Flying Fortress Raid - Schweinfurt
Black Thursday, the worst day of WWII for the US Eighth Air Force
On October 14, 1943 the Eighth AAF launched a massive B-17 bombing raid against the ball bearing factories of Schweinfurt, Germany.
Over 200 B-17 Flying Fortress bombers were crossing the German border on a mission to destroy the ball bearing plants at Schweinfurt. Their shorter range fighter escorts had just turned back for England and the Luftwaffe began an all out attempt to prevent this attack on the homeland.
The fighters and a few bombers used every weapon available. The single engine FW-190s and BF-109s made head on attacks in groups of four. They slashed through the formation firing their heavy machine guns and cannon in the split second before they rolled and dived away to reform and attack again. As soon as they were gone the next group of four would begin their attack. At the same time single fighters would attack from the sides and especially from above.
The big twin engine BF-110s and Junkers 88s preferred to attack with their large rockets from behind or beside the formation, out of the bombers machine gun range . The rockets were large enough and slow enough to be clearly visible to the bomber crews who had no defense and simply had to watch as the rockets flew into the formation in search of a target.
The Junkers and a few Stuckas actually dropped air fused bombs from above which were timed to explode in the middle of the B-17 formation. Any bomber that was damaged and fell out of formation was immediately set upon by a swarm of fighters. Without the protection of the rest of the formation there was very little chance of survival.
The attacks were almost continuous until they reached the target and flew into the German anti-aircraft fire. It took about twelve minutes to drop almost 500 tons of bombs into Schweinfurt and the formation started the long flight back to England.
The horror of the inbound flight repeated itself and this time it seemed as though it would never end. Bad weather over England kept the escort fighters on the ground and the airborne battle raged all the way to the English Channel.
When the final aircraft landed the toll amounted to a loss of 82 bombers and 642 airmen who were either killed, captured or wounded. This made October 14, 1943, afterwards known as Black Thursday, the worst day of the war for the US Eighth Air Force. By VE Day, The Eighth would lose more than 47,000 men in the skies over Europe.
