“I noticed a couple fighters explode maybe not far beneath, disappearing from inside the sheets out-of orange flames, B-17s dropping out in all of the condition off distress, away from motors on fire to manage surfaces try out, amicable and you will challenger parachutes floating down and you may, towards the green carpet far underneath us, several funeral service pyres out-of cig out-of fallen flights, establishing the path.”

The three batteries away from 88-mm guns organized within address did their best so you can interrupt the brand new bomb runs, but the top bomb communities laid its patterns out-of bombs accurately. After that, as ever occurred throughout the a large assault using one address, dirt and you may cigarette smoking on the explosions and you may fires blurry new aiming things, and you can further bombing is shorter right.

After bombing the prospective, this new B-17s proceeded south. A couple damaged bombers kept the fresh new development and you will went getting neutral Switzerland. Seven even more busted planes took place on the road to Algeria.

Of the 146 hefty bombers that had lay out having Regensburg, 7 turned back, and you may 139 crossed the brand new Dutch coast. Twenty-five of those was forgotten.

New Schweinfurt raiding push, spanning 230 B-17s, introduced its assault later in the day. They also sustained greatly regarding German fighters and you may flak, dropping 30-six bombers.

The following “new” weapon try the fresh 21-cm rocket, a good German Army infantry gun adjusted to possess heavens-to-sky explore

Thus, of your own 376 B-17 Flying Fortresses that set out regarding England to bomb this new a couple of extremely important goals, sixty was indeed forgotten. That was perhaps not the final cost. If Regensburg force returned to The united kingdomt a week later, fighting a keen airfield near Bordeaux along the way, it was rather than various other fifty-five flights, which was damaged past quick repair, and you may three much more was basically shed from inside the return flight. For a while, the latest dual episodes and therefore towards the French airfield deprived 8th Sky Force out-of 118 bombers-almost one to-third of force the time with the August 17.

Even with bomber team accounts to the contrary, the go back flame don’t inflict big loss to your Italian language competitors. The latest Luftwaffe forgotten just twenty-seven competitors inside several great sky battles.

About months you to followed, the large-size introduction of several firearms caused a formidable rise in brand new firepower of German household defense fighters. The initial is this new Mk. 108 canon, a thirty-mm firearm you to definitely fired 11-oz, high-explosive incendiary rounds at a level of greater than 600 for each and every minute; normally, three including attacks was sufficient to down a heavy bomber.

Brand new Bf-109s was installing that have a thirty-mm cannon capturing through the propeller heart

Mounted for the a tube which also supported as the launcher, https://escortboard.de/en/austria/lower-austria/wiener-neustadt the fresh new 248-pound, spin-stabilized gun carried a good ninety-pound warhead strong adequate to wreck any bomber inside 30 yards of your point off detonation. Brand new missile are time-fuzed so you’re able to burst at the a preset flight length, yet not, therefore, the target’s diversity had to be judged within okay limits before discharge.

These additionally the FW-190s had been altered to bring that rocket launcher under each side. An additional move to buttress new combatant defenses, Destroyer Squadron twenty six is reformed because a property protection unit which have an affordable stamina from eighty “bomber-destroyers.” The brand new unit’s formidable dual-motor Bf-110s and Me-410s sent a forward-capturing armament off four 20-mm canon, a couple of 29-mm canon, and four 21-cm skyrocket launchers.

In action, the fresh 21-cm rocket turned out apparently wrong. It downed few bombers, however it often broken planes sufficiently to make him or her out of formation making sure that other competitors you will definitely finish her or him regarding.

8th Sky Force’s heavy bombers resumed symptoms towards the Germany into September six, 1943, when 338 Traveling Fortresses put down having Stuttgart. German combatant pushes once more reacted strenuously and you will effortlessly, and on which occasion the latest raiders needed to contend with poor environment. An important aim have been blanketed by the clouds, therefore the aircraft bombed “plans away from chance” on the road family. The latest September 6 assault prices forty-five bombers.