They were hampered, as were the German ground forces, by a desperate shortage of fuel. Inside the Battle of the Bulge, the Luftwaffe air crews made the most of the bad weather for the first few days, but then their luck ran out. Meanwhile, by December 1944, RAF Bomber Command had devastated or seriously damaged 80 percent of Germany’s large cities. In spite of the appalling flying weather, Air Chief Marshal Arthur “Bomber” Harris’s heavy Lancaster and Halifax groups mounted large-scale missions against German industrial, rail, and communications centers on four nights and two days.
RAF Bomber Command rallied to indirectly assist the Americans at the Battle of the Bulge the week after the panzer breakthrough. The Eighth Air Force was able to send out a few missions against tactical targets behind the enemy lines, though the fog in England caused several tragic B-17 collisions and the main bombing force had to stand down for a critical week. The following day brought a slight clearing of the skies, allowing Anderson’s B-26 Marauder medium bombers to wreck a score of bridges, further impeding the German offensive. This gave First Army combat engineers time to demolish key bridges the enemy needed, and the 1st SS Panzer Division’s attack lost momentum. Vith, Belgium, was located by two P-38 Lightning fighters and halted by bombing and strafing P-47 Thunderbolts of the 365th and 368th Fighter Groups. On December 17, a cutting-edge German battle group with 3,500 men and 150 tanks snaking westward along country lanes north of St. He directed two of the Eighth Air Force’s fighter groups to rush from England to the continent and place themselves at Vandenberg’s operational disposal.ĭespite the treacherous weather conditions of low cloud, fog, snow, and rain, airmen of the Army Air Corps rose gallantly to the challenge. Strategic Air Forces in Europe, responded decisively to the American ground force’s desperate need for additional air support. “Tooey” Spaatz, the commander of the U.S. Eisenhower’s headquarters for two critical days, General Carl A. While shock and indecision paralyzed Dwight D. Some 1,500 fighters, 300 fighter-bombers, and 500 twin-engine fighters and bombers were used in the attack. The Luftwaffe supported the counter-offensive with all its capabilities. units in the sector of the Ardennes foreset were pushed back and severely mauled before regaining their balance. The vile weather, including thick ground fog in England that made takeoffs and landings risky, would not clear for several days, during which U.S. Preciously husbanded fuel, enough for only six days of operations, allowed the German armor to advance and the Luftwaffe to fly. The Germans had deliberately waited for a period of bad weather, which was to herald the worst European winter for half a century, to shield their ground operations from overwhelming RAF and USAAF supremacy. The Fifth and Sixth Panzer Armies and the Seventh Army smashed through thinly held American defense lines and caused panic and confusion at all command levels. For a time, weather proved to be his ally. Launching his last great gamble of World War II, the Ardennes counteroffensive, Adolf Hitler depended on “fog, night, and snow” to ground the Allied air forces and give him victory. Generals Anderson and Quesada had been brushed off because the Allied intelligence chiefs believed the Germans, weakened and pushed back to the Rhine by superior Allied forces, were no longer capable of mounting a major attack. The reports had shown increased truck and railroad traffic, and armored vehicle tracks spotted leading into the forest but not emerging.
Only the day before they had flown to Supreme Allied Headquarters (SHAEF) at Versailles to relay ominous reconnaissance reports of a German buildup in the region of the Ardennes Forest. (You can read more about the Bulge and other stories from the European Theater inside WWII Historymagazine.) Depending On Fog, Night and SnowĪnderson and Quesada groaned. Three German panzer armies had just thundered out of the chill, misty Ardennes Forest. As maps were being pinned to the wall in Hodges’ operations room that Saturday morning, the telephone rang. The First and Ninth Armies were each demanding air operations to kick off their Christmas offensives, and the purpose of the meeting was to decide which army would get the tactical benefit of heavy bombers. “Pete” Quesada, leader of the 9th Fighter Command. Vandenberg, commander of the Ninth Air Force, Maj. Anderson, deputy commander of the Strategic Air Forces in Europe, Maj.
At daybreak on December 16, 1944, three senior officers in the Army Air Corps and a Royal Air Force air vice marshal arrived at an elegant chateau near the town of Spa in southeastern Belgium that was the headquarters of Lt.
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