The last part of the "World War II Trilogy", "Air Combat Heroes", is currently on the air, and it can be regarded as the hottest war TV series in 2024. Let's look back at that real history, the 10 major bombing operations of the Eighth Air Force.
1.The Great Bombing of Berlin, where the Eighth Air Force suffered the greatest losses
World War II, especially the bombing of Berlin, the base camp of the Nazis, became the norm in the middle and late periods, and the most well-known and the worst battle of the Eighth Air Force: on March 6, 1944, the Eighth Air Force dispatched more than 700 B-17 Flying Fortresses and B-24 Liberators to Berlin, under the sniper of German fighters and the "meticulous care" of ground anti-aircraft artillery units, a total of 69 bombers and 15 fighters failed to come back, and more than 400 planes were lucky to fly back with different damage,,, The 100th Bomber Flying Regiment lost half of its aircraft in this operation, which earned it the nickname "Bloody Hundredth". ）
2.Bombing of the Schweinfurt bearing plant in Germany (1943).
This was the bombing that made the Eighth Air Force unforgettable, and there were two large-scale bombings of the bearing plant today.
The first time was on August 17, 1943, summarizing that 375 B-17 Flying Fortresses went straight to Schweinfurt in two ways, because of the range of the fighters returned ahead of schedule, under the joint counterattack of the German air and ground forces, 60 bombers did not come back, and more than 80 were permanently scrapped, resulting in the loss of more than 500 crew members (the third episode of the play is the bombing).
The first bombing did not have the desired effect, and had to be repeated on October 14 of the same year, this time even more disastrous. Of the 291 planes dispatched, 60 failed to return, with more than 600 personnel.
In addition to striking the German army's military industrial capabilities, the most important thing is to greatly delay the launch of the German jet fighter M262.
3。Bombing of the Ploiesti oil field in Romelia.
This bombing is the B-24 Liberator, a classic example of low-altitude bombing, originally this mission was carried out by the 9th Air Force, the number of aircraft was not enough, and only the 8th Air Force 3 brigades could only be withdrawn to cooperate with the implementation, the result was to destroy more than 60% of the oil field's ** capability, and its own damage was also huge, 55 planes were shot down, more than 80 planes were directly scrapped, and more than 300 crew members were lost (more than 20 bombing of the oil field in the later period, and finally interrupted the ** capability of the oil field).
4.The bombing of Dresden (February 1945).
Known as the "Bombing of Dresden" in many films and television, the bombing nearly flattened the historic city and officially recorded the deaths of more than 20,000 civilians, mainly the Eighth Air Force and the Royal Air Force Lancaster Bombardment Group.
5.German bombing of Bremen (1943).
This was the initial bombing of German Bremen by the Eighth Air Force. It was also a relatively heavy loss, because the Germans summed up the lessons of the bombing of Wilhelmshaven and found a way to deal with the B-17 Flying Fortress, as a result, 16 of the more than 100 planes that carried out the bombing mission failed to return. The loss is more than 10% (this is the story of the first episode of the show).
6.Bombing of Wilhelmshaven, Germany
This was the first time that the Eighth Air Force bombed the German mainland, and the first time the German army saw this kind of fierce firepower and thick skin and thick skin B-17 Flying Fortress, which caught the German army by surprise, and a total of 60 aircraft were dispatched and only 3 were lost.
7.Bombing of German U-boats
Friends who know World War II know that the German U-boat is one of the greatest threats to the Allies, Churchill once felt that the German submarine is the greatest threat to Britain, almost making the British Commonwealth submit, so the British Army and the US Eighth Air Force have bombed the German submarine base for a year since 1942, losing more than 1000 crew members and hundreds of bombers.
The bombing of the Norwegian submarine base in the second episode of the series is also one of the tasks)
8.Operation "Bombing Week" (February 1944).
In 1944, in order to strike at the German army's aircraft manufacturing capacity, starting from February 20, the Eighth Air Force and the 15th Air Force continued to bomb the German aircraft factory for 6 days, known as the "Great Bombing Week", the result of the battle: the German army's aircraft manufacturing capacity was devastated, a total of more than 300 German planes were shot down, and the Allies also suffered heavy losses, with a total loss of more than 200 bombers, and more than 150 fighters failed to return. (Because of the emergence of the U.S. P51, this excellent fighter can escort the whole process, greatly reducing the losses of Allied bombers, which is also a turning point in the strategic bombing of Germany.) ）
9.The Great Bombing of Hamburg (1940-1945).
The bombing of Hamburg is famous in history, this historic city has experienced nearly 200 bombings in more than 4 years, the main bombing is the British Royal Bombing Team, the Eighth Air Force mainly carried out a devastating blow to the port of Hamburg, a total of more than 9,000 tons of bombs, more than 3,000 aircraft, the entire city was basically razed to the ground, a total of 100,000 civilians **, and more than millions of people were homeless, which is also one of the four most serious bombing operations in the history of World War II.
10.Bombing of the Skoda factory in the Czech Republic (April 15, 1945).
The main reason for this small mission is that it was the last mission of the Eighth Air Force in Europe and the last combat losses. In total, 6 bombers were shot down and more than 40 crew members were killed.
In the Anti-Japanese War, the Czech machine gun commonly used by the squadron was produced in this factory. ）
Write to the end: In the few 4 years of strategic bombing of Germany, the Allies lost a total of more than 100,000 soldiers and more than 40,000 aircraft, and the German Air Force suffered equally heavy losses, losing 3 aircraft70,000 aircraft, more than 50,000 personnel lost, of which more than 26,000 people died on the Eighth Airlines. Among them, the Eighth Air Force carried out thousands of bombing missions throughout World War II. I'm just listing 10 representative battles.