PRELUDE TO INVASION

January 1944, Germany. Sprawling Nazi factories, fattened by the wealth of conquest and methodically mobilized, produced weapons for Hitler's war machine. After surviving the intensive bombing of '43, their assembly lines doubled production. With painstaking German efficiency, the Luftwaffe grew alarmingly stronger. By February, destruction of the mounting Nazi manufacture became urgent because their production was rising to the goal of a plane every 15 minutes. 12 of these factories in Germany and Poland were called point-blank targets and were given top priority. Hitler had looted the manpower and machinery of nearly a dozen European countries. Hermann Göring, his time running out, spawned reinforcements and new weapons. Thus, the Luftwaffe had become a massive shield for Fortress Europe. At the same time, steel centers like Düsseldorf and Essen forged mountains of bombs and shells. A key to this production was the transport system. All the supply lines, including canals, were full. The enemy war machine rolled on after a winter during which weather had prevented large-scale Allied air attacks. On 19 February, weather cleared. Now we started the long-planned attack against the Luftwaffe to win control of the skies over Europe, no matter what the cost. This was to pave the way for invasion. General Eisenhower and his air officers, Generals Spaatz and Kepner, watched our joint effort. Most of us came from Doolittle's Eighth Air Force and Bill Kepner's Fighter Command. The stiffest resistance was expected. To protect a thousand bombers, we were sending along a thousand fighters. We were going to destroy the Luftwaffe from the bottom up, Nazi factories, Nazi air drones, and Nazi planes in the sky. Most of General Pete Quesada's Ninth Air Force fighter boys had come from units of the Eighth. The battle-wise general had helped drive the Luftwaffe out of Africa. Now Quesada was getting us ready for a series of operations which free people will always remember as the big week. Sunday morning, 20 February. We prepared for the heaviest assault in the history of the American Strategic Air Forces up to that time. Doubtful weather and a stronger Luftwaffe made this a big gamble. Some expected possible losses up to 200 bombers and crews. This was the prelude to invasion. Generals Spaatz, and Vandenberg hurried to join the show. American heavy bombers from Britain and the Mediterranean and all the RAF could muster, the equivalent of five air forces, were about to hit the Nazis for six consecutive days and nights. In the biggest air blitz of the war, the Allies hoped to finally win air superiority over the Luftwaffe. The liberation of Europe was at stake. Now, for the first time, the AAF had the strength to mount a saturation offensive. Some bombers went to attack airfields and rocket launching sites to pull enemy strength away from the war factories, our main objective. At fighter bases, all fighter command elements were raising the curtain for the prelude to invasion. These takeoff signals marked a change in the basic use of all fighters. Until now, they had only escorted the bombers. This was expanded. Today's orders were pursue and destroy the enemy. Success of the Allied offensive depended on these escort fighters. Our bombers plowed into enemy air, although we knew they had us spotted. We tried to make our main effort appear as a two-pronged drive on Berlin. Ignoring the flak, we kept in close formation for maximum self-protection as our Thunderbolts caught up. Forewarned, the enemy massed his fighters. They were as determined to stop us as we were to destroy them. Control of the sky, German sky, was the prize. The Mustangs dropped their wing tanks and plunged into the fight. Leading was an Ohio boy, Captain Don Gentile. Another hot rod, Colonel Francis Gabreski from Pennsylvania, joined the fight. In the same outfit was Indiana's Major Walker Mahurin. Yes, we bomber boys were in good hands. But enemy flak explosions were heavy, accurate, and intense. The Germans closed in. Then came a fresh formation of Mustangs, some of Colonel Blakeslee's bachelors. They came down from almost invisible heights to engage the enemy. In Belgium, France, and Holland, our B-26 Marauders evaded flak and unloaded over enemy aerodromes. The brass hoped the weight of these bombs would force the Nazis to move their airfields inland. The plan, guided by General Sammy Anderson's boys, was succeeding. Over Germany, it was the same thing. These first five days changed the history of the air war. But it didn't end here. By March, we hit Berlin for the first time. The weight of our attacks increased and held down enemy plane production. As the bombs fell, we pressed our advantage. Barreling in to force the Luftwaffe into combat. For days and then weeks, American fighters, without letup, went after anything that could hurt us. This was no longer a prelude to invasion. This was invasion. The Pointblank offensive was the culmination of the strategic air war that airmen had long advocated. The strong shield of Hitler's fortress, the Luftwaffe, had been swept away. As General Eisenhower proudly said, "The air did everything we asked. They cleared the way for invasion." The allies had attained freedom of the air with the combined long-range strategic bombing and tactical operations of the United States Air Force.