner
• Remembering Schweinfurt, by Wally Hoffman, B-17 pilot, 351st BG

Sources

• Bishop, Cliff T. Fortresses of the Big Triangle First (1986), (pp. 69-70). ISBN 1869987004
• Coffey, Thomas M. Decision Over Schweinfurt ((1977), (German losses and destruction at Schweinfurt pp. 52-55, 73-75, 235, 241; US aircraft losses p. 234). ISBN 978-0-679-50763-5
• Freeman, Roger A. The Mighty Eighth (1993 edition), (pp. 67-69). ISBN 978-0-87938-638-2
• Freeman, Roger A. The Mighty Eighth War Diary (1990), (pp. 89-95). ISBN 978-0-87938-495-1