The Rise Of Doolittle's Battle

The attacks on Hamburg were not a turning point of the war as Bomber Command’s fortunes had completely disappeared once they started targeting Berlin, where their loss rates peaked to unacceptably high levels. Therefore Gee made less of an impact in assisting the Allied strategic bombing of Germany compared to Window. However the impact on Hamburg caused by Window was relatively short-lived because the Germans countered. On the other hand the long range escort fighters, disposable fuel tanks and The Thousand Bomber raids had a long-lived impact. The P-51 Mustang was an important aircraft in the war that had an American airframe and a British Rolls-Royce ‘Merlin’ Engine. Disposable fuel tanks, which increased the Allied fighter’s range were loaded onto the P-51 Mustang and by March 1944, the modified Mustang had a 1800 mile armed range and could fly with the bombers to Berlin and back. Richard Ovary said ‘The long-range escort fighter transformed the air war overnight.’ Lastly the thousand-bomber raid on 30th to 31st May 1942 against Cologne saw the destruction of a third of the inner zone of Cologne along with the destroying of 20000 houses and the evacuation of 200000 people.

The Germans were losing aircraft and pilots fast; Hitler postponed Operation Sea Lion. Germany had lost. The fighter pilots of the battle of Britain had saved Britain from invasion, but many of its major cities were severely bombed. German U boats and surface vessels also began a new campaign.

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

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

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

When the United States entered the war in 1941 the conflagration had been raging for two years. The strategic decision made by the allied powers was “Germany First” (Morton 11). That is to say that they allies decided to concentrate resources in Europe before turning towards the Pacific. One of the key strategies employed was strategic bombing (Stockings 6-20). In this the allies would attack from the air, the enemies ability to wage war by destroying infrastructure, war production, fuel supplies and the like. A prime target on the attack list was the German oil production facilities at Ploesti in Romania.

The Doolittle Raid was to strike back at japan for the things they did in pearl harbor. The Doolittle Raid took place on April 18, 1942. It was the first airaid by America to strike the homelands of japan. The bombing was led by lieutenant colonel Jimmy Doolittle. By the calculations Doolittle thought that the twin engine B-25 could be launched from an aircraft carrier 500 miles away from japan, will a two thousand pound bomb load. There goal was to hit key factories and military areas. They wanted to bomb tokyo and still have enough fuel to make it to china so they did not land in enemy territory. Doolittle ordered to get 24 bombers and 24 different crew to complete the mission. The pilots needed to learn how to take off those big bombers in a short distance. Because the aircraft carrier was not that long. They had to make modifications to lighten the big bomber up so it could get off the ground and to compensate for the 2,000 pounds of bombs that each crew had. By April 17 The bombers were ready for their mission. Each of the bombers had carried four 500 pound bombs, two 50. caliber machine guns in the upper turret, a 30. caliber machine gun in the nose, and several extra big cans of fuel. For the rear guns they used painted black broomsticks to save weight, But to hopefully discourage the enemy from attacking from that direction.On April 18th still 650 miles from japan the U.S had to launch because they saw a japanese picket boat. 12 hours and 650 miles away they decided to launch to be safe because they thought that the picket boat might have warned japan that the americans were coming. The weather was bad with rain and heavy wind, sometimes the wind would gust over 20 knots. None of the men had taken the planes off from an aircraft carrier before so that had made the men nervous that they would fail. All of the planes launched good, in less than an hour all of the 16 planes had launched successful. All of the

"World War 2 was a war fought in two distinct phases. The first was the last war of a new generation. The second was emphatically the first of a new era" . <br><br>"The British strategic bomber campaign was of doubtful cost effectiveness" . Bomber Command was by far the largest claimant on labour and factory space within the armed forces. Relative to their size they suffered more casualties than any other sector. <br><br>The Anglo-American bomber force was divided in terms of strategy. Bomber Command believed it was too risky to bomb by day, while the Americans believed it was too difficult to bomb by night. Initially both forces lacked accurate navigational equipment, which deterred them from precision bombing. <br><br>Germany developed a

After the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, President Roosevelt wanted to find a way to get back at Japan. A mission, which became known as the Doolittle Raid, was planned to strike back at Japan.

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.”

The returning group swung wide right to avoid the approaching 492nd. In the confusion of the maneuver the fighter escorts followed the returning group, leaving the 492nd without fighter cover. The Luftwaffe realized the 492nd was unprotected and their fighter planes pounced on the bombers, sending many of them flaming and falling from the sky.

Imagine watching EVERYTHING fall, just collapse before your eyes. The synging sensation so undeniably torturing, that you almost feel as if it were calling your name. Beckoning you to come closer, almost with a mocking tone. Death and destruction reaching out to you with their malevolent intentions and relentlessly grasping for you with ice cold fingers. This was the spine chilling notice of which forcefully encouraged James Doolittle to take part in the fiery horse called war. Doolittle knew, he would of course become involved in the aviation industry, and he was later known as the first man not only to fly across the world in less than twenty four hours, but he did so in less than twelve! Although, for someone of his audacious nature,

The doolittle raids was an important event in history. The raid was on April 18, 1942. It was also known as the Tokyo raid. It was an air raid by the U.S. on Tokyo and at different areas on the island of Honshu. The planes used were B-25s. This was during world war two. They took a boat and got closer to Japan and when the were close enough the planes took of on the boat.

However, by the end of July, the RAF had lost 150 aircraft while the Luftwaffe had lost 268. These figures illustrate that there was a much greater loss of aircraft experienced by Germany than the British. These large losses of planes from the outset of a battle would have been a significant blow to any army however, this would have damaged German morale as a greater loss of planes was not something they would have contemplated and as they were coming into this battle with such high expectations, this would have been a significant blow to the Luftwaffe and a stern wake up call to their commanders. However, Britain too was suffering, it was the loss of trained pilots that was crippling the RAF, and the real battle had yet to begin. In August, the Luftwaffe changed their tactics and started to attack Fighter Command's airfields, operation rooms and radar stations - the idea being that the RAF

During the Battle of Britain, Germany wanted to achieve air superiority but ultimately failed to defeat the Royal Air Force (RAF). Hitler ordered the Lufwaffe to destroy the RAF in preparation for Operation Sealion which was Germany’s invasion plan for Britain. Although numerous factors contributed to Hitler’s decision to attack Britain, in keeping with his “one front at a time” war methodology, Hitler wanted to secure the Western Front prior to invading the Soviet Union. Initially, directed by Hermann Goering (commander-in-chief of the Lufwaffe) Germany targeted Britain’s coastal areas and convoys, airports, and vital British air warning and radar