Tales to Noses Over Berlin

USAAF aircrews received their first major briefings for a daylight mission to Berlin as early as November 1943. The onset of the European winter weather, however, caused 11 attempts to be scrubbed even before the forces got into the air.
It was March 1944 before the increasing might of the 8th Air Force could be assembled in the skies and aimed at the heart of Hitler's Germany - Berlin. The planners had good reasons for targeting the city but for many the psychological importance of such a target was reason enough. From small beginnings the missions built up into a massive, unstoppable demonstration of aerial might. The Royal Air Force had thrown its full strength against the city and paid a terrible price. Now the United States' greatest aerial armada pitched its resources against Berlin - it too would pay a high price. There were tougher targets in Germany but none achieved the spectre of 'Big B', none would claim such high losses. Some 450 US heavy bombers and their crews failed to return from missions to Berlin, many more returned but would never fly again. Veterans and survivors tell their stories - the triumphs and disasters - through recollection, diary notes and official records. Detailed study of records from the US archives and the German Landesarchiv reveal the devastation and the human cost in their aerial battle for Berlin.


"BIG B"- BERLIN - the very name sent shudders through every Allied airman. The USAAF's 8th Air Force began a 20 mission campaign against the German capital in March 1944, just as the RAF gave up its ambitions to crack the city wide open. They battled against the cream of the Luftwaffe in the air, the flak from the ground and the orth European weather. It started with just thirty bombers over Berlin and climaxed with twelve hundred and thirty a year later. Berlin was considered rich in targets but there were political considerations too. The British, the Russians, not just the Germans, all influenced the progress of the campaign. Each of the twenty missions is covered - the bomber war, the fighter war. For some they would prove to be every bit the nightmare envisaged; for others an anti-climax, a milk run. The crews of more than 450 B17s and B24s failed to return. Of those that did return, none would ever forget they had been. Veterans and survivors of the campaign tell their stories, through recollection, diary notes, reports and official records. Target damage analysis from USAAF files and detailed study of official German archive records reveal the results of the raids, often described officially merely as "unobserved". The destruction is revealed and the human cost - to friend and foe alike.


by Ray Bowden
Published by Design Oracle (with the USAAF Nose Art Research Project) 1996 128pp profusely illustrated. 21x30 softcover, mint.





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