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Historic Air Raids that Rained Fury from the Skies

Khalid Elhassan November 20, 2021 37 min

A B-24 on a raid against Ploesti. Wikimedia

The Regensburg force turned south and crossed the Alps en route to North Africa after the mission. National Museum of the US Air Force

22. The Tardiness of Protective Fighters Cost American Bombers Dearly

Seven groups of B-17 heavy bombers with a total of 146 aircraft, led by then-Colonel Curtis E. Lemay, took off for Regensburg on August 17^th, 1943. Within just a few minutes after they had crossed the North Sea coast into Europe, they were intercepted by German fighters, which attacked them with ever greater ferocity all the way to Regensburg. Two Allied fighter groups were scheduled to escort them part of the way to their target, but only one of them showed up on time to protect the lead bombers.

The other fighter group showed up fifteen minutes late, and in that interval, Luftwaffe fighters had a clear run to attack the unprotected bombers with abandon. Fifteen B-17s were shot down before the German fighters, low on fuel and out of ammunition, returned to their airfields. The Regensburg force dropped its bombs against light antiaircraft fire and turned south for North Africa. The Germans had not expected that and did little to challenge their escape. So that part of the plan, at least, had worked.

Written by

Khalid Elhassan

A lifelong history buff, I developed a particular passion for WW2 history as a child, when I spent hours listening to my grandfather, enraptured, as he recounted his wartime experiences in the British East African Campaign and with the British 8th Army in North Africa.

I graduated with a history BA from George Mason University, then went on to get a JD from the University of Virginia School of Law. After lawyering for a decade, I moved to sunny Rio de Janeiro and a less demanding career, opening a tourism agency in Copacabana.

A big chunk of my free time is spent blogging (you can follow me on Quora https://www.quora.com/profile/Khalid-Elhassan ) or freelance writing, mostly about my favorite subject, history.