Aces Against Germany: The American Aces Speak by Eric Hammel

Author:Eric Hammel [Hammel, Eric]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Pacifica Military History
Published: 2009-07-26T21:00:00+00:00

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Chapter 7

As early as February 13, 1944, the Anglo-American Combined Chiefs of Staff had issued an enabling directive aimed at the disruption of German lines of communication within reach of the Allied air forces in England and Italy. The directive left it to the air commanders to determine when it had become feasible to redirect significant forces against what came to be called "transportation targets." In late March, in light of what many analysts and senior air commanders perceived as the cumulative defeat of the Luftwaffe interceptor force over Germany in February and March, it became a matter of VIII Fighter Command policy—rather than individual group prerogative—to unleash the escort fighters that were returning home with full ammunition bays. The invasion of France was only a matter of weeks or, at most, two months away, and Occupied Europe was chock full of juicy German military paraphernalia that could be scrapped from the air. In fact, ranked just behind escort duties, the destruction of transportation targets—locomotives, railroad cars, barges, coastal vessels, bridges, and so forth—became the prime objective of the RAF fighter wings and U.S. Army Air Forces fighter groups based in Great Britain. As with many aspects of the air war in northern Europe, the formal plan for a campaign against transportation targets, set forth by the air commanders on March 25 and approved by General Eisenhower on March 26, codified and legitimatized what the fighter pilots had already been doing for some time on their own.

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