The "Baby Blitz" in the title of this article refers not to the post-World War Two baby boom but rather to an air operation directed against southern England in late 1943 by the Luftwaffe.
By this time in the Second World War, the Allied bombing offensive was well under way and had already taken its toll on several German cities. In reprisal for their destruction, Adolf Hitler conceived an operation which was implemented by the Luftwaffe and named Operation Steinbock.
Operation Steinbock was a strategic bombing offensive whose principal objective was London. In order to prepare for Steinbock, the Luftwaffe bomber command had to comb through every operational bomber unit in Italy and Russia in order to find enough medium bombers to participate in the operation. By this time in the war the Luftwaffe was having severe difficulties replacing bomber aircraft lost in previous campaigns, especially since the Allied bombing campaign was slowly crippling the German aircraft industry.
Eventually the Luftwaffe succeeded in scraping together a force of 220 Ju-88s, 35 Ju-188s, 121 Do-217s, 47 He-177s, and a group of Me-410 and FW-190 aircraft for use in this operation. Operation Steinbock's main "punch," however, was the group of He-177 aircraft, which was the only real attempt that the Luftwaffe made at developing a strategic bomber aircraft comparable to those of the Allies.
Operation Steinbock began at the very end of September, 1943 with the first raid flown against London taking place on January 21, 1944. A total of 29 raids were flown until losses forced the operation to be cancelled in March, 1944.
Historically, Operation Steinbock was a failure. At the end of the operation the Luftwaffe bomber units in France were left with approximately 130 serviceable aircraft out of the 423 that were available when the operation began. Many of these aircraft were lost to British anti-aircraft units and to night fighters operating over southern England. Further aircraft were lost to mechanical failure and accidents caused by bad weather.
To complicate an already difficult situation, the German aircrews suffered from a poor standard of trainingand also from inadequate navigation. The only group of German aircraft that was able to score some degree of success were the heavy bomber groups flying the He-177. Unlike the other aircraft participating in Steinbock, the He-177s attacked from high altitude and approached their targets in a shallow dive, which made it difficult for them to be tracked by anti-aircraft guns, while the extra speed obtained by diving prevented some interceptions by British night fighter aircraft.
The He-177 heavy bomber formed the core of Operation Steinbock and was the only real strategic bomber that the Luftwaffe put into combat in World War Two and even then it was not a particularly successful aircraft. From the beginning, the Reich Air Ministry insisted that the He-177 perform not only long-range bombing but also antishipping, tactical air support, and dive bombing with the same degree of efficiency. This only served to generate problems whose resolution prevented this bomber from performing anyone of its missions with any worthwhile degree of success. Unlike the He-177, all equivalent Allied aircraft designs like the B-17 Flying Fortress were designed from the outset with only one mission in mind.
The He-177 was both a complicated and sophisticated aircraft and as such had a lengthy development process. Unfortunately for the Luftwaffe, the period of time consumed in development was extended because of the engine configuration.
At first glance, the He-177 appeared to have just two engines; actually, there were four engines coupled together to drive two propellers. This arrangement accounted for the single largest problem plaguing the He-177 throughout its service life - the engine couplings and associated cooling systems. Often the couplings and/or cooling systems failed and generated catastrophic in-flight fires.
As an example of the seriousness of this problem, on one of the raids during Operation Steinbock, half the participating He-177 aircraft aborted the mission and returned to base with engine fires. Eventually, these problems were partially resolved, enabling the He-177 units to distinguish themselves in Operation Steinbock. In spite of this, the He-177 was never able to perform up to its potential. Consequently, it was not able to affect the outcome of the war in the same sense that comparable Allied bombers succeeded in doing.
The Blitz of 1940 and the Baby Blitz had many features in common. The rest of this article is devoted to providing variants for two Battle of Britain games currently available that may be used to simulate the Baby Blitz.
The Baby Blitz September 1943-March 1944
Back to Table of Contents -- Air Power # 21
Back to Air Power List of Issues
Back to MagWeb Magazine List
© Copyright 1992 by J.D. Webster
This article appears in MagWeb.com (Magazine Web) on the Internet World Wide Web.
Other articles from military history and related magazines are available at http://www.magweb.com