Fast single-engine fighters could exploit the second.
The Americans soon saw what that looked like.
A formation might be flying steadily when explosions appeared nearby.
Pilots reacted instinctively.
Aircraft moved.
Spacing changed.
Then German fighters entered.
Gunners opened fire.
Tracers crossed the sky.
A B-17 began smoking.
Another dropped lower.
A third maintained formation with one engine stopped.
The bomber stream continued because stopping was impossible.
There was no safe place to pull over.
The target remained ahead.
The Front of the Bomber Was No Longer Safe Enough
Head-on attacks became particularly dangerous.
Imagine standing in the nose of a B-17 at twenty-five thousand feet.
The sky ahead appears enormous.
Then black dots form.
They grow.
German fighters.
They are coming almost directly toward the formation.
The bombardier or nose gunner has seconds.
The relative closing speed is tremendous.
The fighter pilot wants to fire before passing through the bomber stream.
The American gunner wants to hit him first.
Then the distance collapses.
Cannon fire flashes.
Machine guns answer.
A fighter crosses above or below.
Another follows.
A third attacks an adjacent bomber.
The entire event may last only moments, but the damage can determine whether the Fortress survives the next three hours.
One burst through a cockpit could kill or wound both pilots.
A strike against an engine could ignite fuel.
Rounds entering the nose could kill the navigator or bombardier.
Fragments could cut oxygen lines.
A man who appeared uninjured might suddenly become confused because his oxygen supply had failed.
Other attacks came from behind.
From the sides.
From below.
The German pilots coordinated enough of these assaults to create relentless pressure.
A B-17 crew could survive one attack and have only minutes before the next.
The fighter escorts were no longer there to force the Germans to look over their shoulders.
Every Luftwaffe pilot could focus on the bombers.
That changed everything.
The Bomber Gunners Fought Back Hard
Black Thursday should not be imagined as hundreds of helpless American aircraft simply waiting to be destroyed.
The bomber crews defended themselves fiercely.
Thousands of .50-caliber rounds went outward.
German fighters were damaged and destroyed.
A pilot making a frontal attack knew one mistake could place him directly inside overlapping fire from multiple Fortresses.
The Luftwaffe paid for its attacks.
But the exchange favored the defense strategically because Germany did not need to shoot down every bomber.
It needed to make deep daylight missions too expensive to sustain.
The difference is important.
If the Americans lost ten bombers and destroyed ten fighters, the numbers might appear balanced.
They were not necessarily equivalent.
A B-17 contained ten men and required enormous industrial resources.
Its loss removed both aircraft and crew from the bomber offensive.
German fighters defending their own country sometimes operated close enough to bases that surviving pilots could land quickly, rearm, and return.
A damaged German pilot who bailed out over friendly territory might fight again.
An American airman parachuting over Germany became a prisoner.
Geography multiplied the defender's advantage.
The bombers could shoot back.
They could not create air superiority around themselves.
Only fighters could do that effectively.
Aircraft Started Falling Out of Formation
A Fortress does not always disappear dramatically.
Sometimes the first sign of trouble is a small change.
One engine begins smoking.
The aircraft drifts backward.
The pilot increases power on the remaining engines.
The bomber tries to hold position.
It cannot.
The gap grows.
Every crew around it sees what is happening.
Nobody can slow the whole formation enough to save one aircraft without endangering everyone.
The damaged B-17 falls behind.
German fighters notice.
The attacks concentrate.
From the main formation, other crews may see pieces coming away.
Perhaps parachutes appear.
Perhaps the bomber turns downward under control.
Perhaps it disappears into cloud.
No one knows the ending.
The surviving formation keeps moving.
This was one of the hardest psychological demands placed on bomber crews.
You could watch friends become isolated and still maintain course.
Leaving formation to help them would likely create another vulnerable bomber.
The best chance for everyone else was to stay together.
Military logic required what human instinct resisted.
Keep going.
The Luftwaffe Could Attack, Land, and Attack Again
The geographic advantage became increasingly clear as the Americans moved deeper into Germany.
German fighters were operating above their own network of airfields.
Some units attacked and broke away.
Others appeared.
Pilots low on ammunition could land.
Fresh aircraft could take off.
Radar controllers continued tracking the bomber stream.
The B-17s had only what they had carried from England.
Every defensive cartridge fired was one less available later.
Every wounded gunner reduced protection.
Every damaged turret created another weak direction.
Every engine lost increased the chance of falling behind.
The Americans were carrying their entire survival system with them.
The Germans were fighting inside theirs.
This fundamental asymmetry was one of the reasons self-defending bomber doctrine failed under concentrated opposition.
The Fortress could defend itself tactically.
It could not dominate hundreds of miles of hostile airspace strategically.
Anti-Aircraft Fire Added Another Layer
Even after fighters attacked, the crews still had to face German flak.
Heavy anti-aircraft guns defended major industrial areas.
Flak bursts appeared as dark explosions around the formations.
At high altitude, crews often saw the black clouds before hearing or feeling anything.
Then fragments struck.
The shell did not need to hit a bomber directly.
It exploded at altitude and sent metal fragments outward.
A small piece could puncture a fuel tank.
Cut a hydraulic line.
Break a control cable.
Wound a crewman.
Damage an engine.
Destroy an oxygen system.
The bomber might continue flying with damage that would become critical later.
Flak therefore created cumulative vulnerability.
A Fortress surviving the target area could still be crippled enough that German fighters found it easier to destroy on the return journey.
The crews faced another terrifying feature.
Flak was impersonal.
Fighter combat at least offered something visible to shoot at.
Flak arrived from gunners miles below.
The bomber crews could do almost nothing about it.
They maintained formation and flew through.
Schweinfurt Finally Appeared Below
After hours of fighting, the target had to justify everything.
The bombardiers prepared.
The bomber stream aligned for its runs over the industrial complexes.
Precision bombing doctrine required stability during the final approach.
This created another contradiction.
A bomber formation under attack naturally wanted to maneuver.
Accurate bombing required steady flight.
The lead aircraft established the bombing course.
Others followed.
Bombardiers used their sights.
Bomb bay doors opened.
The temperature inside the aircraft changed as the bays exposed the interior to the cold air.
Below, Schweinfurt waited beneath smoke, haze, anti-aircraft fire, and the growing confusion of an air raid.
The factories were real.
The industrial importance was real.
The danger the bombers had survived to reach them was also real.