re: August 17, 1943. Schweinfurt-Regensburg

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8th Air Force Museum outside Savannah, GA

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I’m interested. What’s their neatest artifact?

The fricking Bomber Mafia.

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People that knew LeMay said that the loss of those crews haunted him the rest of his life.

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He should’ve been haunted.

Some mistakes as people learn and improve tactics and strategy are to be expected.

He had far too many errors of arrogance and political empire building, not to mention the firebombing raids that were highly questionable at best.

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The early P-38s had a lot of problems in the colder European weather that didn't occur in the Pacific. Lots of engine failures.

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The first 3 fighter squadrons assigned to the 15th Air Force in Italy were P-38's and they had a tough time. They were difficult to fly and maintain. One squadron commander said a flyer needed 150 or more hours to be proficient and the young guys just didn't get the hours. The 15th used the P-38's for close air support during the Anzio invasion. aerial photo recon and weather observation missions .
The Schweinfurt missions and Ploiesti mission losses suffered by the 15th started a plan in motion that became Operation Argument. A Combined Bomber Offensive by the 8th and 15th Air Forces to degrade the Luftwaffe prior to the Normandy invasion. This kicked off in Feb of 1944 when there were plenty of P-51's.

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The Focke-Wulfs were a bust as fighter-bombers but were perfect for disrupting the allied bomber formations.

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Yeager always said that the FW was the best Germany had, damn close to the P-51 in capability.

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God Bless all the men that served in the 8th Air Force during WWII, and a special blessing on those that gave all.

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Amen.

My pastor who married Mrs M and me (46 years this past 11 August) was a B-17 pilot.

He was lead bomber pilot on the first daylight raid on Berlin. There are several videos used in the television show 12 O’clock High and maybe the movie that show his aircraft taking off. He’s deceased now and I can’t remember its name or nose art or aircraft number. I think this is one video at about:18 seconds in

I remember a scene from Masters of the Air that was a panoramic view of the sky from the cockpit that was filled with falling debris, expended shell casings, burning aircraft and bailed out men falling through the formation. Over dinner prior to my marriage he described to me virtually the exact scene.

Obviously that level of horror was seen time and time again by different men at different times and the filmmakers captured accurately what the aircrews saw and remembered.

My uncle Bud was a mechanic and crew chief responsible to keep an aircraft flying and clean up the blood and guts.

The 190 was actually a pretty good ground attack machine. A lot of Stuka units transitioned into 190s in the latter stages of the war.

Regensburg

I was there in April as a stop on a river cruise. In fact it was Easter Sunday. I posted on here about my lunch at a 900 year old restaurant, one of the oldest in the world, after we attended mass at the cathedral.
We were told that, unlike some of the other places we visited, Regensburg’s Old Town was well preserved because they were largely spared the bombings of WWII.

They flew daylight missions while the RAF flew at night.

I never grow tired of learning about WW2. If you have YouTube TV, there is an amazing channel called World at War. It’s nothing but documentaries on WW2 with some Vietnam and Korean War documentaries interspersed. They had one recently on the history of the Luftwaffe throughout the war.