Second Raid on Schweinfurt

High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! The "second Schweinfurt raid" (Eighth Air Force Mission 115) attacked ball bearing factories and became known as "Black Thursday" because of the worst USAAF losses to that date: 77 bombers and about 650 crewmembers. The weather hampered the bomber formations' rendezvous and as a result, much of the American formations were spread out and vulnerable to fighters. A small group of B-24s was diverted to targets in the North Sea, taking with it one of the escorting P-47 groups. The Germans had suspected a deep penetration raid because of the substantial raid traffic. Jagddivision 3 was positioned to meet the bombers as they crossed the coast. The P-47s tried to protect the scattered bomber groups and succeeded in downing 7 Bf 109s for a single loss, and the only P-47 loss of the day. Over the Netherlands JG 1 and 26 made repeated attacks. The 305th Bomb Group lost 13 of its 16 B-17s in minutes. After bombing, the B-17s were attacked by refueled rearmed German fighters. JG 11 shot down 18 B-17s during this period.

Klappentext

High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! The "second Schweinfurt raid" (Eighth Air Force Mission 115) attacked ball bearing factories and became known as "Black Thursday" because of the worst USAAF losses to that date: 77 bombers and about 650 crewmembers. The weather hampered the bomber formations' rendezvous and as a result, much of the American formations were spread out and vulnerable to fighters. A small group of B-24s was diverted to targets in the North Sea, taking with it one of the escorting P-47 groups. The Germans had suspected a deep penetration raid because of the substantial raid traffic. Jagddivision 3 was positioned to meet the bombers as they crossed the coast. The P-47s tried to protect the scattered bomber groups and succeeded in downing 7 Bf 109s for a single loss, and the only P-47 loss of the day. Over the Netherlands JG 1 and 26 made repeated attacks. The 305th Bomb Group lost 13 of its 16 B-17s in minutes. After bombing, the B-17s were attacked by refueled-rearmed German fighters. JG 11 shot down 18 B-17s during this period.