Shuttle bombing
Shuttle bombingis a tactic wherebombersfly from their home base to bomb a first target and continue to a different location where they are refuelled and rearmed. The aircraft may then bomb a second target on the return leg to their home base.[1][2][3]Some examples of operations which have used this tactic are:
- TheDoolittle Raid,18 April 1942: 16B-25sof the17th Bombardment GroupbombedTokyofrom theUSS Hornet,going on to land in various locations inEastern China.
- TheBattle of Stalingrad,September 1942:Luftflotte 4of theLuftwaffeemployed shuttle bombing tactics during the intense aerial bombardment of the city in the early days of the battle.[4]
- Operation Bellicose,June 1943: On the night of 20/21 June the RAF bombers departed from their bases in the United Kingdom and bombedFriedrichshafen,landing inAlgeria,where they refuelled and rearmed. On the return leg they bombed the Italian naval base atLa Spezia.[5][6]
- Schweinfurt–Regensburg mission,17 August 1943: The 4th Bombardment Wing of theEighth Air Forceusing B-17s equipped with "Tokyo (fuel) tanks"for longer range, attacked theMesserschmitt Bf 109plants inRegensburgand then flew on to bases inBône,Berteaux and Telergma (French Algeria).[7]Most of the aircraft that had been damaged were stranded due to the poor repair facilities in Algeria and some of them were never returned to service.[8]Eight days later, on 24 August, on the way back to their bases in Great Britain, the surviving B-17s bombed targets inBordeaux.
- Operation Frantic,from June to September 1944: This was a series of air raids conducted byUnited States Army Air Forces(USAAF) bombers based in Britain or the Mediterranean which then landed at bases built by the Americans inUkrainein theSoviet Union.[9]As a military operation it made possible eighteen strong attacks on important strategic targets in Germany which would otherwise have been immune.[10]
- TheWarsaw Airlift,August to September 1944: During theWarsaw Uprisingthe Frantic airbases were used for an airdrop to the Poles fighting in the city. On 17 September 1944 70 B-17s and 57 P-51s flew without bombs from Italy and landed safely in the United Kingdom. On 18 September 107 of 110 B-17s dropped 1,248 containers of supplies to Polish forces in Warsaw and flew on to the USSR losing one B-17 with seven more damaged. The next day 100 B-17s and 61 P-51s left the USSR and bombed the marshalling yard atSzolnokin Hungary as they returned to bases in Italy.[11]
- Operation Paravane,September 1944: A variation on the concept. On 11 September 1944No. 9 Squadron RAFandNo. 617 Squadron RAFflew from their home bases in Scotland to a temporary base atYagodnik,nearArchangelin the Soviet Union. From there, on 15 September, they bombed theGerman battleship Tirpitzin a Norwegianfjordand continued on back to Scotland.
While shuttle bombing offered several advantages, allowing distant targets to be hit and complicating the Axis defence arrangements, it posed a number of practical difficulties, not least the awkward relations between the Western Allies and the Soviet Union. The operations were concluded in September 1944 after a three-month period and not repeated.
References[edit]
- ^Staff.Shuttle bombingArchived2011-05-18 at theWayback MachineMcGraw-Hill's AccessScience Encyclopedia of Science & Technology OnlineArchived2008-05-27 at theWayback Machine
- ^Edward T. Russell (1999).Leaping the Atlantic Wall: Army Air Forces Campaigns in Western Europe, 1942–1945Archived2004-06-27 at theWayback Machine(PDF),United States Air Force History and Museums ProgramArchived2006-10-28 at theWayback Machinepp. 26, 27. (HTMLArchived2008-05-16 at theWayback Machinecopy on the website ofUSAAF.net)
- ^Dear, I. C. B.; Foot, M. R. D., eds. (2005). "Shuttle Bombing".The Oxford Companion to World War II.Oxford: Oxford University Press. p. 778.ISBN978-0192806703.
- ^Beevor, Antony (1999).Stalingrad.Penguin Books. p. 138.ISBN0140249850.
- ^Christopher Chant (1986).The Encyclopedia of Codenames of World War II,Routledge,ISBN0710207182.p. 15
- ^Jon Lake (2002).Lancaster Squadrons 1942–43,Osprey,ISBN1841763136.p. 66
- ^Bombardiers lourds de la dernière guerre: B-17, forteresse volante, Avro Lancaster, B-24 Liberator.Editions Atlas. 1980.ISBN2731200316.
- ^Miller, Donald (2006).Masters of the Air: America's Bomber Boys who Fought the Air War against Nazi Germany.New York: Simon & Schuster.ISBN0743235444.
- ^Charles T. O'Reilly (2001).Forgotten Battles: Italy's War of Liberation, 1943–1945Lexington Books,ISBN0739101951.p. 343
- ^Deane, John R. 1947.The Strange Alliance, The Story of our Efforts at Wartime Co-operation with Russia.The Viking Press.[ISBN missing][page needed]
- ^Combat Chronology of the US Army Air Forces September 1944: 17, 18, 19copied fromUSAF History PublicationsArchived18 November 2009 at theWayback Machine&wwii combat chronology (pdf)Archived2008-09-10 at theWayback Machine