Warbird Information Exchange

20th February marks 70 years since the beginning of the 1944 'Big Week', the week long Allied combined bomber offensive against German industrial and aviation targets. These missions were partly responsible for weakening the Luftwaffe prior to Operation Overlord, although the degree to which 'Big Week' neutered the German Air Force's strength is still up for debate (and indeed, has been debated in several publications) - always intrigued to hear people's thoughts on this one!

I've written an article looking at the role played by the RAF, USAAF 8th & 15th Air Forces during the conflict, and how it played into the Overlord operations less than four months later - please do have a read if you feel so inclined!

http://globalaviationresource.com/v2/2014/02/20/d-day-70-pt-3-operation-argument-the-big-week-bomber-offensive-february-1944/

I've read the book several times and had many discussions with historians on this campaign. Its clear that the top brass knew about Overlord and had major concerns about the German air force, so Big Week had two specific functions, one was to bomb targets deep inside Germany, thus drawing on reserves that could have been sent to the suspected landing areas on D-Day but also to draw the German fighters up into battle with the now escorted Bombers.

There is plenty of commentary from German sources that admit, while superficially it appeared the USAF was sacrificing its aircrews, they did succeed in wiping out the effectiveness of the Germans to respond to any major event other than the Eastern Front, which we all know was Hitler's major concern. So many kids in the USAF died but I have read that the casualties at Normandy could have been double if the Germans had been able to respond with an effect air force.

Lets not forget the success of the raids as well, bomber crews at that stage of the war were area bombing with significant results in stopping or slowing German arms manufacture, again drawing on manpower and materials that could have been deployed to the combat areas. Unlike some of the British bombing raids the US raids were specific in their efforts to knock out areas that clustered around factories of importance, coupled with the high loss rate of experienced pilots who had to deal with the likes of the P-51 and P-47's It's my opinion that on the surface it appeared to be a waste of men and machines, but a look at the bigger picture shows just how brave these crew were to continue this major effort in the lead up to D-Day. I saw it written somewhere - They sacrificed theirs lives so others could live.
It deserves a quality movie to be made that looks at all the behind plans and how 'big Week' got the ball rolling.

_________________
Peter
ESAD (E-Science and Digitalisation)

Big Week allowed the Allies to conclusively re-establish air superiority over Germany, which had been temporarily lost after the Schweinfurt raids. The natural progression after Big Week were the daylight raids on Berlin. While the losses were very high on the March 6th raids with 69 bombers lost, the most on any 8th AF mission, the AAF returned to Berlin on March 8th and 9th to far fewer losses. These raids proved that the AAF could go to any target of their choosing and the Luftwaffe could not stop them. Once General Doolittle changed the mandate for VIII Fighter Command from "Bring the bombers home" to "Destroy the Luftwaffe", the Luftwaffe simply could not win a war of attrition over their own soil. The air battles of April 1944 robbed the Luftwaffe of many of their most skilled pilots, who could have given the Allies quite a headache on June 6, 1944. Instead, Eisenhower was able to tell his troops "If you planes overhead, they will be ours". Big Week was critical for Eisenhower to be able to make that kind of statement.