Strategic Air Offensive

In 1942 the strategic bombing offensive against Germany was substantially increased. The 1941 Butt report, which showed just how inaccurate night bombing actually was, encouraged the introduction of area bombing of German cities. Sir Arthur Harris took over as Commander-in-Chief of the RAF's Bomber Command in February. He quickly ordered fire-storm raids on Rostock and Lübeck, and then, in May, mobilized his second line and training aircraft to mount the first thousand-bomber raid, on Cologne. RAF armourers are seen fusing bombs (above) prior to loading them aboard a Short Stirling at RAF Waterbeach, near Cambridge, April 30, 1942.

The caption to this German photograph of the gutted Lübeck cathedral described the raid on the city as “a new crime against civilization.” It helped inspire the German Baedeker raids, so called because the official announcing them declared that the Germans would attack all building marked with three stars in the Baedeker guidebook.

On the night of May 30, the first thousand-bomber raid was launched on Cologne. The top picture shows a rubber factory at Deutz, on the east bank of the Rhine, before the raid, and the lower picture shows it afterwards.

The four-engined Avro Lancaster came into service in early 1942. Although it was generally used at night, this
photograph shows a low-level daylight raid on the Schneider armament works at Le Creusot on October 17.

Another daylight attack, this by Lockheed Venturas, Douglas Bostons and de Havilland Mosquitos on the Philips radio valve works in the Dutch town of Eindhoven, December 6.

German flak and fighters imposed a steady toll on bombers. Here a Vickers Wellington of the Polish 301 (Pomeranian) Squadron, lies in the mud of a Dutch estuary.

Battle of the Bulge Anniversary

Today marks the 64th anniversary of the beginning of what has come to be known as “The Battle of the Bulge.” Early on the misty winter morning of 16 December 1944, over 200,000 German troops and nearly 1,000 tanks launched Adolf Hitler's last bid to reverse the ebb in his fortunes that had begun when Allied troops landed in France on D-Day. Seeking to drive to the English Channel coast and split the Allied armies as they had done in May 1940, the Germans struck in the Ardennes Forest, a seventy-five-mile stretch of the front characterized by dense woods and few roads, held by four inexperienced and battle-worn American divisions stationed there for rest and seasoning.

After a day of hard fighting, the Germans broke through the American front, surrounding most of an infantry division, seizing key crossroads, and advancing their spearheads toward the Meuse River, creating the projection that gave the battle its name.

Stories spread of the massacre of soldiers and civilians at Malmedy and Stavelot, of paratroopers dropping behind the lines, and of English-speaking German soldiers, disguised as Americans, capturing critical bridges, cutting communications lines, and spreading rumors. For those who had lived through 1940, the picture was all too familiar. Belgian townspeople put away their Allied flags and brought out their swastikas. Police in Paris enforced an all-night curfew. British veterans waited nervously to see how the Americans would react to a full-scale German offensive, and British generals quietly acted to safeguard the Meuse crossings. Even American civilians who had thought final victory was near were sobered by the Nazi onslaught.

But this was not 1940. The supreme Allied commander, General Dwight D. Eisenhower rushed reinforcements to hold the shoulders of the German penetration. Within days, Lt. Gen. George S. Patton, Jr. had turned his Third U.S. Army to the north and was counterattacking against the German flank. But the story of the battle of the Bulge is above all the story of American soldiers. Often isolated and unaware of the overall picture, they did their part to slow the Nazi advance, whether by delaying armored spearheads with obstinate defenses of vital crossroads, moving or burning critical gasoline stocks to keep them from the fuel-hungry German tanks, or coming up with questions on arcane Americana to stump possible Nazi infiltrators.

At the critical road junctions of St. Vith and Bastogne, American tankers and paratroopers fought off repeated attacks, and when the acting commander of the 101st Airborne Division in Bastogne was summoned by his German adversary to surrender, he simply responded, "Nuts!"

Within days, Patton's Third Army had relieved Bastogne, and to the north, the 2d U.S. Armored Division stopped enemy tanks short of the Meuse on Christmas Day. Through January, American troops, often wading through deep snow drifts, attacked the sides of the shrinking bulge until they had restored the front and set the stage for the final drive to victory.

Never again would Hitler be able to launch an offensive in the West on such a scale. An admiring British Prime Minister Sir Winston Churchill stated, "This is undoubtedly the greatest American battle of the war and will, I believe, be regarded as an ever-famous American victory." Indeed, in terms of participation and losses, the battle of the Bulge is arguably the greatest battle in American military history.

Courtesy The United States Army Center of Military History

General George C. Marshall

As Chief of Staff of the Army, George C. Marshall ordered the largest military expansion in U. S. history, inheriting an outmoded, poorly-equipped army of 189,000 men and, partly drawing from his experience teaching and developing techniques of modern warfare as an instructor at the Army War College, coordinated the large-scale expansion and modernization of the U. S. Army. Though he had never actually led troops in combat, Marshall was a skilled organizer with a talent for inspiring other officers.

During World War II, Marshall was instrumental in preparing the U.S. Army and Army Air Forces for the invasion of the European continent. Marshall wrote the document that would become the central strategy for all Allied operations in Europe. It was assumed that Marshall would become the Supreme Commander of Operation Overlord (The “D-Day” Normandy Invasion), but Roosevelt selected Dwight Eisenhower as Supreme Commander. The President told Marshall: "I didn't feel I could sleep at ease if you were out of Washington."

Ready for Enemy Aircraft

Shells are loaded into a Bofors anit-aircraft gun by Private First Class Paul Kaiser of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, at a U.S. air base in England.

Mission: Completed

On June 6, 1943, General Jacob Devers congratulates Robert K. Morgan, Captain of the B-17 “Memphis Belle,” on completing twenty-five combat missions over occupied Europe. The “Belle” was chosen as the focal point of a war bond tour in the United States and was immortalized in William Wyler’s Oscar-winning documentary for the Office of War Information.

P-47 Pilot Briefing

A briefing of P-47 pilots of the 56th Fighter Group at their base at Halesworth, England. Seated third from the left in the fourth row is fighter ace Bob Johnson. Johnson was the first USAAF fighter pilot in the European theater to surpass Eddie Rickenbacker's WWI score of 26 victories. He finished his combat tour with 27 kills, was later credited by the Eighth Air Force claims board with a 28th victory when a probable was reassessed as a destroyed, then reduced back to 27 when a post-war review discovered that Eighth Air Force had inadvertently switched credits for a kill he made with a double kill made by a fellow 56th Fighter Group pilot, Ralph A. Johnson, on November 26, 1943, a day when Robert Johnson aborted the mission after takeoff.

A Blessed “Flying Fortress”

Roman Catholic padre Captain M.S. Ragan blesses a B-17 “Flying Fortress” crew before take-off. Before the war Captain Ragan, of Youngstown, Ohio, had been assistant pastor of St. Paul’s Church, Cleveland, Ohio.

Three Pilots Off Duty

Captains Louis Sebille, Roland Scott, and Howard Posson were among the first pilots to fly B-26 Marauders with the 322nd Bomber Group. They were photographed near their base at Great Saling, England, in September 1943.

Fish and Chips in the English Countryside

The British saw U.S. servicemen as a mixed blessing. It was widely accepted that their presence and military prowess were vital to the outcome of the war, but local male pride found the impact of their glamor, money, and demeanor on British women hard to stomach. There was respect and resentment in equal measure.

Here we see an airman in the United States Army Air Force savoring one of the joys of English life: fish and chips served in and eaten out of a newspaper in 1943.

High-Level Lunch Meeting

A meeting of the American Combined Chiefs of Staff continues over lunch, circa 1943. Left to right: Admiral William D. Leahy, U.S. Navy; General Henry “Hap” Arnold, U.S. Army; Admiral Ernest J. King, U.S. Navy; and General George C. Marshall, U.S. Army.

B-17G Flying Fortress Crew Heads Out

The crew of a Boeing B-17G Flying Fortress is shown somewhere in England being shuttled out to their aircraft for a mission. Generally considered the defining B-17 design, all changes made in the B-17F production run were incorporated into the final B-17G version. It also included a Bendix chin-turret, an innovation derived from the unsuccessful YB-40 escort version, bringing defensive armament to thirteen .50-calibre machine guns. Some 8,680 were built.