“Big Week” 1944

Operation Argument and the breaking of the Jagdwaffe

Douglas C. Dildy, Graham Turner

• Publisher: Osprey Publishing
• Year: 2022
• Print ISBN: 9781472824516
• eBook ISBN: 9781472824523
• Edition: 1
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: Military & Maritime History
• Index: History

A rigorous new analysis of America's legendary 'Big Week' air campaign which enabled the Allies to gain air superiority before D-Day.

The USAAF's mighty World War II bomber forces were designed for unescorted, precision daylight bombing, but no-one foresaw the devastation that German radar-directed interceptors would inflict on them. Following the failures of 1943's Schweinfurt-Regensburg raids, and with D-Day looming, the Allies urgently needed to crush the Luftwaffe's ability to oppose the landings.

In February 1944, the Allies conceived and fought history's first-ever successful offensive counter­air (OCA) campaign, Operation Argument or "Big Week." Attacking German aircraft factories with hundreds of heavy bombers, escorted by the new long-range P-51 Mustang, it aimed both to slash aircraft production and force the Luftwaffe into combat, allowing the new Mustangs to take their toll on the German interceptors. This expertly written, illustration-packed account explains how the Allies finally began to win air superiority over Europe, and how Operation Argument marked the beginning of the Luftwaffe's fall.

ATTACKER’S CAPABILITIES

The spectacle of huge air forces meeting in [battle in] the air is the figment of imagination of the uninitiated.

Captain Harold L. George, ACTS Instructor, October 31, 1935

Republic P-47D-2-RE 42-8009 – an early Razorback Thunderbolt – on a test flight while assigned to the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA, the forerunner of NASA) Glenn Research Center at Cleveland, Ohio. A big, robust, and powerful fighter, it was affectionately called “the Jug” because its rotund fuselage had the shape of a moonshine bottle. (NMUSAF 020930-O-9999G-013)

The Pointblank Directive

Initially commanded by now Major General Spaatz, in June 1942 the Eighth AF began moving to England, establishing itself in East Anglia with three bomber groups and 119 B-17Es. Because the Americans completely lacked combat experience, at the outset the command was essentially an on-the-job training organization. In fact, after a few raids to build experience, one bomb group (92nd BG) became a combat crew replacement training unit and did not fly operational missions until the next summer. Additionally, as soon as units were declared combat-ready, most were reassigned to the newly established Twelfth AF in September and October, destined to support the Allies’ North African campaign, which began with Operation Torch on November 8.

To become General Dwight Eisenhower’s European Theater of Operations Air Commander, Spaatz was transferred to North Africa in that same month. On 1 December, Brigadier General Ira C. Eaker, then in charge of VIII Bomber Command (VIII BC), was promoted to command the Eighth AF.

With the six B-17 bombardment groups remaining in England, Eaker was directed to mount a submarine pen campaign, attempting to destroy German U-boats in their steel-reinforced concrete bunkers at the French ports of Saint-Nazaire and Lorient, as well as Bordeaux, Brest, and La Pallice. This ...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Table of Contents
• Introduction
• Chronology
• Attacker’s Capabilities
• Defender’s Capabilities
• Campaign Objectives
• The Campaign
• Aftermath and Assessment
• Bibliography
• eCopyright