HISTORIAN’S CORNER

In November 1943 the 15th AF was activated with a strength of 90 B-24 Liberators and 210 B-17 Flying Fortresses inherited from the Twelfth Air Force and Ninth Air Force. By May 1, 1944, the 15th Air Force contained 21 heavy-bombardment groups organized into five wings. Four of the wings were equipped with B-24 Liberators. Bomb wings (BW) generally consisted of four or more bombardment groups. Each BG consisted of 3-4 Bomb Squadrons. Example: 15th AF / 47th Bomb Wing / 449th Bomb Group / 716th BS, 717th BS, 718th BS, 719th BS.

450th Bomb Groups beginning overseas movement in December ’43 and both flying their first combat missions on January 8, 1944. These two groups joined the veteran 98th and 376th groups in the 47th Bomb Wing with Gen. Hugo Rush commanding.

The Fifteenth would continue to add Bomb Groups until reaching its authorized strength in May of 21 heavy bomb groups. They consisted of 15 B-24 Groups organized in four Bomb Wings and one Bomb Wing comprised of six B-17 Groups. The fighter forces would grow to 7 Fighter Groups, 3 flying the P-38 Lightning and 4 eventu- ally flying the P-51 Mustang. In January, Gen. Doolittle was called to England to assume command of the Eight Air Force and Maj. Gen. Nathan F. Twinning took over command of the Fifteenth.

Initial operations through January focused on supporting the ground campaign in Italy and attacks on German held airfields. In February, a week of forecast good weather allowed Air Force Planners a longsought opportunity to implement a concentrated attack on German aircraft production with the additional goal of forcing the German Air Force into a battle of attrition. Dubbed

Operation ARGUMENT, this was a combined effort of the Eight and Fifteenth Air Forces during the period February 20-25. Interspersed with commitments to support the Anzio Beachhead, the Fifteenth flew missions to Regensburg, Germany on the 22nd and 25th and to Steyr, Austria on the 23rd in support of ARGUMENT. The attacks by the Eight and Fifteenth during the period which became known as “Big Week” inflicted significant damage to German aircraft production as well as the German Air Force. It came at a cost as the Fifteenth lost 89 bombers and 7 fighters. Most historians view Big Week as the point that air superiority passed to the side of the Allies.

In January the Eight required an airman to complete a tour of 25 missions. This number was soon raised to 30 and then 35 missions. By contrast, the Fifteenth requirement was a tour of 50 missions. The February 22 mission to Regensburg where the Eight and Fifteenth attacked the same target on the same day pointed out the disparity in tour requirements. As a result, the Fifteenth implemented a policy of awarding double credit for some long distance and highly dangerous missions. The double credits allowed airmen on average to accumulate the necessary 50 mission credits in roughly 35 actual missions.

The optimism of improved flying conditions in “sunny” Italy proved to be not always accurate. Heavy rains in March ’44 turned the unimproved airfield into seas of mud hampering operations. The 449th only managed six missions in March because of weather. This was repeated in January 1945 as few missions were able to get off the ground. Also, to reach many targets in Southern Europe, the Fifteenth had to cross the Alps which added its own weather headaches.

The Spring of 1944 saw the increase in attacks on marshalling yards and other transportation targets. Attacks in Northwest Europe by the Eight AF were intended to hamper the Germans ability to respond to the coming cross-channel invasion Operation Overlord. The Fifteenth interdicted logistics targets supporting the German defenses in Italy as well as in the Balkans in support of the Soviet forces against the Germans.

“Today we have finished rebuilding the plants and tomorrow the bombers will come again.” A modern armed forces requires oil products in massive quantities. Many of the oil targets in Southeastern Europe and particularly the refineries surrounding Ploesti, Romania, were reachable only by the Italian-based Fifteenth. Attacks on oil production around Ploesti began on April 5 and continued with 19 more attacks into mid-August. At that point, production was almost at a halt and the Soviet ground forces were poised to overrun Ploesti. During the same period, the 15th was hitting oil production in Hungary, Czechoslovakia, Albania, Germany, Austria, Italy, Yugoslavia. Lack of oil was a major factor in the defeat of Germany.

The Fifteenth would continue fly missions in support of their four primary objectives until April 25, 1945, when combat operations ceased. Four days later on April 29, German forces in Italy surrendered. Final victory in Europe soon followed with V-E Day coming on May 8.

The heavy bombers of the Fifteenth flew nearly 126,000 individual aircraft crossings of targets dropping nearly 300,000 tons of bombs. Targets were spread across 11 countries in Southern Europe and the Balkans. Albert Speer, Germany’s armaments minister, wrote that he could “see omens of the war’s end almost every day in the blue southern sky when, flying provocatively low, the bombers of the Fifteenth Air Force crossed the Alps from their Italian bases to attack German industrial targets.”

The cost was high as 2,148 heavy bombers were lost on combat missions. German fighters accounted for a significant portion of the losses through August of

’44. The arrival of P-51’s in the theater and Germany’s need to pull their fighters back into the homeland to defend against attacks meant that almost all later losses were due to flak. Fifteenth AF fighters lost 650 fighter aircraft while claiming 1800 enemy aircraft destroyed. A May 20, 1945, accounting of Fifteenth AF casualties listed 2,703 known dead, 8,007 missing, 2,553 wounded and 4,351 POWs. This was an almost 30% casualty rate of the 67,441 airmen who passed through the Fifteenth. With their courage and sacrifice, the men of the Fifteenth Air Force created an unstoppable bomber force that crippled the enemy and played a decisive role in defeating Nazi Germany.