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HISTORY of 47TH BOMBARDMENT WING (M) for NOVEMBER 1942 to APRIL 1945
The 47th Bombardment Wing, commanded by Brig. General Hugo P. Rush early established itself as one of the most efficient B-26 units operating with the 15th Air Force.
In all periods of combat action activities of the unit constantly reflected the high degree of professional skill and devotion to duty of its personnel, efficiency of training methods and intelligent application of the concepts of air operation. In all phases of the war over Europe the unit proved its versatility and adaptability by maintaining its accuracy record in face of constantly changing types of target assignments.
In 1942 the forerunner of the present 47th Wing was a fighter wing, later changing to medium bombardment and finally to heavy bombardment in November of 1943.
Casablanca was under siege when advance units of the 47th Wing (then the 7th Fighter Wing) landed there during the invasion of North Africa in November 1942. From Casablanca the personnel moved first to Chateaudun, Algeria, and began operating on 1 February 1943, as a medium bombardment outfit consisting of B-25's and B-26's with P-38's and P-40's as escorts.
After its official redesignation by the Northwest African Strategic Air Force, on 25 February, headquarters were moved to El Guerrah, Algeria, and during the ensuing months the unit reached the zenith of its development as a medium bombardment wing.
A war of attrition was waged against the enemy. Daily missions were carried out against airfields miles behind the front lines, against fuel and ammunition dumps, tankers along the supply lines refineries within the enemy's own borders and air transports carrying men and supplies. Such targets as Sfax, Sousse, Gabes, Bizerte, Tunis, Enfidaville, as well as fields and harbors in Sardinia, have become memorable. The adaptability of the medium type of bomber manifested itself during these operations, and the technique of skip-bombing was perfected in this theater. As a result of these far-flung operations, the air transport service of the Axis was decimated.
Results were not long in appearing. By the middle of April, the existence of the Axis in Tunisia was precarious. Tunis fell in mid May and the island of Pantelleria in June. The capitulation of Pantelleria, a complete aerial victory, took place one (1) month and two (2) days after the assault began.
Strategic installations in Sicily and Italy were next on the bombers list. To get nearer the enemy, Wing Headquarters moved again, this time to Souk-el-Arba, Tunisia, on 3 June.
On 21 June, the 47th's "Wild Willie" Mitchells struck the first medium bomber blows against the Italian mainland. Salerno and Battipaglia were the targets.
The rest of the summer saw the medium bombers functioning in tactical operations. When Sicily was invaded on 10 July, marshalling yards at Rome were bombed on 19 July and when Foggia's airfields were crippled on 25 August, the 47th could point with pride to its participation in events which hastened the downfall of the Fascist regime in Italy.
By the end of summer the war against the Axis was moving to new battle fronts, and on 1 October, the order came which opened the Wing's operations against Greek and Balkan targets from Italian bases. The first air echelon arrived at Grottaglie in Southern Italy soon after, and on 5 October, temporary headquarters were set up in Manduria, 20 miles southeast.
The aerial campaign against the Balkans was now being prosecuted in earnest, and German supply lines there were dealt a demoralizing blow from attacks which lasted into November. Enemy shipping airdromes, marshalling yards, motor convoys, ammunition dumps and railway yards were tempting targets.
Another change came to the Wing in November. Early in the month all B-26 units were relieved and in their stead came the mighty Liberators. At that time the Wing was assigned the 98th, 376th, 449th, 450th and 451st Bombardment Groups. The 98th and 376th Groups were veterans of the Middle Eastern campaign and historic low-level attack on the Ploesti Oil Fields of Romania on 1 August 1943. The 449th, 450th and 451st Bomb Groups had recently joined the Wing from the United States.
On 3 March 1944, General Rush (then Colonel) assumed command of the Wing. There were vital strategic missions to be performed; destruction of oil refineries, destruction of aircraft factories, destruction of communication centers.
The first famous raids occurred in February 1944, with devastating havoc wreaked on Nazi aircraft factories at Regensburg and Augsburg Germany.
From 4 April until 18 August 1944, the Wing was engaged in a campaign against the Ploesti oil fields. So well did it do its job that 97% of the entire target was utterly destroyed.
On 17 June 1944, the oil refinery at Bratislava, Czechoslovakia was totally destroyed. On 26 June 1944, the Schwechat Aircraft plant in Vienna received the "close attention" of the 47th Wing and was completely obliterated, never returning to operation. Communication centers with railroad marshalling yards were hit hard with devastating effectiveness. They included Vienna, Munich, Linz, Budapest, Bucharest and Sofia.
From July 1944 through December 1944 the Wing continued strategic tactical bombing attacks directed against enemy industry, oil communications and airdromes. During this six (6) month period, the organization maintained its average bombing accuracy score attacks were largely of a policing nature during this latter period as July 1944 saw the strategic destruction of the enemy air force completed.
To maintain the supremacy achieved, it was necessary to destroy fighter plane reserves, check jet-propelled aircraft production and constantly harass threatened restoration of production. In all these phases the Wing contributed damaging assaults on factories, destruction of reserves by five (5) outstandingly successful attacks on airdromes and a bombing of one of the major sources of jet-propelled aircraft.
Interdiction of enemy communications in the Balkans to block enemy evacuation from Greece was a principal Wing assignment accomplished with smashing attacks on marshalling yards. In one blow the Wing denied the enemy one-fourth of its air transport in Greece with the destruction of JU-52 transport aircraft at Athens.
Rail bridges, although offering extremely difficult targets for high altitude bombing, nevertheless were one of the principal sources of the unit's highest scores, and it was the major responsibility of interdicting and policing the Brenner Pass rail line, key to the enemy's system of supply in North Italy.
Nor were its communication attacks confined solely to this type of operation as material aid was given to the advancing Russians by consistently successful attacks on bridges and marshalling yards behind the southern Russian front.
As its part in the greatest single 15th Air Force effort against enemy oil, the Wing alone prevented resumption of operations in one (1) major refinery at Ploesti, Romania, for two (2) months and contributed to the large scale attacks on other units. The effort against oil was carried over into Austria, and the Wing accounted for one of the two (2) large oil storage depots in the Vienna area, one of the greatest synthetic refineries in all Germany and two (2) refineries which together had a rated capacity of almost one-third that of all natural refineries in the Vienna district.
In the assault on armament production two (2) major plants, one a tank works, the other a large producer of aircraft engines and ordnance production was completely stopped.
Destruction of reserves was sought by bombing airfields, of which the Wing successfully attacked five (5) engaged in servicing or manufacturing single engine fighters.
In the events leading up to the invasion of Mediterranean, France, to the 47th Wing belongs the credit for the destruction of the German submarines and their bases at Toulon. In the Italian campaign its work was largely responsible for the destruction of the Brenner pass rail line, the Wing assumed the major share of the attacks almost unaided and established a practically complete interdiction over the three (3) eastern rail routes out of Italy at the line of the Tagliamento early in November.
In the Hungarian Campaign the Wing accounted for one of the essential bridges over the Danube river and made powerful contributions in disorganization of railroads in the Vienna-Budapest zone by smashing five (5) marshalling yards.
In the Balkan campaign the Wing was solely responsible for the primary line of interdiction set up at Cuprija and Kraljevo, and six (6) weeks later, with very little aid, established another such block between Brod and Sarajevo.
Oil transport was severely crippled by the Wing's bombs; and as the weight of the attacks moved westward, the Wing smashed two (2) isolated Balkan plants at Berat Kocove and Lispe Bulepuszta, and the important Apollo refinery at Bratislava, Czechoslovakia.
If the high quality of the gasoline produced by Lispe Bulepuszta be weighed, the elimination of these three (3) plants was probably as heavy a blow to the enemy as the destruction of all the natural petroleum refineries in the Vienna complex. In the latter area, the Wing's attacks accounted for one of the two large oil storage depots, one (1) of the greatest synthetic refineries in all Germany and two (2) refineries which together had a rated capacity of almost one-third of all natural refineries in the district.
On two occasions the 47th Wing participated in attacks on vital armament targets. One was the Manfred Weiss Works at Budapest; the other the St. Valentin Tank Works near Linz. The former was the greatest producer of ordnance and aero engines in Hungary; the latter one of the foremost German tank sources. Production in each was completely stopped.
The month of January 1945 was, operationally at least, a period of frustration for the combat crews and operations personnel of the 47th Wing. Weather proved the enemy's best defense keeping the B-24's in their revetments the greater part of the month. Night after night the lights burned late in the planning rooms at headquarters as the A-2 and A-3 and their assistants kept busy with maps, targets, photos, side rules, tables and other reference material necessary to mission planning only to have the operation cancelled by weather in the early morning hours. In all, only five (5) operations were carried out, and of these three (3) were PFF bombings.
Rail Yards were the objective of all sorties but that of 31 January, when the 47th Wing Liberators joined with the rest of the 15th Air Force in a heavy blow against the Moosbierdaum oil refineries, west of Vienna, Austria. Four (4) of the other attacks were made in the Vienna area, and one was flown against the marshalling yards at Brod, Yugoslavia.
February 1945 was a record month with much black ink spread over the credit side of the operations ledger. Twenty (20) missions were flown in the days of the month and thirteen (13) straight without a break between 13 and 25 February. "PFF" and "Mickey" bombing came into its own during this period as just half of the missions flown relied on radar scopes to spot the targets.
With the enemy drawing back deeper and deeper into Germany itself before the Russian drives from the east and southeast, the list of targets within the Liberator's range grew smaller and smaller as Brig. Gen. Hugo P. Rush scratched off one after another. All of the missions with three (3) exceptions, were flown into Germany and Austria. The Vienna area took the largest share of the poundings. Oil at Moosbierdaum, tanks at St Valentin and rail yards and installations in the city itself were bombed. It was a good month and one in which the 47th Wing
Liberators and crews did credit to themselves and their commanders.
Nineteen (19) missions were flown during March of which six (6) were PFF or "Mickey" sorties. Of these only four (4) were really strategic in nature, directed against oil at the oft-visited towns of Moosbierdaum and Floridsdorf.
The balance were flown against rail installations in Germany, Austria and Hungary in direct support of the Russian offensive. Counter air force attacks were made deep into Germany; one of these, to the Gmeb Oberschon airdrome, took the B-24's seven hundred (700) miles from their base and was the longest on record for the Wing.
A second outstanding operation of the month was the bombing of the airdrome at Neuberg, Germany, where the 47th Wing covered itself with glory by accounting for almost twenty (20) percent of the enemy's operational jet-propelled aircraft in one (1) full sweep. This performance brought a special message of commendation from Maj. Gen. Nathan F. Twining, commanding the 15th Air Force. In spite of the ever narrowing scope of the operations, however, and the decreasing importance of the targets bombed, the 47th Wing carried on with its training, practice missions, and development work, fully realizing that everything learned from each day's work would eventually prove of highest value in a later phase of the war.
The high peak of activity for the month of April was reached in the mission flown in support of the final drive of the Fifth and Eighth Armies down into the Po Valley. First came two maximum effort missions in the Lake Comacchio area in support of the Eighth Army's Polish and New Zealand troops.
Special areas were designated for coverage by anti-personnel bombs and the bomb strike photographs show how brilliantly the bombing was executed. But the greatest feat of all was the last big mission carried out by the entire wing. On 15 April, the Wing was ordered to attack enemy gun installations and troop concentrations just south of Bologna, where the Fifth Army had been bogged down all winter. Maximum effort was again called for, which usually meant 168 bombers for the Wing, or 42 per Group. At this time the Wing had 247 operational aircraft. 249 took off on the mission, including tow planes which had been retired from combat operations, but were still capable of carrying and dropping bombs. Again the bombing was superb and the mission was brilliantly successful.
The 98th and the 376th Groups departed for the States on 19 April. The 449th and 450th Group continued to be operational until 25 April when they attacked the Marshalling yards at Linz, Austria and thus brought to a conclusion the operations of the 47th Wing in the war against Germany. The last units of the Wing departed for the States on 10 May 1945.
FACTS AND FIGURES
With the 98th and 376th Groups suspending operations as of 19 April, and with the entire Wing standing down as of 25 April, the 47th Wing still dropped four thousand one hundred and seventy six (4,176) tons in its last operational month in the Mediterranean Theater. This tonnage dropped during approximately only two-thirds of an operational month was exceeded only during the months April through August 1944. At this rate, the Wing would have dropped approximately six thousand (6,000) tons in April, had the whole month been operational.
For the period November 1943 through April 1945, the 47th Wing dropped a total of fifty six thousand, nine hundred and fifteen (56,915) tons of bombs on strategic points. The effectiveness of such operations is attested by no less than the statements of various German generals that it was the merciless pounding by the Allied Air Forces that cut down production, prevented movement of supplies, and finally prevented evacuation of men and material, contributing materially to the disintegration and final downfall of German armed might.
The final boxscore for the period of operations: Total Bomb Tons Dropped 56,915 Total Victories 605 Total Losses 483 Total Sorties 30,272
The lowest number of effective sorties for the Wing was in October 1944, when only 57% of aircraft airborne were effective, due to adverse weather conditions. The highest percent of effective sorties was scored in August 1944, when 87% were over the target.
A resume of the entire operational period from November 1943 thru April 1945 reveals that the Wing's bombing accuracy was above that of the Air Force during eleven (11) of the sixteen (16) months recorded, no scores being available for November and December 1943.
It is particularly interesting to note that the 47th Wing was first in the entire Air Force for six (6) months during the period April 1944-April 1945, during the period it led the Air Force average for ten (10) of the thirteen (13) months scored.
Total aircraft losses by the Wing amounted to four hundred and eighty three (483) for the entire period of operations. During the same period, the Wing destroyed six hundred and five (605) enemy aircraft, no note being made of probables or losses of enemy aircraft on the ground.
Scrutiny of the causes of combat losses shows that no planes were lost to enemy aircraft during the period August 1944-April 1945. This, again, the effectiveness of strategic attack is borne out; the thesis being that the enemy cannot produce aircraft he cannot put forth a maximum defense against bombing attacks.
For example during the months from November 1943-July 1944, when enemy aircraft was active defensively, our losses were one hundred and nineteen (119) planes to enemy aircraft as against eighty six (86) planes lost to flak. After the luftwaffe was grounded, our losses from August 1944-April 1945 to enemy aircraft were nil, while one hundred and twelve (112) aircraft were lost to flak. Improved defensive patterns no doubt helped cut down our losses to enemy aircraft, but the fact remains that the drop in combat losses was due for the greater part to the lack of enemy aircraft put up in opposition
The final scores: Losses to E/A Losses to Flak Other Causes Unknown 119 198 96 70
Killed in action - 332 Missing in action - 2455 Wounded - 703
Percentage of aircraft operational varied from a low of 54% in November 1943 to a high of 89% operational in April 1945. At only four (4) times during the eighteen (18) months was there a retrogression in the steadily rising curve of percent aircraft available for operations.
The low month for Combat Crews operational was March 1944, and the high month was April 1945. These figures are respectively, 73% and 91%. That the comparatively short operational period for April 1945 was not altogether responsible for its being the high month is shown by the fact that the 91% of crews operational is only 16% higher than the month of March 1945, while the 89% of aircraft operational is only 8% above that of 81% for March.
For the entire period, the score: Aircraft Operational 76% Crews Operational 83%
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