Leaping The Atlantic Wall - Army Air Forces Campaigns In Western Europe, 1942-1945 [Illustrated Edition] by Edward T. Russell

Author:Edward T. Russell [Russell, Edward T.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Pickle Partners Publishing
Published: 2015-01-28T22:00:00+00:00

In the final hours of June 5, 1944, a vast aerial armada assembled in the skies over Britain. More than 900 C-47 aircraft and 100 gliders, carrying approximately 17,000 airborne troops, set out for the Normandy invasion area. RAF night fighters provided escort and later attacked enemy guns and searchlights, while other British aircraft dropped strips of metal foil to confuse the German radar operators. The armada soon encountered trouble. Fog and cloud cover, and, later, enemy antiaircraft fire, broke up many of the airborne formations. Even the trained pathfinders had trouble locating the drop targets. As a result, the airborne forces were widely scattered over the French countryside. Nevertheless, they captured Sainte-Mère-Eglise, helped secure exits from the beachhead, guarded the southern flank of the invasion area, and spread confusion among the German defenders.

Early the next morning, 1,083 B-17s and B-24s attacked the German defenses on the Normandy beaches. Led by radar-equipped pathfinder aircraft, the heavies flew over the beaches at right angles and dropped 2,944 tons of bombs.

Taking off before dawn, medium and light bombers staged last-minute attacks against enemy gun batteries on UTAH beach and later in the day switched to other targets, such as communications centers, command posts, and supply depots. The fighter-bombers protected the cross-channel movement, helped neutralize beach defenses, flew close air support sorties for the troops on the beaches, and attacked the enemy's ability to use the roads leading into the battle area. To support the ground troops, IX Engineer Command landed units on UTAH beach on D-Day and on OMAHA beach on D-Day plus 1. Within sixteen days, Allied air power had five fighter-bomber groups based in Normandy; by June 30, nine all-weather airfields had been completed and seven more were under construction.

From D-Day until the end of July, the Ninth Air Force concentrated on flying missions against the enemy in cooperation with the ground forces and on transferring tactical air units to the continent as quickly as possible. On June 22, the Allies used all available fighter-bombers to launch a massive bombing assault against German fortifications and troops defending Cherbourg. The city fell on June 27 and within three weeks supply ships began using the harbor.

By the end of July, eighteen fighter-bomber and reconnaissance groups were on the continent and an efficient radar control system had been established on the beachhead. Meanwhile, medium and light bombers, still operating from Britain, bombed bridges over the Seine and Loire Rivers, attacked railway yards, and destroyed German fuel and ammunition supply points along the entire Normandy front. As the battle continued, the fighter-bombers attacked German strong points, troop formations, self-propelled artillery, tanks, and armored cars. Heavy bombers did their part to support the invasion throughout June and July. Almost every day that the weather permitted, the heavies bombed airfields, bridges, choke points, marshaling yards, rail targets, construction and supply sites, and oil refineries.

But even with the heavy air support, the ground offensive began to stall, particularly in the hedgerow country around Saint Lô. Gen. Omar N.

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