August 19th, 1942
Romania - Blowlamp VII
Maximum effort
At dawn, the Mosquito PR damage assessment team finds that the four refineries already attacked have suffered a lot. Another Mosquito counts quite a few planes on the fields surrounding Ploesti.
At 0945 hours, General Doolittle, after conferring with the officers commanding the 98th and 376th BG and the 60th EB, decides to launch a new daytime attack, this time against the very important Concordia Vega complex, north of Ploesti.
Gathering all the planes and crews in fighting condition, the three units constitute a formation of 96 aircraft in three boxes, with 8 reserve aircraft. These last ones must follow the main formation until Limnos, to replace the apparatuses which would have had mechanical problems (three B-24 will be thus replaced, the five other reserves going to land in Rhodes). It is really a "maximum effort". One hundred and four fighters also take off, even if only 92 will pass the solid mass of Rhodope (28 of the 1st FG, 32 of the 14th FG and 32 of the 13th EC).
This massive formation (for the time) must be followed, 400 km and almost 80 minutes later, by 51 Stirling bombers of the RAF. These aircraft should have participated in Blowlamp VIII, at night, but Doolittle suspects that the persons in charge of the direction of the management, lacking manpower, would have difficulty in really distinguishing between the formations and will concentrate their efforts on the largest formation. The Stirlings must attack the Creditulier at Brazi, south of Ploesti, at the moment when all the enemy defenses will be stuck north of the city, where the B-24s will attack the Concordia Vega installations.
The twin-engine night bombers will be the only ones to ensure Blowlamp VIII.
25 minutes of continuous combat
During this time, a feeling close to panic gains the German staff, as the extent of the damage caused to the refineries becomes clearer, as the extent of the losses of the fighters is revealed and that one learns that the effectiveness of the flak will be very reduced this day, because the servants are exhausted... and their guns too (the central section of almost all the 88 mm must be replaced). In the morning, Kesselring approves the redeployment of the entire Xth FliegerKorps to Plovdiv, including the Bf 109s of I and II/JG 53 and the Bf 110s of ZG 1. These planes have hardly just landed on their new base when the first alarm horn of the day sounds.
"Again?" growlsCaptain Von Stahlman, whose Bf 109 F has just landed in Plovdiv. "Do B-24s grow on trees in America?"
- Of course," replies Heinz Becker, whose plane has come to rest nearby, "they have apple trees of B-24s. But that would be nothing if they didn't also have P-38 pear trees. And if it wasn't the season for both...
As Doolittle had hoped, the combination of a high altitude raid and a medium altitude raid disorients the German fighter leadership to some extent. The main defense effort is exerted against the B-24. From Plovdiv take off 36 Bf 109F and 24 Bf 110C and F, which will intercept the attackers a little south of the Romanian-Bulgarian border. The single-engine planes throw themselves on the P-38s of the 14th FG (49th FS) to clear the way for the Bf 110s and a violent fight breaks out. This fierce battle is reported by one of the American pilots (courtesy of Air Force Journal, March 1993).
"They came in from our 4 o'clock, many of them, in two groups, and jumped on us. Our squadron leader yelled to drop the babies - I mean, the extra tanks, and to get out of the way on the right. I was leading the White Flight, and when the Red Flight (on my left) cleared to the right, I saw 109s in their tails. I immediately cleared left, followed by the Blue Flight, and the Green Flight cleared to the right. We cleared the tail of Red Flight and I damaged a 109, while two others fell.
There were Jerries everywhere, in the middle of our squadron and all around. We formed two circles in opposite directions. A P-38 went into a spin; it had stalled and was losing altitude. A bunch of 109s fell on it. I dove in and shot their leader. The others split-S and I joined the formation. But two more P-38s were falling to my left, in flames, and one was very close to me. I yelled, "P-38 on fire, bail out!", but I got no response.
From that moment on, we did nothing but fly in Lufbery circles, chasing the 109 that clung to our tails. Every moment I could see at least one enemy fighter in front of me, above or below. They were coming from all directions and from above us, in numbers and at full speed. A P-38 flying horizontally left its Lufbery and immediately attracted a bunch of 109s. I turned sharply and managed to send them a burst of machine-gun fire. One flipped over with black smoke and the others went into a split-S, but the P-38 stalled and went into a spin. We were all using a lot of ammunition and oil, but I realized that we were going to have to fight to the end and I made up my mind. The fight went on for almost 25 minutes, but after a while the 109s were staying a little bit above us, only making a pass every now and then. So, some more came in and we threw ourselves at them. I got one near the cockpit and it disappeared instantly. The rest of them cleared out in disarray. I took advantage of the opportunity and headed south, zigzagging sharply. I had only seven P-38s behind me."
The 49th FS had to deal with the fighters of JG 53, losing eight aircraft, with two others, hard hit, crash-landing at Limnos. The pilots claim 28 victories; in reality, the archives of JG 53 show that during this first combat of the day, the German formation lost sixteen of its members (including a Gruppe commander and two Staffeln commanders), plus seven severely damaged. Out of sixteen, three Bf 109s were probably shot down by P-38s of the 48th FS (which lost two planes), but the men of the 49th FS destroyed the other thirteen.
Meanwhile, the Bf 110s try to attack the bomber boxes, but are topped by the P-38s of the 13th FS. Knowing that other fights await them during the day, the French make only a few diving and resourceful passes to break up the German formation, shooting down five Bf 110 (for 7 claimed) without losses. Knowing that they are no match against the Lightning, the German pilots break off the fight.
These clashes significantly reduce the size of the escort, but they also distract the German controllers, and the Stirlings are able to slip safely over northern Greece, while the B-24s approach their target.
The Romanian and Hungarian fighters attack in their turn, and, as the day before, in two widely separated formations.
The Romanians, with 22 IAR-80 and 18 Bf 109 (14 x 109E and 4 x 109F), are the first to contact. The Messerschmitt pilots deliberately try to attract the attention of the escort to give the IAR-80s the opportunity to attack the bombers. This feint works, to a certain extent: the P-38s of the 1st FG and the 13th EC are engaged by the Bf 109s, which lose eleven aircraft in exchange for four P-38 (the 109E are showing their age). But the slow IAR-80 have all the difficulties of the world to intercept the B-24. With a maximum speed of 510 km/h at 16,000 feet, it is not easy to catch up with bombers that fly at 450 km/h at 26,000 feet. The Romanians then have no other choice than a prolonged race towards the crossfire of the American turrets. Worse: the IAR-80s are armed with only machine guns (4 x 7.92 mm or 2 x 7.92 mm and 2 x 13.2 mm) instead of six, because they had to dismantle two of them to have a chance to catch up to the Liberators. Attacking the lower boxes, the 22 fighters manage to shoot down two of the bombers and to damage four of them, but lose five of their own to the B-24s' strafing. They are then attacked by eight P-38 of II/13, which shoot down six Romanians at the cost of only one P-38.
Shortly after, the six Hungarian Bf 109E make a pass on an intermediate box. They destroy a B-24, damage two and clear before the escort catches up.
.........
Fire from above
At this point, the formation is over the Concordia Vega refinery. A lightbreeze from the northeast makes aiming particularly accurate, and more than 66 percent of the bombs from the 93 bombers fall within 900 meters of the center point, destroying the facility at 75 %. However, the flak is very dense, because Concordia Vega had never been attacked before; two B-24, damaged by the fighters and flying lower than their box, are destroyed. Underneath the planes that turn back, violent fires rage and heavy black and oily clouds driftover Ploesti.
While the B-24s cross the Bulgarian border again, the Stirlings attack the Creditulier refinery, at Brazi, after a feint towards Bucharest. At 17,000 feet, the British bombers are very effective, although they are not spared by the flak, because Brazi has not yet been attacked. Three Stirlings fall, but the Creditul Minier, badly hit, sees 70% of it destroyed by huge fires. Leaving the objective area, the British areattacked by eight Hungarian CR.42, which did not take off to intercept bombers (they know that the B-24 are too fast for them), but to avoid being destroyed on the ground (the anti-aircraft defense having believed that the Stirlings were going to bomb airfields). The small biplanes can shoot down a Stirling, but lose two of theirs.
The B-24s are now close to the Rhodope range. For lack of anything better, General Gerstenberg begs the commanders of JG 53 and ZG 51 to make another attack.
Some of the fighters which landed in Plovdiv after the first combat of the day and which were not damaged are able to refuel. Eight Bf 109F and 20 Bf 110 can take off and intercept the raid over the hills of Thrace. The pilots of the escort are exhausted and lacking ammunition and fuel. However, they shoot down three planes (one Bf 109F and two Bf 110) in exchange of two P-38 (one of the 1st FG, one of the 13th EC). The twin-engine fighters add two B-24s to their roster (stragglers flying lower than the main formation) and damage four aircraft.
Finally the battle ends. Seven B-24 were destroyed in combat and six others had to land in catastrophe in Limnos (2), Lesbos-Mytilene (3) or Chios (1).
The Stirlings lost two more aircraft attacked by Bf 110s and three others landed on their bellies at Chios.
.........
In the evening of "Wednesday in Flames"
This battle was the hardest fought by the Blowlamp force. Thirteen B-24 were lost, of which seven in aerial combat, and nine Stirlings, six in combat. Seventeen B-24s and eleven Stirlings were damaged to varying degrees. The escort suffered heavy losses: 21 P-38s were shot down (17 of which were in air combat) and 18 damaged. The 14th FG was very hard hit - the 49th FS lost ten aircraft (two of which crashed on landing) out of sixteen aircraft engaged in Blowlamp VII.
The Axis fighters paid a very high price for this. Twenty-four fighters were destroyed in combat (17 from JG 53 and 7 from ZG 1), plus 22 Romanians and two Hungarians. Many other aircraft were damaged, some beyond repair.
But if the battle was a defeat for General Gerstenberg's forces, it was not only because his fighters were decimated. They could not prevent the bombers from reaching their targets: the two objectives of the day, the Concordia Vega and the Creditul Minier were so badly hit that they will not recover, until the end of the war, their production before this raid.
Paradoxically, for the Blowlamp staff, the result was not so clear-cut. The losses suffered during the day were so high that General James Doolittle, after discussion with Air Vice-Marshal Tedder, decided to suspend the raids.
...
Romania - Blowlamp VIII
A last blow of the Blowlamp
This decision does not prevent 27 Wellingtons and as many Manchesters from leaving Heraklion between 20:41 and 21:12. The Wellingtons attack the Creditul Minier and the Manchesters the Astra Romana. The installations of Brazi burn violently and the diversionary fires could not avoid that the bombs of the night add their damage to those of the day. The Astra Romana is more difficult to spot; only ten Manchesters positively identify their target. The other 17 bomb the city, killing 39 people and wounding 127.
German night fighters shoot down four Wellingtons and two Manchesters. A fifth Wellington is shot down by flak and two damaged Manchesters land at Limnos; they are beyond repair. The night bombing force also pays the price.
...
Blowlamp - The balance
After four consecutive days and nights of attacks, six of the seven refinery complexes have been hit and nowhere is the cumulative damage less than 75% - the Creditul Minier, which is almost 90% destroyed, is the worst hit. Deliveries of high-octane gasoline are falling sharply to less than 25% of their usual level during the last week of August; two months after the raids, on October 15th, they will still only reach 50% of their normal level. Crude oil deliveries are also disrupted, as rail lines passing near refineries are severely hit: deliveries are falling by half, and by October 15 they will not exceed 75% of the norm.
"Blowlamp imposed severe constraints on the Luftwaffe at a very difficult time. The loss, even temporarily, of a large part of its aviation gasoline was felt in Berlin as a terrible disaster. This was one of the events that would later lead the Luftwaffe Chief of Staff, General Hans Jeschonnek, to a deep depression, and finally drove him to suicide. (Maurice Héninger "The test of fire - The evolution of military tools during the Second World War " Plon Ed., Paris, 1985)
.........
55 B-24, 38 Stirling, 26 Manchester, 29 Wellington, 68 P-38...
To achieve these results, 38 B-24s were lost, either in combat or on landing, on Allied bases or in Turkey. Seventeen others were so damaged that they had to be "reduced to their components" (in fact, they were scrapped). In total, after four days, 55 B-24s were destroyed and 33 others are being repaired out of a force of 176 aircraft - an offensive potential reduced by 50%.
The RAF lost 27 Stirlings (plus 11 irreparable) out of 142, 17 Manchesters (plus 9 irreparable) out of 72, and 20 Wellingtons (plus 9 irreparable) out of 69. Most of these losses were due to German night fighters (7 and 8/NJG 1).
The escort was not spared. The hardest hit unit was the 14th FG of the USAAF, which lost 15 aircraft in combat, plus 12 destroyed on landing or beyond repair. Then came the 13th EC, with 14 aircraft lost and 8 irreparable (out of 60). Finally, the 1st FG of the USAAF lost 12 aircraft, plus 7 irreparable. Such heavy losses in four days could have shattered Allied morale, if these units had not also won numerous victories.
.........
... 43 German Bf 110 and 40 Bf 109, 102 Romanians, 15 Hungarians, 14 night fighters
Axis air losses were indeed considerable.
The II and III/ZG 26 lost 27 Bf 110 out of 43 aircraft in flying condition at the beginning. Adding to that the five irreparable aircraft and the six that had to be sent back to Germany to be refurbished, the two units only have five Bf 110 in flying condition. The ZG 1 of the IInd FK lost 7 Bf 110 and 4 irreparable out of 41 planes. It is clear that the Bf 110 is not a plane to be used against solidly escorted formations of heavy bombers!
The JG 53 lost 29 Bf 109 (plus 11 irreparable) and has only 12 operational aircraft left.
The two Romanian Flotilas suffered appalling losses. Flotila 2 lost 45 aircraft out of 57 (plus ten irreparable) and has only two airworthy aircraft left. Flotila 3 is not much better: 39 planes shot down and 8 irreparable out of 51, i.e. four still operational.
The Hungarians (2nd Fighter Regiment) lost 10 aircraft, plus five that could not be repaired, which left them with 13 aircraft (6 Bf 109 E and 7 CR.42).
Finally, German night fighters shot down most of the 74 RAF bombers destroyed since 16 August. Three pilots scored respectively ten, eight and seven victories in four nights. Nevertheless, 7 and 8/NJG 1 lost eight aircraft (six Bf 110F4 and two Ju 88 C6), plus six beyond repair. Out of 32 operational night fighters on August 16, only eleven were still operational on August 20th.
The 157 Axis fighters shot down in four days were mostly by the escort, which scored 201 victories (61 for the 1st FG, 72 for the 14th FG and 68 for the 13th EC). But the B-24 gunners claimed 81. Nine USAAF pilots (five from the 14th FG and four from the 1st FG) earned the title of Ace, including three in a single mission. Five French pilots achieved five or more victories, but four of them had already earned their titles of Aces since the fight of Limnos, the previous spring.
"Despite heavy losses, Blowlamp was both a strategic and tactical success. Not only was the Luftwaffe deprived of a large part of its high-octane gasoline for a long time, but also of the losses suffered by the Air Commands of Greece and the Balkans obliged to reinforce the defenses of Ploesti with planes which would have been useful in Russia, in the Peloponnese or, some time later, in Sicily.
The JG 53 as well as the ZG 1 were never to return to Greece: they were definitively attached to FliegerFührer Balkan. The hunting of the V FliegerKorps, which was until then based Greece, had to be redeployed in part to Northern Greece. Thus, Blowlamp had also achieved another of his goals: to ensure a powerful diversion before a major Allied offensive.
The political impact is also worth mentioning. In Romania, the star of General Antonescu began to fade, despite the victories proclaimed on the Russian front. Although the civilian population of Ploesti had been severely affected by the night raids, pro-Western (or at least anti-German) sentiments began to emerge among the population and elites. The impact of Blowlamp added to that of the battle of Limnos, the Turkish government was very impressed, and Turkish neutrality began to seriously lean towards the Allies: the third objective of the operation was achieved." (Maurice Héninger, op. cit.)
Finally, Blowlamp led to substantial changes in the organization and equipment of the air forces involved.
"The two Romanian Flotilas had to be completely reconstituted. As a price for the heroism of their pilots, they received Bf 109Gs in December 1942, and the Luftwaffe High Command even agreed to allocate Me 410s to them. The "Battle of the Four Days" was to play a significant role in the expansion of the Romanian Air Force, although the loss of pilots was very difficult to replace. However, the two Flotilas were never to reach the Russian front, as had been planned.
The Luftwaffe had learned the hard way that its heavy fighters, only able to destroy without problems a four-engine bomber, were not able to fight against the Allied escort fighters, but that its air superiority fighters, more agile, were too lightly armed to easily shoot down the American giants.
On the other hand, the success of the night fighters was duly noted. The two night fighter Gruppen would have been reinforced to become a Geschwader, if not for the RAF offensive against the Ruhr, which began in early 1943.
On the Allied side, the air battle of the 19th (the "Wednesday of Flames") had cast some doubts about the value of the P-38. The plane had triumphed against outdated fighters (Bf 109E, Bf 110 or IAR-80), but had had difficulties to face a more advanced aircraft (Bf 109F). No one doubted the performance of the aircraft at very high altitude, but against the Bf 109F, it had to rely on teamwork and good coordination of units to survive if the enemy was outnumbered. This could only get worse with the introduction of more modern and powerful fighters. If the German formations had been equipped with the Fw 190, the situation of the 49th FS could have become critical and the battle could have ended in disaster. The lessons of the battle were carefully relayed to Lockheed, which led to significant improvements to the Lightning in 1943. Blowlamp showed the need for long-range escort fighters with air-to-air combat capabilities at least equal to those of the most advanced enemy fighters.
Finally, it was not immediately obvious that the good results obtained by the high-altitude bombing had been linked to factors such as very good weather during most of the missions, a good knowledge of the target area and the nature of the targets. These results led the USAAF command to believe that it would be easy to repeat them. The experience of the 8th Air Force over Western Europe would show that this was not the case, at least until the bombers were equipped with targeting aids such as the H2X radar." (Maurice Héninger, op. cit.)
