B-17 Flying Fortress

Gotterdammerung

by Brian Toelle, Dhahran, Saudi Arabia

Spaatz re-focused the 8th's attention back on Germany as quickly as he could following the invasion. By the fall of 1944 strategic targets were being pounded with increasing frequency. Over 36% of the targets during the war were industrial areas. Another 36% of the raids targeted the enemy transportation network, primarily rail facilities. The Germans were forced to move their factories underground, a costly and labor intensive undertaking. James Dunnigan and Al Nofi in Dirty Little Secrets of World War II illustrated how the two target types were interconnected with the following statement,

    "The early bombing had forced the Germans to disperse a lot of their industrial machinery and assembly operations to smaller (and often hidden or underground) locations. This made them more dependent on the railroads."

How much effect the disrupted production had on the outcome of the war is difficult to assess. The fact that Germany industrial production peaked in late 1944 has been pointed to as evidence that the bombing was not that effective. However, as Keegan wrote, the effect of the bombing on the oil and rail systems was disastrous:

    "Between March and September (1944) oil production declined from 316,000 to 17,000 tons; aviation fuel output declined to 5000 tons. The Luftwaffe thereafter lived on its reserves, which by early 1945 were all but exhausted. Meanwhile the two bomber forces co-ordinated a round-the-clock campaign against German cities, with particular concentration on transport centers. By the end of October the number of rail wagons available weekly had fallen from the normal total of 900,000 to 700,000, and by December the figure was 214,000."

Germany industry may have been working harder and producing more than ever before, but its product was not getting to where it was needed. The effect was the same as if every factory in Germany had ceased operation. Logistics were disrupted and front line soldiers were denied the weapons and materials needed to maintain their ability to make war.

With the destruction of the Luftwaffe the Fortresses roamed Germany destroying targets at will, virtually unopposed. The B-17 Flying Fortress proved that daylight precision bombing could work and contribute greatly towards winning a war. The Oxford Companion to World War II published in 1995 states

    "British Bomber Command and the Eighth Air Force did produce an oil famine in Germany, the collapse of its transport systems, and a fearful leveling of most of its great cities. These results were too late to win the war on their own, but they did make a decisive contribution to the defeat of Germany which could not have been achieved without the campaign in which Spaatz brought the Luftwaffe to action and defeated it."

The B-17 was, indeed, one of the greatest bombers ever built. But what made the Fortresses truly great were its crews. These men, many of them still in their teens, continued to climb onboard and fly to their targets, mission after mission, even after those like Schweinfurt. Such courage should always be remembered.

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© Copyright 1996 by David W. Tschanz.
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