|
Gotha was the 445th's first taste of heavy enemy action. The tasking came during "Big Week", a time when the 8th Air Force struck German aircraft manufacturing and repair facilities. The plan was to cripple the Luftwaffe's production plants to take the pressure off the Allied air crews who were taking a beating from German fighters.
The third week of February, 1944 promised a period of good weather over the continent which should make accurate daylight bombing possible. On the 22 Feb 44, the 445th Bomb Group participated in a strike on Gotha, but had the mission recalled due to severe contrails at altitude.
The Gothaer Waggon Fabrik AG in Gotha was one of several targets that the Big Week planners intended to destroy on February 24, 1944. The plan called for a coordinated attack launched by a huge armada of bombers with strong fighter escorts arriving in shifts to shepherd the "heavies" to and from their targets. Counting the "Little Friends", well over a thousand Allied aircraft would take to the air that day.
The plan was to strike Hitler's Europe simultaneously from three directions. In the north, 236 bombers from the 3rd Air Division of the Eighth Army Air Force would fly over Denmark to attack two targets north and northeast of Berlin. From the south, 114 Fifteenth Army Air Force B-17's flying from Italy would make the trip over the Alps to bomb Steyr, Austria. The third and largest force would take the middle path, flying over Holland before turning southeast into the heart of Germany. This spearhead would consist of 231 B-17's from the 1st Air Division flying a few thousand feet above 238 B-24's from the 2nd Air Division.
|
