Air warfare during Operation Overlord
The aerial warfare during Operation Overlord is one of the most important aerial battles of the Second World War , alongside the Battle of Britain , the porter battles in the Pacific and the strategic aerial warfare against the German Reich . It took place between April and August 1944 during the Allied landing in northern France (→ Operation Overlord ).
The Allied landing in Normandy was also made possible by the air superiority of the Allied forces. Before June 6, 1944, the so-called D-Day, the Allied air forces prepared the invasion. They bombed German supply lines, artillery batteries and supported the French Resistance from the air with ammunition and equipment.
During D-Day, Allied fighters secured the airspace over the landing area, and bomber squadrons attacked German positions in the hinterland. To protect the armada and the supply ships, allied planes searched the sea for German submarines. Since the Germans had believed in a landing on the Strait of Calais and in some cases still believed in June 1944 (→ German situation in Normandy in 1944 ), they were only able to oppose the Allies with a few fighters on D-Day. Most of the associations had recently been relocated further inland.
After D-Day, the Allies supported their offensives on the ground with concentrated bombing. Allied fighter-bombers searched Normandy for German troop units and fired at them to prevent an operation against the land forces. The German Air Force could hardly oppose the Allied air forces and the advance on the ground. The German Wehrmacht hoped to use “miracle weapons” such as “lightning bombers” and jet fighters (which, however, were not used), but above all through the use of battle-tested tank divisions, to repel the invasion. In addition, the German Wehrmacht attacked British cities with the " retribution weapons " V1 and V2 .
The Allied air forces were able to carry out all tasks assigned to them, albeit with a delay, as in the case of the Battle of Caen, due to bad weather. The extent of the forces deployed was previously unmatched, the loss of almost 17,000 Allied crews within less than three months was the highest personal and material casualty in the history of the air war. The German Air Force was unable to decisively counter the Allied superiority. The attempt to stop the Allied advance by a massive counter-attack during unfavorable flying weather in the winter of 1944 also failed ( Battle of the Bulge , Operation Bodenplatte ).
Background, planning and situation of the war opponents
Allies preparing for Operation Overlord and assignments for the Air Force
On January 11, 1944, the Allied air raids began in direct connection with preparations for Operation Overlord . Until the beginning of the invasion, the missions had the following objectives, which were pursued in parallel:
- Supply of the resistance groups in occupied France ( Resistance ) with weapons and equipment that were used to carry out sabotage operations.
- Attack on the near-completion German missile launching bases on the Channel coast ( Operation Crossbow ).
- Attacks against German transport facilities in the future landing area, mainly against facilities of the German-controlled French railways ( Transportation Plan ).
- Attacks against facilities of the German Air Force, in particular against bases of the Reich Defense and their final assembly plants.
As early as four months before Operation Overlord was carried out, the Allies carried out a series of air strikes against targets on the Channel coast, the Dutch coast and targets in the Reich, sometimes to test the defense readiness of the German Air Force. In these operations, known to the Allied crews as Big Week , it was found that the Allied air forces could achieve air supremacy anywhere and at any time .
In addition, in April 1944, oil storage facilities in the production area around the Romanian city of Ploesti and hydrogenation plants in the German Reich were attacked, which led to a shortage of aviation fuel and further restricted the air force's freedom of movement.
Allied air forces involved
Air Chief Marshal Trafford Leigh-Mallory was Commander in Chief of the Allied Expeditionary Air Force (AEAF) and thus the largest and most versatile air armada of all time . Under his command were airborne fleets, tactical air fleets, strategic air fleets, the coastal command of the Royal Air Force and the "Air Defense of Great Britain".
Airborne fleets
- No. 38 Group AEAF and No. 46 RAF Transport Command with a total of 478 transport aircraft and 1,120 gliders for airborne operations.
- 9th Troop Carrier Command of the 9th Air Force with a total of 813 transport aircraft and 511 cargo gliders .
Tactical air fleets
Development history
During the western campaign in 1940 , the methods of the Allied air forces, especially the Royal Air Force, were still unsatisfactory against the rapidly advancing units of the German land army. The units intended for close air support , which were equipped with obsolete Fairey Battle aircraft, had been almost completely wiped out without achieving any tactical successes worth mentioning.
During the Africa campaign , which for Great Britain represented a continuation of the land war against the German Reich, this deficit was made up by both the RAF and the American air forces. The Royal Air Force's first tactical air fleet was the Desert Air Force (DAF). This unit, made up of various fighter and bomber commands, developed important, pioneering methods for later tactical air fleets, such as the use of forward air controllers (in English: forward attack directors).
On the American side, the 9th Air Force was formed on November 12, 1942 from the US Army Middle East Air Force (USAMEAF) in North Africa. Existing aircraft types were converted for use against ground troops in a tactical situation , attack patterns were tested, and the prerequisites for the creation of specialized tactical air fleets were created.
British 2nd Tactical Air Force and American 9th Air Force
When the Africa Corps was defeated in 1943, the tactical units were relocated to England and combined into two large air fleets, the British Second Tactical Air Force (2nd TAF) and the American 9th Air Force .
Both air fleets were aligned to the circumstances of a planned invasion and accompanied the Allied ground troops from the landing in Normandy until the end of the war. The equipment was subsequently completed by new aircraft types and special ammunition, such as the Hawker Typhoon , equipped with unguided air-to-ground missiles for fighting tanks.
On June 6, 1944, the 2nd Tactical Air Force and the 9th Air Force had a total of approximately 2,600 aircraft, including fighters, fighter-bombers, light and medium bombers, reconnaissance aircraft and artillery monitors.
Strategic air fleets
- Royal Air Force Bomber Command (Strategic Bomber Command of the Royal Air Force, Commander in Chief Arthur Harris ) consisted of 82 squadrons with a total of 1,681 aircraft on June 6, 1944.
- 8th Air Force , since February 22, 1944 under the command of the United States Strategic Air Force (USSTAF) and its Commander in Chief General Carl Spaatz . The air force, referred to in German as the 8th US Air Force and in American military jargon as the "Mighty Eighth" (mighty eighth), was the largest of all the air fleets involved. It consisted of over 2,800 aircraft and also had large escort fighter units.
Royal Air Force Coastal Command
16th and 19th Group with a total of 63 squadrons, which on June 6th comprised 678 operational aircraft, 549 of them from units of the Royal Air Force . The main task was to carry out Operation Cork . In addition, the Allied naval forces were supported in the defense against speedboats and other light surface vessels and supply lines on the coast were attacked.
Air Defense of Great Britain (ADGB)
The 10th , 11th , 12th and 13th Group with a total of 45 squadrons were provided to defend the British Isles . Some of these units were subordinated to the 2nd Tactical Air Force for a short time and took part in a variety of operations that went far beyond the defense of British airspace.
Defense plan of the German Air Force
The role of the air force
After the war winter of 1943/44 there was a crisis of confidence between the Commander-in-Chief of the Air Force Hermann Göring and Hitler. Göring, Hitler's closest confidante since the failed coup in 1923, had repeatedly made empty promises during the war. So in 1940 he wanted to destroy the British Expeditionary Force in Dunkirk by the air force, but succeeded in successfully evacuating almost 340,000 Allied soldiers. In August 1940 he wanted to overthrow the Royal Air Force within four days, but failed in the Battle of Britain . The air supply he had promised to supply the enclosed 6th Army in Stalingrad over the winter of 1942-43 failed. Goering had even claimed to be able to completely protect the Reich against Allied air raids.
The hope of strong land forces and Göring's capital misjudgments meant that Hitler did not entrust the defense of the possible invasion beaches to the air force. He chose Field Marshal Erwin Rommel, the commander with great experience in ground combat against Allied troops.
Hitler himself intended to direct the deployment of the Luftwaffe, in particular the deployment of "lightning bombers" to combat landed Allied troops. The actual activity of the Luftwaffe was limited within the framework of the Steinbock operation to single night raids, such as on April 29, 1944 against Portsmouth with 100 bombers. Together with the use of V weapons , this formed the so-called long-range combat offensive.
Loads of bombs dropped over England:
- 1943: 2,298 tons
- 1944: 9,151 tons (including V weapons)
The defensive precautions were limited to the relocation of some anti-aircraft batteries from the Reich territory to the Atlantic coast. With the relocation of airborne units the Wehrmacht High Command wanted to “ wait until the last moment. "
The scenarios considered by the Wehrmacht High Command focused on field battles against airborne troops and army formations of the allied invading army. Aspects of air warfare in this context were neglected. Field Marshal Erwin Rommel , who inspected the defenses of the future western front, found that an invading army would have to be repulsed by the defenders before the bridgehead was built. Rommel himself concentrated on the provision of armored formations and the expansion of defense systems. How to counter the air superiority of the enemy remained open.
From April, the military prerequisites for an invasion on the Allied side were considered to be given by the Wehrmacht High Command. Any delay in the attack was seen as an advantage for the defenders, as they could use the time to set up additional army units and to expand defenses. It was recognized that the reason for the delay might have to do with the flight weather situation, but no steps were taken to ensure air superiority over the possible combat areas.
Units available at the time of the Allied invasion
On June 6, 1944, apart from the 39 outdated Junkers Ju 88s of destroyer squadron 1 (ZG 1), only the two permanently stationed Jagdgeschwader 2 (JG 2 " Richthofen ") and Jagdgeschwader 26 (JG 26 " Schlageter ") intended. The number of operational machines of the two squadrons was 119, which corresponds to an operational readiness of less than 50%.
In addition, there were a total of 154 horizontal bombers from various combat squadrons and 36 fighter-bombers from battle squadron 4 (SG 4) within range of the combat area.
Allied operations before D-Day
Reconnaissance flights
In order to be able to better coordinate the landing on the beaches, the bombardment and also the ship fire, the Allies regularly flew reconnaissance flights over Normandy. So that the reconnaissance flights of the Allies did not reveal the invasion area, they flew three missions over the Pas-de-Calais, while they flew one over the Normandy.
Transportation plan
The "Transportation Plan" was a strategic plan by Professor Solly Zuckerman , an advisor to the Air Ministry during World War II.
The idea was that the destruction of all transport facilities in occupied France would most likely prevent the German armed forces from repelling the invasion. This meant the destruction of the French railway junctions, the shunting stations and the maintenance facilities. There was criticism of this plan from, among others, Arthur Harris and Carl Spaatz , the commanders of the bomber units. A competing plan was the Oil Plan.
The plan was nevertheless approved, and in April 1944 Charles Portal gave direct orders to attack the railroad facilities in Trappes, Aulnoye, Le Mans, Amiens, Longueau, Courtrai and Laon. At the beginning of June, 1,500 of the 2,000 steam locomotives in France were unable to operate due to the air raids in the course of the Transportation Plan.
Eisenhower wrote to Marshall and Roosevelt:
- " I consider the transport plan as indispensable to the preparations to Overlord. There is no other way this tremendous Air Force can help us, during the preparatory period, to get ashore and stay there. "
- (German: " I consider the transport plan to be indispensable for the preparations for Overlord. There is no other way for this fabulous air force to help us in the preparation phase to get to the coasts and to keep us there ").
Operation Cork
The aim of Operation Cork was to prevent the breakthrough of German submarines from the Bay of Biscay or the Atlantic to the landing areas and the Channel coast. For this purpose, the sea area between southern Ireland, Cornwall and the Brest peninsula was patrolled by submarine hunters by day and night . Within two weeks of the start of the invasion, 20 submarines were sunk and several others were damaged. Six out of seven destroyers of the German navy that were moored in Brest or Le Havre were turned off and numerous speedboats sunk.
D-Day (June 6th)
Air landings
Shortly after midnight, the British 6th Airborne Division landed on the eastern flank of the landing area north of Caen and east of the Orne . A fleet of 606 four-engine transport aircraft and 327 cargo gliders were deployed. The precision in reaching the planned “ drop zones” ( DZ) was remarkable, Leigh-Mallory described the action as the greatest navigational achievement of the war so far. By four o'clock in the morning, all of the operational goals of the airborne division, which included securing two bridges, had been achieved.
A completely different situation emerged on the western flank of the landing area. The 338 Douglas C-47 transporters and the 229 cargo gliders, which were supposed to bring the 82nd US Airborne Division to its "Jump Zone" in the center of the peninsula, came under heavy fire from flak over the coast. 23 C-47s and two cargo gliders were shot down, many were pushed aside by evasive maneuvers. In addition, there was a strong tailwind, which meant that the parachutists and the cargo gliders landed between five and 40 kilometers away from their “jump zone”. Nevertheless, smaller groups were able to come together and carry out their tactical tasks, as there was great confusion among the German defenders. On the second day after the invasion, only 2000 of the 6000 dismissed troops were united with their unit.
The 101st Airborne Division fared no better than the 82nd Airborne Division. These strongly dispersed units, which were brought to their destination by 443 C-47s and 82 gliders, were able to fulfill their task, which included conquering the small town of Sainte-Mère-Église .
The three airborne divisions suffered losses of more than 3,000 men in the first three days of the invasion.
Support for landings and use of heavy bombers
Between three and five in the morning, over a thousand British Halifax bombers from Bomber Command attacked 26 selected coastal batteries and other fortified positions along the French Atlantic coast. Of the 8th Air Force, 2,600 heavy bombers took part in the widely distributed attacks. Although little of it could be seen from the field of view of the landing zones, all but two of the selected coastal batteries were destroyed. A total of 25 machines from both strategic air fleets were lost.
Eisenhower said in his D-Day address:
- “ Don't worry about the planes overhead. It'll be our own. "
The use of strategic bombers for tactical purposes before and during the invasion was partially criticized by the commanders of the bomber fleets. Arthur Harris, as the commander of the British Bomber Command, considered an intensification of the strategic air war against the cities in the Reich area to be expedient for a quick end to the war. Carl Spaatz as commander in chief of the American strategic air fleets was in favor of an offensive against the oil reserves of the German Reich ("Oil Plan") instead of the Transportation Plan.
In the course of the invasion, however, on Eisenhower's orders, area bombardments were often carried out in preparation for a major offensive. This mission was successful, even if many Allied soldiers were victims of inaccurate bombings.
Coastal patrols
During the first three days of the invasion, the airspace over the landing beaches was closely monitored. From the surface to 600 meters above sea level, the airspace was divided into a western attack zone ( Western Assault Area , WAA) and an eastern attack zone ( Eastern Assault Area , EAA). Three squadrons each from the Royal Air Force or the Royal Canadian Air Force monitored the Western Assault Area and the Eastern Assault Area. The units were composed of units of the 2nd Tactical Air Force and the Air Defense of Great Britain. Above 600 meters above sea level, the airspace over the entire attack zone was monitored without interruption by three squadrons of the 9th Air Force.
For D-Day it had been ordered that two aircraft squadrons should patrol the airspace at all times during the night. Care had to be taken that the Allied aircraft could also be recognized as such, since the ship's crews shot at every unknown aircraft.
On June 6th alone, 2,300 individual missions were flown by around 650 fighters to protect the attack zones over Normandy.
All other tactical units were deployed to support the landing forces directly against the coastal defenses and against supply lines in the hinterland.
German reactions and first dogfights
Due to the surprise at the location of the invasion, the Germans did not respond with a large counterattack from the air. At the time of landing on the morning of June 6th, there were exactly two German aircraft, flown by Lieutenant Colonel Josef Priller and Sergeant Heinz Wodarczyk , which attacked the Allied landing forces (also shown in the 1962 film " The Longest Day "). All other aircraft had been moved inland on June 4, as the previous airfields were considered to be too threatened.
The first aerial combat occurred shortly before noon south of Caen , the last in the air space over Évreux and Bernay around 9 p.m.
Allied air force losses that day amounted to 55 fighters and 11 medium-weight bombers, as well as 41 troop transports and heavy bombers. Of the 55 fighter planes, 16 were lost to aerial combat, all the others to flak or accidents.
The Luftwaffe lost 18 fighters and four medium-weight bombers on D-Day, as well as 12 light bombers of the type Ju 87 , which were on a rendition flight.
The air war in the aftermath
June 7th - day one after D-Day
Organized airfield construction
On the second day of the invasion, the Allies brought special units to Normandy, which were tasked with the construction and defense of field airfields (English: Advanced Landing Grounds , ALGs). On the British side, these were so-called service command units (SCUs, roughly translated: "operating command unit"). These special forces were already in use in North Africa from 1942.
They brought trucks - laden with tents, fuel, ammunition and anti-aircraft guns - to predetermined sections of the terrain that were intended for the construction of advanced field airfields. Together with the Service Command Units came Airfield Construction Groups (ACGs, roughly translated: “Airfield installation squads”), which were around 800 men strong and carried heavy equipment such as bulldozers , rollers and large rollers made of lattice steel. They were able to set up an airfield with the necessary electrical installations, crew rooms and communication facilities in a short time, while service command units secured the site. As soon as the airborne unit and its infrastructure had taken over the airfield, the Service Command Units moved on and prepared the construction of the next fully equipped airfield (= Advanced Landing Ground).
On June 7, two Airfield Construction Groups and four Service Command Units arrived with the landing forces; the first emergency runways were operational on the same day. Four Advanced Landing Grounds had been completed by June 10, and 25 within a month.
The United States Army Air Forces brought Engineer Aviation Battalions as a combination of the aforementioned Service Command Units and Airfield Construction Groups to Normandy on June 9th. The designation was continuous with "B" for the British and "A" for the American airfields, i.e. B.1, B.2, or A.1, A.2 etc.
The possibilities of tactical air warfare improved enormously for the Allies thanks to the short approach of the fighter-bombers from the Advanced Landing Grounds. The pressure and the speed of the Allied advance were thereby significantly increased.
Heaviest dogfights of the Normandy campaign
On the day after the invasion, all available fighter squadrons from the German Reich were brought to the invasion front. In addition, fighter-bomber squadrons were moved to the coast in order to fight the Allied landing fleet or the supply route of the same. While the number of individual missions by the Allied air forces reached roughly the same level as on the day of the invasion, the air force missions doubled. The Allied losses that day were the heaviest of the entire Normandy campaign, with 89 fighters and fighter-bombers. 16 of them were lost in aerial battles, but the majority were lost to flak or accidents. The Luftwaffe lost 71 aircraft, including 13 Ju 88 medium bombers. With the loss of 160 aircraft on both sides in one day, June 7, 1944 ranks fourth in the air battles with the highest losses in history after July 7, 1943 (approx. 350 aircraft lost , Operation Citadel ), August 18, 1940 (236 aircraft lost, 60 of them destroyed in the Battle of Britain ) and August 19, 1942 (165 aircraft lost, Operation Jubilee ).
June 10th - the RAF succeeds in bombing a German staff
“On June 10, the command post of Panzer Group West was set up in an orchard near La Caine, 12 miles south of Caen . Here General der Panzertruppen Freiherr Geyr von Schweppenburg [...] put the last splash of color in his plan for the great offensive that was to split the invasion front into two parts. Geyr had successfully led a tank corps in Russia, but never had anything to do with an enemy who dominated the air and he did not bother to camouflage his headquarters. Four large radio cars and several office cars and tents were in the open. "
The day before, the quarters had been identified by the intelligence service and was then confirmed by the air reconnaissance. In the late afternoon, 40 Typhoons and 61 B-25 Mitchell bombers “bombed headquarters with such accuracy that little was left except for the surprised and furious Commander in Chief. According to an eyewitness report, 'all staff officers were killed or wounded and the radio vehicles and most other vehicles were destroyed.' The 7th Army only found out about this catastrophe after 12 hours . "
Geyr's chief of staff, General von Dawans , and 17 other staff officers were buried in a bomb crater. Wilmot notes: “The Germans erected a huge polished oak cross with an eagle and a swastika over it - a suitably impressive monument because this was the grave of Rommel's hopes of being able to counter-attack before it was too late. The wounded Geyr and his battered headquarters were brought back to Paris, and the commander-in-chief in the Caen section was again Dietrich . [Commander of the I. SS Panzer Corps ] He immediately put Geyr's attack plans aside. "
The first German jet fighters are too late
At the time of the invasion, according to the Führer's order, any discussion of whether the jet planes should be used as fighters or bombers was forbidden. At a demonstration of the Me 262 in Insterburg in December 1943, Hitler is said to have said to those present, Göring and Adolf Galland : “ In this plane, which you are presenting to me as a fighter, I see the lightning bomber with which I launched the first and the weakest phase. ".
However, Hitler neglected to issue this decision, and above all to convert the aircraft designed as a fighter into a bomber, by issuing a Führer order. In April 1944, for example, Hitler determined that the design had not been changed until then, that no devices for carrying bombs had been installed and that the work in progress related exclusively to the fighter version. From this point on, Hitler placed the project under his personal supervision. At the time of the invasion, neither the bomber nor the fighter version were operational.
It was not until August 30 that the Chief of the General Staff of the Air Force, General Kreipe , achieved the use of every twentieth Me 262 for test purposes in the hunting sector. These aircraft could therefore not be used in the battle for Normandy.
Use of German mistletoe teams
In mid-June 1944, the Germans moved several of their so-called mistletoe teams to Normandy. These mistletoe teams consisted of an unmanned Junkers Ju 88 , which instead of a pulpit carried a 2800 kilogram shaped charge with a distance fuse and was connected to a Messerschmitt Bf 109 via a buttress . The pilot steered the Junkers from this Messerschmitt machine, then uncoupled his machine and flew back. The first such mistletoe team, the Kampfgeschwader 101 , was deployed on the night of June 24th to 25th. The commodore of the unit, Captain Horst Rudat , flew into the invasion area in four aircraft and, together with the other pilots in his unit, steered the machines loaded with explosives onto Allied ships. The HMS Nith , a British "River class" frigate , was severely damaged by the explosion of a Ju 88 that hit the water in the immediate vicinity . Nine of the crew members died while 26 others were wounded. After the damage, the HMS Nith was brought back to England to be repaired there.
Use of the Allied air forces in the Battle of Caen
The Canadian 1st and British 2nd Armies, with about 115,000 men, were stuck near villages north of Caen held by German units, which is why the Allies initially planned to launch a bomber attack on the villages on July 7, but this was due to the fact refrained from dangerous proximity to their own ground troops. The area to be bombed was then moved further towards Caen. 467 Allied aircraft flew to the target area on the evening of July 7th in clear weather and dropped about 2276 bombs. The bombardment did little damage to the German units, but all the more to the suburbs north of the city, which were largely destroyed, and the French civilians, of whom around 3,000 died. After the Germans managed to shoot down an Allied aircraft with an anti-aircraft gun , three more later crashed over Allied airspace . In addition to the bombardment, ship artillery fired on the city from the beaches.
Alexander McKee said the following about the bombing on July 7th:
- “ The 2,500 tons of bombs made no distinction between friend and foe. If the British commanders believed that they had intimidated the Germans by killing the French, they were very much mistaken. "
When British and Canadian units set out to conquer Caen on July 8th ( Battle of Caen ), strategic bombers were used again in preparation. As on D-Day and before Operation Epsom, 800 Halifax Bomber Command bombers laid a carpet of bombs behind the main battle line, the so-called "bomb line". In 40 minutes they dropped 3,000 tons of high explosive bombs. Then the 2nd TAF fighter-bombers were used to support the ground units and to shield the airspace from the air force. Until July 11th, the districts northwest of the Orne could be taken up to the Orneufer. The German positions on the south-eastern bank were inaccessible at this point, as all bridges in the city had been destroyed.
The plan of Operation Overlord required the immediate conquest of the area between Caen and Falaise, not least because this flat, spacious area was best suited for the construction of new field airfields. On July 18, 1944, a 942 aircraft comprehensive formation of the Allies, consisting of bombers and fighters, was assigned to attack five villages in the area east of Caen in order to facilitate Operation Goodwood for the British 2nd Army. The attacks took place at dusk in the morning of the day and in good weather conditions. Four of the targets were marked satisfactorily by scout planes, with the fifth target the bomber crews had to find the target by another route. Supported by American bombers and fighters, the British planes dropped around 6,800 tons of bombs over the villages and the surrounding area. Two German units, the 16th Field Division (L) and the 21st Panzer Division , were hit very hard by the bombardment compared to the rest of the German units. A total of six Allied aircraft were shot down by German anti-aircraft guns and other ground forces.
A Welsh soldier said to the bomber squadrons:
- “ The entire northern sky, as far as the eye could see, was filled with them [the bombers] - wave after wave, one over the other, stretching east and west, so that one thought it would go no further. Everyone had now left their vehicle and stared in amazement [up into the sky] until the last wave of bombers dropped their bombs and started their return flight. Then the guns began to complete the work of the bombers with an increasingly louder gunfire. "
Afterwards, British and Canadian associations crossed the Orne over bridges northeast of Caen, which were captured on D-Day. The 600 Allied tanks encountered fierce resistance from the German Wehrmacht, and on the first day of the operation 200 British tanks were lost. When the weather deteriorated on July 20th, Operation Goodwood came to a standstill.
"Friendly Fire" in Operation Cobra
The opening of the port of Cherbourg resulted in a heavy concentration of American troops in the area west of Caen. These were to launch a major attack south near Saint-Lô on July 23, which was to initiate Operation Cobra . This attack had to be postponed to July 24th because of the storm that had already stalled Operation Goodwood. On that day, bombers of the US 8th Air Fleet were supposed to prepare the attack and attack targets near Saint-Lô, but the majority of the bombers were recalled because of unsuitable weather. Nevertheless, 350 bombers dropped their bombs under difficult meteorological conditions. This resulted in miscarriages on the Allied side of the "bomb line". Allied airfield A.5 (Chipelle) was hit and parts of the 30th US Infantry Division were hit.
The attack by the ground units was therefore delayed for another day, to July 25 at 11 a.m. This time medium-sized bombers of the 9th Air Force were supposed to support the attack, and again there were false throws in their own units. Within two days of Operation Cobra, the US 30th Infantry Division suffered 700 casualties from its own bombs (“ friendly fire ”). Nonetheless, Operation Cobra became a great success and led to the formation of the Falaise Cauldron .
German aerial reconnaissance and the Arado Ar 234 jet engine
On the morning of August 2, 1944, the German Lieutenant Erich Sommer took off from Juvincourt near Paris with a prototype of the jet-powered bomber and reconnaissance aircraft Arado Ar 234 . It flew at an altitude of 9,200 to 10,000 meters (here the sources vary) at a speed of about 740 kilometers per hour and, during its 90-minute flight, collected more information and photos about the Allied landing head than the conventional reconnaissance aircraft of the German Air Force in the previous eight weeks, flying over the landing head from one end to the other. In the period that followed, crews of the Arado planes regularly flew reconnaissance flights, but this had no further influence on the course of the war, as the Allies had already established a firm base in France.
Allied defense of the German counterattack on August 7th
The rapid advance of the American and British units from Saint-Lô to Avranches opened up the possibility of a counterattack for the defenders. Parts of the 15th German Army, which had been held back at the Pas-de-Calais until then, and parts of the 7th German Army launched a major attack from Mortain in the west in the night from 6 to 7 August To push in the flank of the Allies and subsequently encircle large Allied formations. For this attack, which was called Operation Liège , 300 fighters from German airfields around Paris were supposed to counteract the Allied air raids.
The Allied leadership recognized the major attack early on and the armored units at Avranches were reinforced by two additional American divisions. The leadership of the Allied Air Force stipulated that the Typhoon fighter-bombers of the 2nd Tactical Air Force should only be directed against the advancing German tanks, while the fighters of the 2nd Tactical Air Force, the 9th Air Force and the 8th Air Force had a defense corridor against the Germans Fighter planes erected.
The German counterattack made good progress up to August 7th, ground fog favored the attack and prevented the use of the Typhoons. The 30th US Infantry Division was surrounded by the German tank units on a hill near Mortain. But at noon on August 7th, the fog cleared and excellent flying weather set in. Now, for the first time in this conflict, the fighter-bombers of the 2nd Tactical Air Force encountered a concentration of over 250 tanks and armored vehicles. The German fighter planes were ultimately pushed away from the battlefield after fierce and costly fighting. So the Typhoons could attack the German armored units with missiles and on-board weapons . In the process, they destroyed about two thirds of the tanks. The Liege company had failed.
When the Royal Air Force examined the wrecks on the battlefield, it later became apparent that more vehicles were evacuated prematurely by the crews than were destroyed. Of the vehicles that were destroyed, more vehicles were from anti-tank guns than from air-to-ground missiles. From this it was concluded that the approaching typhoons had a demoralizing effect, similar to the effect known from the German Junkers Ju 87 dive fighter aircraft .
In order to particularly appreciate the performance of the Typhoon pilots, a Typhoon memorial was built in Noyers-Bocage, which, carved in black marble, shows the names of the 151 Typhoon pilots who fell from May to August 1944.
Use of German weapons of retaliation
The aircraft-like V1 developed in Peenemünde-West at the Luftwaffe test site was used for the first time by launching systems on the Channel coast against London on the night of June 12-13, 1944. Up to the capture of the launch facilities ("slingshots") on September 6, 1944, around 8,000 V1s were fired, 29% of which reached the target. The fast Hawker Tempest were mainly used for defense. When the V1 was deployed against London, 6,184 civilians died and a further 17,981 were seriously injured.
A main launch pad was planned in Saint Omer for the V2 flying at supersonic speed , but this could not be put into operation due to ongoing air attacks and the conquest by invasion troops. On September 8, 1944, a V2 was used for the first time from a mobile launch pad, and the rocket was last launched from Dutch islands. By the last shot down on March 27, 1945, 2,724 people had been killed by V2 rockets and 6,467 seriously injured. Hitler's expectation that this weapon would wear down the British population was not fulfilled. However, the will to defeat Germany was strengthened.
26./27. August - German air raid on Paris
After the Allies had conquered the city of Paris in the course of the Battle of Paris on August 25, 1944, 50 German fighter pilots from Air Fleet 3 (Colonel General Deßloch) stationed in Reims dropped bombs on the French capital on the night of August 26th to 27th from. Almost 600 houses went up in flames. The bombing killed 213 people and wounded 914 others.
consequences
From June 6 to June 30, 1944, the Allied Air Force lost 1,284 aircraft, mainly to anti-aircraft guns . A total of 158,000 individual missions were flown during this time.
By the end of August 1944, when the Falaise pocket was dissolved, the Allied losses had risen to 4,099 aircraft and 16,674 aircraft soldiers. Among the lost aircraft, 1,639 belonged to the class of fighters, fighter-bombers or medium bombers. In contrast, the German Air Force lost 1522 fighters alone. The loss rate for fighters in direct aerial combat was 3: 1 in favor of the Allies, two out of three Allied fighters and fighter-bombers shot down were victims of the German and, to a lesser extent, the Allied anti-aircraft guns. The loss rate of the fighter planes is explained by the fact that the German fighters mainly attacked the Allied bomber formations and were attacked by the escorts themselves. The loss rate per mission was six times higher for the German Air Force than for the Allies.
While the Allies were able to compensate for their material losses via intact supply routes, the loss for the German Air Force remained largely unrepaired.
literature
- David Clark: Angels Eight: Normandy Air War Diary . Bloomington 1st Books, 2003, ISBN 1-4107-2241-4 .
- Percy E. Schramm (Ed.): War Diary of the High Command of the Wehrmacht 1944–1945 . Part 1, ISBN 3-7637-5933-6 .
- Tony Hall (Ed.): Operation "Overlord" , Motorbuch Verlag, 2004, ISBN 3-613-02407-1 .
Web links
- Website of the Royal Air Force - Battle formation of the Air Force (English)
- Website of the Royal Air Force - Chronology June 1944 (English)
- RAF Bomber Command Diary
- "Bombing the European Axis Powers: A Historical Digest of the Combined Bomber Offensive, 1939–1945" by Richard G. Davis (PDF; 2.0 MB)
- "XIX Tactical Air Command and Ultra" ( Memento from March 17, 2004 in the Internet Archive ) (PDF; 999 kB)
Sources and Notes
- ↑ Website for documentation of the invasion of Normandy, under: http://www.6juin1944.com/assaut/aeropus/en_page.php?page=statistics ; Accessed at the end of April 2006.
- ↑ a b c Percy E. Schramm (Ed.): War diary of the High Command of the Wehrmacht 1944–1945 , Part 1, ISBN 3-7637-5933-6 .
- ↑ Website of the Royal Air Force - Luftwaffe battle formation under Archived Copy ( Memento of the original from April 25, 2006 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. ; Accessed at the end of April 2006.
- ^ A b Tony Hall (ed.): Operation "Overlord" , ISBN 3-613-02407-1 , p. 130.
- ↑ a b The allied loss figures of the article come from the following publications: PRO document AIR 24/1496 Operations Record Book for 2nd TAF; RAF Fighter Command Losses, Volume 3 , Norman Franks; Ninth Tactical Air Force in WWII , Kenneth Rust; The Mighty Eighth Combat Chronology , Paul Andrews and William Adams.
- ↑ The Luftwaffe casualty figures come from: La Luftwaffe Face Au Debarquement Allie: 6 Juin Au 21 Aout 1944 , Jean-Bernard Frappé, ISBN 2-84048-126-X .
- ↑ Chester Wilmot : Kampf um Europa , Büchergilde Gutenberg, Zurich 1955. The author Wilmot notes: "This representation is based on a questioning of Geyr and one of his staff officers and on my inspection of the place after the air raid." (P. 318) .
- ↑ Wilmot: Kampf um Europa , p. 318.
- ↑ Adolf Galland: The first and the last .
- ^ Yves Lecouturier: Discovery Paths - The Beaches of the Allied Landing , page 102, ISBN 3-88571-287-3 .
- ↑ British Department of Defense: http://www.veteransagency.mod.uk/pdfolder/60th_anniversary/normandy.pdf( Memento of October 28, 2005 in the Internet Archive ) , PDF, p. 5.
- ↑ Tony Hall (Ed.): Operation "Overlord" , ISBN 3-613-02407-1 , page 145 (here the wrong number 270 km / h is given as the speed, the speed given in this text is based on http: // www.faqs.org/docs/air/avar234.html - accessed on June 22, 2006. Hall also specifies an altitude of 10,000 meters, whereas faqs.org speaks of 9,200 meters).
- ↑ Website of the Royal Air Force - overview under Archived copy ( Memento of the original from December 9, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. ; Accessed at the end of April 2006.
