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attacked the 91st group near Halle and claimed
six B-17s in trade for six Fw 190s in a four minute
battle.
August 24 saw the loss of the Fourth’s Major
John T. Godfrey in a freak “friendly fire” incident.
Leading the 336th squadron, Godfrey spotted
Ju 52/3m transports on the airfield at
Nordhausen. He led the strafing attack and shot
up four while his wingman 1st Lieutenant Melvin
Dickey shot up three. The light flak was intense
and Godfrey jinked to make himself a difficult
target. In so doing, he flew into Dickey’s line of
fire as he opened up on a fourth ground target.
Godfrey’s P-51 was hit in the engine and the
coolant system. With the termperature gauge
“off the peg” as he later recalled, Godfrey bellied
in beyond the field and managed to get out of the
airplane as it caught fire and reach cover before
the enemy troops arrived, despite suffering cuts
to his head and leg.
At the time he went down, Godfrey was tied
with Jim Goodson as leading ace of the Fourth,
with 29.88 air and ground victories. After three
days on the run and walking 13 miles, he tried to
catch a ride in a boxcar outside Nordhausen, but
was captured by railway guards. He later wrote
that being captured and spending eight months
as a POW was “the best thing that could have
happened to me,” since he had been obsessed
with becoming the top ace of the ETO. “Prison
taught me what was really important in life.”
September 11 saw the strongest Jagdwaffe
reaction to a bombing raid since May 28. It also
saw another Eighth Air Force “Frantic” mission,
in which 75 B-17s of the 96th and 452nd bomb
groups bombed Chemnitz then headed on east,
escorted by the 20th Fighter Group. While there
was no enemy response, the force had to pick
their way through heavy weather to land at
Ukrainian bases. The bombers hit targets in
Hungary on their way to Italy and the full force
was back in England by September 17.
The other escort groups saw plenty of action
on September 11. One of the forces attacked
the Leuna factory in “Mercilessburg.” Seven
JG 400 Me 163s attacked one formation, claiming
three B-17s in the vicinity of Leipzig. The “Bloody
Hundredth” 100th Bomb Group was lagging, they
were hit by an entire Sturmgruppe and 13 B-17s
went down in the five-minute battle. Had it not
been for the timely arrival of the 339th Fighter
Group’s Mustangs, the result might have been
worse, but the P-51s shot down a good number
of enemy fighters. The 92nd bomb group was
also hit, losing eight, with four others so badly
damaged they made emergency landings at
Allied airfields in France. The U.S. fighters
overall claimed an incredible 116 victories for
the day.
On September 12, the bombers hit the synthetic
fuel factory outside Magdeburg. The Jagdwaffe
again made a strong showing, the groups
reported loss of 23 B-17s. Overall, 43 bombers
were lost, but against these enemy successes,
American fighters returned with claims for
125 shot down.
On September 13, the Mustangs claimed 150
shot down. The famous names from the previous
year were gone, returned home at the end of
their tours or shot down. Their replacements
demonstrated the result of the strong training
program created in the previous two years back
in the United States.
By this point, loss of regular supplies of
aviation gasoline due to the destruction of the
synthetic oil factories left the Luftwaffe only
able to put in occasional appearances, when the
geschwadern were able to collect sufficient gas
to mount a mission.
The synthetic oil campaign carried out in the
summer of 1944 was the first true test of the
belief that daylight precision bombing could
fatally disable the German economy. Eighth Air
Force flew 28 missions in June, 27 in July and
23 in August and 15 in September - so fast that
some bomber crews completed their 35 mission
tours in only a few months - with the majority of
the missions targeting the synthetic oil industry.
In the end, the campaign was won by carpet
bombing the plants, causing simultaneous
damage to several plants at a time, which
was beyond the means of the German repair
organization to return them to even a modest
percentage of pre-campaign production. By
September, synthetic oil production was nine
percent of what it had been in May, and the
Ploesti oilfields were in the hands of the Soviets.
The German aircraft industry achieved its
highest monthly production total in September,
but the overwhelming majority of the airplanes
produced never flew for lack of fuel.
Over the course of the campaign, Eighth Air
Force lost almost half its operational bomber
strength: 1,022 B-17s and B-24s, as well as 665
P-38s, P-47s and P-51s. While the loss rate was
1.5 percent over 35 missions as compared to
3.6 percent over 25 missions during the “Battle
of Germany” that spring, an aircrewman in the
Eighth still had a one-in-three chance of being
killed or made prisoner during his tour.
After the war, Albert Speer told his
interrogators that if the Allied Air Forces had
made these plants their sole objective during
the summer of 1944, they could have forced
a German surrender in eight weeks, which would
have allowed the airmen to achieve their dream
of winning the war themselves. As it was, what
was accomplished likely shortened the European
war by six months.
Editor's Notes: The author is responsible for the
historical, terminological and technical accuracy of
the article.
P-51D-10 "Pauline" of the 339th Fighter Group. One of the last fighter groups to join VIII fighter Command,
the 339th FG established themselves as ground attack specialists when the Luftwaffe stopped flying for
lack of fuel. (USAF Official)
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July 2024