Which air target was considered the most dangerous in WWII? My vote would be for little known Merseberg. We called it Murdersberg. www.b17sam.com/merseberg.html
I think it differed by day and night. For the 8th, there were names like Merseburg, Schweinfurt and Vegesack. For Bomber Command, certainly Berlin and the Ruhr were dreaded.
Martin you are talking about the Ruhr Gebeit but which town, as you are talking of a general area quite large and well defended by all ranges of GErman AA E
You're quite right Erich.. to the RAF, the entire area was 'the bloody Ruhr' but if you had to name one place, it would be Essen......
I have to agree with Martin on Essen. For the US daylight raids i think Regensburg should be added to the list. What about in the Far East? How heavily defended was say Tokyo. Was it as hard as the crews had it in Europe.
Framer that would be for the US 15th AF. Attacked several times before it was put out of commission. Brux was bad. Linz was bad for the Flak, and of course Wien with it's Flak-Zwilling 128mm's. Wiener-Neustadt is another unfavourable target for the 15th AF. E ~
Yes, the first two missions to both Ploesti and Schweinfurt were disastrous, but in the raids that followed, our losses became tolerable (if you can call the loss of up to 15 bombers tolerable). Same for the Ruhr, Berlin, and other bad places. Merseberg remained a terror right up to the end of the war. FROM THE SUMMARY U.S. STRATEGIC BOMB SURVEY 1945 Leuna (at Merseberg) was the largest of the synthetic plants and protected by a highly effective smoke screen and the heaviest flak concentration in Europe. Air crews viewed a mission to Leuna as the most dangerous and difficult assignment of the air war. More about Merseberg and the U.S. Strategic Bomb Survey at www.b17sam.com/merseberg.html It should also be noted that the five fickle fingers of fate always prevailed. All targets had the potential on any given day to be a slaughter or a piece of cake. So much depended on your position in the bomber stream. I flew 6 missions to Cologne. Some were almost a milk run, other days we were lucky to escape with heavily damaged aircraft. Merseberg was consistently bad news.
Well personally you wouldnt catch me flying over any target... They all seem too dangerous! The guys who did were real heroes. Just the thought of it scares me... I'd happily sit in a tank but being a tail gunner in a bomber, in daylight, with the flak and Luftwaffe wanting to use you for a spot of target practice... No thanks... Anybody that did was one brave soul...
Sam since we have chatted in the past about Merseberg, do you remember approx where the IP was on the turn towards the target their in the fall of 44 ? thank you Erich ~
Erich --- As I recall the choice of I.P.would vary depending on forecast winds over the target. A head wind would expose the formation to flak for for too long a period of time, and a tail wind would not allow sufficient time for the bombardier to set up. Other factors were avoiding known heavy flak areas, and not becoming predictable in our track to target. [ 11. March 2005, 08:51 AM: Message edited by: b17sam ]
The first raid on Ploesti was not the one implied by b17sam. Read, instead, from the USAAF Chronology: FRIDAY, 12 JUNE 1942 MTO, HALPRO Detachment: 13 B-24's of the HALPRO detachment (the bombing detachment for the China-Burma-India Theater) under command of Colonel Harry A Halverson enroute from US to China take off during the night of 11/12 Jun from Fayid, Egypt to bomb oilfields at Ploesti, Rumania. Only 12 attack at dawn; 4 of the 13 land at a base in Iraq which was designated for recovery of the flight, 3 land at other Iraq fields, 2 land in Syria, and 4 are interned in Turkey. Though damage to the target is negligible, the raid is significant because it is the first AAF combat mission in the European-African-Middle East (EAME) Theater in World War II, and the first strike at a target which later will be famous. The more famous raid, the second, is mentioned thus in the same source: SUNDAY, 1 AUGUST 1943 EASTERN MEDITERRANEAN (Ninth Air Force): In Rumania, 177 B-24's, of the IX Bomber Command (including B-24's on loan from the Eighth Air Force) are dispatched to bomb oil refineries at Ploesti and nearby Campina. The operation (TIDALWAVE) is costly, 54 planes and 532 airmen are lost, but damage to the targets is severe. 5 Medal of Honors are awarded for this mission. In Sicily, 230+ P-40's, the largest Ninth Air Force total to date, attack Adrano, the area near Randazzo, Messina, Milazzo, Taormina, and shipping in the Straits of Messina. I found, from that chronology, reference to 26 missions over Ploesti, not all of them bombing runs.
So don't You think It was the most aerial complicated action over Europe? They flew from Asia to Africa to bomb European targets. (oilfields) Salute to those PILOTS !!! ['] ['] [']
I'd Think of (1 Berlin- Capital. Of. Germany. Plenty of Anti-Aircraft. (2 The Ruhr- (sp?) Industrial complex of Germany. They would naturally want this defended, and the Allies wanted it gone. (3 Tokyo- Capital of Japan.
They say Hanoi[Vietnam] was 'the' most heavily defended city of all time...anti-aircraft wise. Anyone agree/dis-agree? Hard to imagine it was better than Berlin or Tokyo.
depends whom you interview for WW 2 veterans. 8th AF vets would say Berlin, Hamburg mostly because of the heavy 128mm Flak and hordes of rail mounted 88's and 105mm's. The Ruhr Gebeit is a series of industiral towns with again heavy rings of 88 and 105mms and 128mm singles. any of the above was also heavily defended by numerous day/night fighter bases. Berlin itslef was defended on all it's sides. Any 15th AF vet would say Wien because of the heavy flak concentraitons of twin 128mm's and the 105/88mm's scenarios, Linz, Graz, Wiener Neustadt, also JG 27 and II./ZG 1 seemed to show up everywhere in the summer to fall of 44.
True friend, true. My friends Grandpa was in Vietnam, and was in the airforce. He didn't strike the town said above, but his friends did, and told him about it. The Vietnameese had no airforce (Wich many Generals learned to exploit.) but they made up in it with anti-aircraft weapons, probaly 88's and the like.
