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H210. Combined Bomber Offensive. Strategy. CASABLANCA TARGETS Sub Construction Aircraft production Trans Oil Others. CBO (POINTBLANK) TARGETS Sub Construction & Pens Aircraft production Ball Bearings Oil Synth Rubber Mil Trans. Target Analysis. Criticality Accessibility
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H210 Combined Bomber Offensive
Strategy • CASABLANCA • TARGETS • Sub Construction • Aircraft production • Trans • Oil • Others • CBO (POINTBLANK) • TARGETS • Sub Construction & Pens • Aircraft production • Ball Bearings • Oil • Synth Rubber • Mil Trans
Target Analysis • Criticality • Accessibility • Recuperability • Vulnerability • Effect • Recognizability Joint Pub 3-05.5, Joint Special Operations Targeting and Mission Planning Procedures, 1996 draft
Air Corps Tactical School’s Assumptions on Strategic Bombing • Vital targets in the enemy economy existed • These targets could be identified • They were vulnerable to precision bombing • Unescorted bombers could penetrate enemy air defenses • The bombers could bomb the targets accurately • Enough targets could be bombed enough times to collapse the enemy economy
RAF Bomber Command: Eighth and Fifteenth Air Forces 8,325 bombers 8,237 bombers 3,924 fighters Combined Bomber OffensiveAllied Aircraft Losses
RAF Bomber Command Eighth and Fifteenth Air Forces Ardennes Campaign (First and Third Armies) 64,000 73,000 81,000 Combined Bomber OffensiveCasualties (k,w,m,c)
AAF ProcurementStrategic Bombers Army Almanac; Smith, Economic Mobilization
Air War in Europe Some Statistics • Allied bomber crew life expectancy 1944 -- 7 missions • Allied bomber crew losses per month 1944 -- 30 percent • Allied Air Force losses in Europe -- 160,000 airmen (US 9,265; RAF 79,281) + 450,000 psych casualties (US) • Allied aircraft losses - 50,000 • Tons of bombs dropped on Europe -- 2,700,000 • German Civilians Killed -- 305,000
STRATEGIC PRIORITIES “Bomber Command must claim first place over the Army or Navy...The Navy can lose us the war, but only the bombers provide the means to victory.”Churchill - Sept. 1940 “There is one thing that will bring Hitler down, and that is an absolutely devastating exterminating attack by very heavy bombers from this country upon the Nazi homeland.” Churchill - July 1941 “There are a lot of people who say that bombing cannot win the war; My reply is that it has never been tried yet. We shall see.” Air Marshal Arthur Harris - Feb. 1942
“AREA” BOMBING RAF Air Staff Directive 14 FEB 1941: “…Operations should now be focused on the morale of the enemy population and in particular of industrial workers.” … I suppose it is clear that the new aiming points are to be the built-up areas not…the dockyards or aircraft factories…This is to be made quite clear…” - Air Chief Marshal Portal
Axis Priorities “In the Reich and in the western theaters of the war the barrels of ten thousand antiaircraft guns were pointed to the sky. The same guns could have well been employed in Russia against tanks and other ground targets.” Albert Speer German Minister of Production Personnel Manning German Anti- Air Defenses May 1944: 2,000,000
CRITICAL GERMAN PRODUCTIONMILLIONS OF TONS 1940 19411942 STEEL 21.5 31.8 32.1 SYNTHETIC FUEL 4,650 5,540 6,360 GUNS 5,500 7,000 12,000 TANKS 2,200 5,150 9,350AIRCRAFT 10,287 12,400 15,409
CRITICAL GERMAN PRODUCTIONMILLIONS OF TONS 1942 19431944 STEEL 32.1 34.6 28.5 SYNTHETIC FUEL 6,360 7,510 5,400 GUNS 12,000 27,000 41,000 TANKS 9,350 19,885* 27,300*AIRCRAFT 15,409 24,000 37,950 * Includes Aslt Guns “It is clear that the best and indeed only efficient support which Bomber Command can give to Operation Overlord is the intensification of attacks on suitable industrial targets in Germany…” - Air Marshal Arthur Harris 12 January 1944
