450 B-24's Efforts To Bomb Attack Targets In Germany

Being the real first heavy bomber, the B-29 would start production six years after the B-17 won the USAAC competition. The head of Boeing Aircraft Co. on January 29, 1940, received a letter titled "U.S. Army, Airplane, Bombardment, Specification For". (The Boeing B-29) This would start production of the B-29. After thousands of hours of work, the plane took it maiden flight on September 21, 1942. The plane could carry a whopping 70 tons of cargo, the same amount of weight the Enola Gay carried on its way to Japan. It could fly at 400 miles per hour, almost 200 more miles per hour than its predecessor. The plane could also fly 4 thousand miles. (The Boeing B-29) The most famous B-29, the Enola Gay, dropped the bombs on Japan and forced them to raise the white flag and win the war against the Japanese. The plane was flown by Paul Tibblets and Robert Lewis. These planes helped win the war against the Axis powers and capture Berlin.

The 8th Air Force arrived in England with one main mission, to destroy Germany’s ability to wage war over Europe. They were to do this by flying day bomb runs on a massive scale to compliment the night time raids that the RAF were conducting. These massive formations

Maj. Charles W. Sweeney was the pilot in command. Flew the leading aircraft, Bockscar, which would drop the bomb.

However, because of the unreliability of bomber commands performance the Nazis managed to quickly control the situation. They ensured that no photographs or news reports were published from the bomb stricken reports meaning that the rest of Germany could only gather information from stories and tales. On top of this only a small part of Germany was bombed as the allied forces simply did not have the technology to reach the majority of the Reich. That it was relatively easy for the country to regroup, resulting in heavy retaliation and a continuous growth in German production. However, in the last years of the war bombing technology drastically improved and the attacks were relentless. As opposed to less than one quarter of bombs dropping within five miles of the target, each bomb now hit their target and inflicted maximum damage due to new aiming technology. Bombing raids were now performed twenty-four hours a day, in the night by Bomber Command and in the day by the heavily armoured bombers in the American 8th squadron. 1,500 bombers were now available after a huge increase in production speed, each with the

On the night of September 7, 1940 Germany attacked Great Britain. “About every two minutes a new wave of planes would be over” (Pyle). They targeted the “gigantic dome of St. Paul's Cathedral”, along with many other populated places. “Flames seemed to whip hundreds of feet into the air” (Pyle). The smoke was so bad they you could barely see the St. Paul's Cathedral (“The Bombing of St. Paul's Cathedral, London, September 7,1940”)“On September 4, the Luftwaffe switched tactics again and, on Hitler's orders, set about destroying London and other major cities” (“BBC History-The Battle Of

By the time the Germans launched their air offensive against Fighter Britain 1940 Command had planes ready for immediate action. During the Battle of Britain these figures remained roughly constant as increased aircraft production made good high losses. These 700 or so planes were really all that stood between Hitler and complete victory insofar as all of continental Europe by this time was either Nazi- occupied, neutral or allied with Hitler's Germany. If the RAF failed to deny the Luftwaffe control of the skies, then 'Operation Sealion', the proposed Nazi invasion of Britain, could proceed and there's no doubt that had Hitler's armies crossed the Channel, then Britain would have been knocked out of the war. The fact that the Battle of Britain

During the attack on the morning of December 16th, there were approximately 80,000 United States Army Soldiers in the Ardennes Forest. The Allied Forces had fewer than 250 pieces of armor and nearly 400 artillery guns laid across the 75-mile front. German forces were comprised of a combination of battle-hardened veterans who had fought along the Eastern Front and units filled with inexperienced young men and Soldiers who would usually be considered too old for service. Approximately 250,000 German Soldiers advanced along a 50-mile-long front of Allied Forces with the support of 100,000 tanks and assault guns, including the new 70-ton Tiger II tanks and 1,900 artillery guns. Germany’s 2,000 aircrafts would remain ready for deployment when permitted by weather.

The morale of the German people was not affected enough to effect their war-waging capacity. "Neither a maintenance of productivity nor a rebuilding of industry could have been achieved by means of compulsive but only by virtue of the voluntary response of German workers" . <br><br>It was assumed that bombing raids would be made in the daylight. In August 1940 German bombers suffered heavily in daylight even though they were escorted. This helped to confirm to Bomber Command that night bombing was the best policy. Bomber Command flew night missions over Germany during the winter of 1940-1941 in the belief their bombs had fallen within about 300 yards of their targets. This figure was plainly wrong, a new assumption was made. The R.A.F decided the average error was closer to 1000 yards, which meant that Bomber Command could not be expected to hit targets as small as oil facilities, until they had been equipped with vastly improved navigational aids. The U.S.A.A.F opposed Bomber Commands view, they believed accurate bombing could only be achieved during the day. They assumed unescorted bombers flying in well-designed formations could penetrate the German lines. On 14th October 1943, 60 out 291 flying fortresses were shot down by German fighters during the last major raid on Schweinfurt. The formation had been obliged to fly 400 miles without fighter cover. The Americans suspended daylight

Wednesday evening June 3, aboard the carrier Hornet, Lieutenant Commander John Waldron gathered the members of Torpedo Squadron 8 (VT-8) for a briefing. VT-8 was flying the obsolete 1930’s vintage Douglas Devastators torpedo planes. They had not received a lot of flight training in their ten months in the navy. Most members had never taken off of a carrier carrying a torpedo but just six weeks earlier they had watch Doolittle’s B-25 bombers take off the Hornet for the raid on Tokyo. If Doolittle’s pilots could take off in a bomber, the members of VT-8 could handle taking off with a torpedo. A Japanese task force was threatening Midway Island and a battle to stop them was expected to occur tomorrow. Waldron told them not to worry about navigation but to just follow him. Waldron finished his briefing by

Allied planes were able to drop supplies and attack the German armies as sever fighting raged on. The Americans

Battle of Britain is the name given to the effort by the German air force, run by Luftwaffe to gain air superiority over the Royal Air Force (RAF). The Battle of Britain was the first major battle to be fought entirely by air forces. It was the largest and most sustained bombing campaign to be attempted, as well as the first real test of vital bombing theories developed since World War I. The failure of Nazi Germany to destroy Britain's air force or to break the spirit of the British government or people is considered the Third Reich's first major defeat. Neither Hitler nor the German Army believed it was possible to carry out an assault on the British Isles until the RAF had been overcome. Secondary ideas were to destroy aircraft production and ground infrastructure, they looked to attack areas of political importance, and to terrorize the British people into wanting to surrender. British historians usually date the battle from 10 July to 31 October 1940, which showed the most intense period of bombing. German historians usually place the beginning of the battle in mid-August 1940 and end it in May 1941. With the royal air force having superior aircraft, and more intelligent technology, the RAF was able to overcome and defeat the German air force.

the obsolete and under gunned Douglas Devastators torpedo planes. They had not received a lot of flight training in their ten months in the navy. Most members had never taken off of a carrier carrying a torpedo but just six weeks earlier they had watch Doolittle’s B-25 bombers take off the Hornet for the raid on Tokyo. If Doolittle’s pilots could take off in a bomber, the members of VT-8 could handle taking off with a torpedo. A Japanese task force was threatening Midway Island and a battle to stop them was expected to occur tomorrow. Waldron told them not to worry about navigation but to just follow him. Waldron finished his briefing by handing out a mimeographed message which concluded with "If there is only one plane left to make a final run-in, I want that man to go in and get a hit.”

World War II began September 1, 1939, the day after Germany invaded neutral Poland. Great Britain and France declared war on Germany the two days after the invasion. Throughout the war the bombing of major cities was practiced by both the allies and axis powers. The British and Americans came up with a more accurate and effective bombing tactics. This tactic is called “strategic bombing”.

In 1940, US allies, more specifically the Royal Air Force, conducted several bombing campaigns. These campaigns were in response to German air attacks against the British air force and their assets and focused primarily on the city of Berlin. Throughout these campaigns, over a million tons of bombs were dropped

Although bombing played a key role in destroying Germany and expedited the outcome of the war, it was not the underlying factor responsible for the loss of the war of Germany. Whilst the consequences of Allied bombing are numerous, there are several key ones such as the relationship with Britain and the Soviet Union, its subsequent effect on morale and the economy, along with the significance of bombing on the Eastern Front.