On this day in history, January 27, 1943, the United States Eighth Air Force began its bombing campaign against Nazi Germany. This is one of the largest, most important, and most destructive strategic efforts in the history of warfare.
“I faced my fear and knew what it meant to do my duty, because the lives of my crew and the fate of my country depended on it.” Eighth Air Force B-17 bomber Tom Landry, a pilot and future Dallas Cowboys coach, wrote in his 1990 autobiography of the same name:
“The war tested me, but I was able to survive, and the experience not only gave me a broader perspective on life, but also gave me an insight into myself that I didn't know before. It gave me confidence.”
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On January 27, a total of 55 bombers dropped 137 tons of bombs on warehouses, factories, and U-boat docks in the North Sea port of Wilhemshaven.
This was the first American air raid on mainland Germany in World War II.
A B-17 crew from the 385th Bomb Group, 8th Air Force, U.S. Army Air Forces, draws targets on a map before a mission, England, circa 1943. In the center is Lt. Louis A. Dentoni Jr. (died 1944). Second from the left is Lt. Col. Vincent W. Masters. (Photoquest/Getty Images)
By the end of the war in Europe in May 1945, the Eighth Air Force had flown 440,000 bombers over Germany and dropped 697,000 tons of explosives.
World War II correspondent Andy Rooney wrote, “Young aviators in leather jackets, shirts with open collars, and leather peaked hats placed on their heads at a casual, stylish angle.'' , I remember thinking how admirable he was and how American he was.” The “60 Minutes'' commentator – romanticized the heroes in his 1995 autobiography “My War.''
“I knew what it meant to face my fear and do my duty.” — Bomber pilot Tom Landry
Rooney and fellow legendary American newspaperman Walter Cronkite were among the young war reporters who hustled to avoid death on a bombing mission over Germany in 1943.
They helped record terrible losses.
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The Eighth Air Force suffered nearly half of the U.S. Army Air Forces' casualties in World War II (47,483 of 115,332). According to Air Force reports, more than 26,000 of them were killed in action.
Photo of the Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress used by the United States Air Force during World War II (20th century date). (Universal History Archive/Universal Images Group, via Getty Images)
The U.S. Eighth Air Force was part of the U.S. Army Air Corps during World War II.
The Air Force became independent from the military in 1947, two years after the war.
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“The U.S. Eighth Air Force attacked Britain with the daunting mission of destroying Germany's war effort and gaining command of the skies over Europe in order to pave the way for an Allied ground invasion. ” wrote the National World War II Museum.
“To accomplish that, thousands of U.S. airmen had to face the constant threat of death every day.”
Sergeant Paul McCarlane of Lowell, Massachusetts, died over Europe as a bomber crew member during World War II. He is commemorated today at the Dutch American Cemetery as a memorial to those lost in action. He is one of the thousands of Americans whose bodies were not recovered at the MIA memorial at ABMC Cemetery in Europe. (Kelly J. Byrne/Fox News Digital)
This effort was aimed at destroying Germany's war effort infrastructure. More than 100 of Germany's largest cities were reduced to smoldering ruins by the end of the war.
“The Eighth Air Force planned and precisely executed America's broad daylight strategic bombing campaign against Nazi-occupied Europe, and in doing so, the organization compiled an impressive military record,” the Eighth Air Force official website. written in history.
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“The brave soldiers of the Eighth earned 17 Medals of Honor, 220 Distinguished Service Crosses, and 442,000 Air Medals. The Eighth's combat record also shows 566 aces. (31 of 261 fighter pilots had 15 or more victories; 305 enlisted gunners).
This bombing campaign resulted in tragic human casualties.
“The long, slow death spiral of a bomber with a crew on board is terrifying to watch.” — Andy Rooney, “My War”
Three years after Hitler began his bombing campaign against Britain, German civilians suffered in what was known as “Total War” in World War II.
As many as 800,000 German civilians lost their lives in British and American air raids during World War II.
The crew of a B-17 Flying Fortress knockout dropper bomber leaves the plane. Pilot John P. Manning is in the center wearing a flak jacket. To Manning's left is co-pilot George T. Mackin, wearing a brimmed hat. (Photo credit: © Hulton-Deutsch Collection/CORBIS/Corbis via Getty Images)
At the same time, Germany rained death on Britain daily and recently liberated Belgium, France and the Netherlands through its V2 rocket program. Thousands of rockets struck Allied civilian targets as technology erased traditional battlefield lines.
The men who survived bombing missions over Europe suffered incredible mental strain as they were frequently forced to face the possibility of death.
American bombardier Joseph Heller expressed his mental anguish in his brilliant 1961 hallucinatory, tragicomedy anti-war novel “Catch-22.''
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The film tells the story of Captain Yossarian, a bombardier who is caught up in Catch-22 military logic and tries to avoid flying any more missions at all costs.
American bomber Joseph Heller expressed his mental anguish in his 1961 tragic-comedic anti-war novel, Catch-22.
It stipulated that any crew member who feared dying in the line of duty was of sound mind and must fly. People who wanted to fly more missions were insane and didn't say anything. In any case, whether sane or insane, the crew was flying close to death.
At one of the novel's turning points, Yossarian tells the military doctor, “It's some kind of prey, that Catch-22.”
“Catch-22” became so popular that the phrase entered the English language as a synonym for no-win situation.
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The New York Times wrote in 2011 that the bombing experience had shaped Heller into a “troubled, funny and deeply idiosyncratic human being.”
Rooney, later best known for his work on “60 Minutes,'' experienced the intense terror of a bombing mission when he attacked Germany with the Eighth Air Force on February 26, 1943.
“Several B-17s around us were hit; three in the formation crashed,” he wrote in My War, as German planes flew over Allied bombers, causing casualties. He pointed out that he would drop explosives with parachutes between bombers to maximize the impact.
Dallas Cowboys head coach Tom Landry is pictured in the center during the game. (Getty Images)
“The long, slow death spiral of a bomber with a crew on board is horrifying to watch. It was even worse for the crew, because they knew all 30 people were on board. Because I was there.”
Rooney's plane was hit by German fire, but he survived and returned to England.
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The reporter, who was only 24 years old at the time, added, “February 26 was the first time I seriously thought about my own death.''
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