The rest division regarding 146 B-17s create head to Regensburg

According to the unique bundle, both raiding forces, that have a mixed overall

of 376 Traveling Fortresses, were to improve initial entrance flying as one compact force. South off Frankfurt, a couple bomb departments which have 230 routes was to split up out, assault the fresh Schweinfurt bush, and return to The united kingdomt. Once bombing, you to force perform keep southern area more than Austria and you may Italy and you will land within basics within the Algeria.

The latest Thunderbolts broke up the newest attack of 1 category, however the small force off escorts couldn’t coverage all of your own bomber development

Start towards the August 17 discover the latest air-ports out of eastern The united kingdomt covered with thick clouds, which were prediction so you’re able to thin since go out progressed. Met with the raiding forces taken off early you to definitely day as prepared, they will has risked crashes throughout the development installation, so that the attack are rescheduled. The fresh new takeoff of the Regensburg force is actually put off by one to and you can a half instances (the utmost appropriate, whether your bombers would be to reach the unknown airfields in Algeria in advance of dusk). The brand new takeoff of Schweinfurt attack push was delayed five period.

The change off package intended that the a few assault pushes do infiltrate challenger airspace by themselves. Italian language fighters, in the place of being divided to go resistant to the a couple attacking pushes, you certainly will concentrate on for each force sequentially. For every single selection of bombers will have to deal with a complete wrath of your own defenses.

Within a great.m., a prominent components of the fresh new Regensburg assault push entered the new Dutch coastline, accompanied by one or two dozen P-47 Thunderbolts. Around three Luftwaffe groups approximately 60 fighters gone into status to help you engage brand new intruders. Another one or two German systems, I Set of Combatant Squadron twenty-six having FW-190s and you will III Group which have Messerschmitt Bf-109s, had through to deliver head-on the attacks to the bombers.

By the end of one’s find, four B-17s had been try down and some anybody else broken, some therefore seriously that they were obligated to split creation and you may change getting house. A few significantly more bombers fell to flak. Due to the fact B-17s neared the brand new Italian language frontier, the brand new Thunderbolts attained the brand new maximum of their radius out of action and you can turned back. From then on, the fresh bombers had been on their have a glimpse at this site own.

Our plane are endangered by the dropping dirt

The second thing launched given that bombers enacted Wiesbaden. Combatant Group fifty delivered twenty-five Messerschmitt Bf-109s into the step, backed by a rating out-of Bf-109s and FW-190s flown by the teachers out of combatant knowledge units in your community. These generated head-towards symptoms, upcoming became to and attacked the newest bombers from the buttocks. A lot of these action taken place in the All of us 100th Bomb Category guiding new formation. Lt. Col. Beirne Set, an employee officer from Head office. 8th Heavens Force, travelled as the copilot in one of the group’s B-17s to gain firsthand handle feel.

He certainly performed. “Moving their reddish noses up to when you look at the an extensive You-change,” he authored, “a several-ship squadron out-of Myself-109s was available in off twelve in order to a couple of o’clock in the pairs and you will from inside the fours, while the main event is actually with the. A glowing silver object sailed more all of our right wing. I acknowledged it a main get off doorway. Moments after, a dark target emerged hurtling through the formation, barely lost numerous props. It had been men, clasping his hips so you can his head, rotating instance a scuba diver inside a triple somersault. I did not see their chute discover.

“A b-17 turned into slowly outside of the creation on the right, maintaining height. In a moment, the new B-17 entirely vanished when you look at the a brilliant rush, of which the only real stays was four small balls away from flame, the brand new energy tanks, that have been quickly ate because they dropped earthward.