Double Strike: The Epic Air Raids on Regensburg-Schweinfurt, August 17, 1943

by Edward Jablonski

On paper, Mission 84 of the Eighth Air Force was a unique two-pronged attack on the important German manufacturing cities of Regensburg and Schweinfurt, a brilliant, innovative master stroke. Once airborne on August 17, 1943, however, it became one of the costliest and bloodiest air battles of World War II.

Not only was it the deepest penetration yet made into the German heartland, it was also the largest force launched by the VIII Bombing Command and a crucial test of the American policy of daylight precision bombing. It was a daring plan designed to confuse the Luftwaffe defenders. One combat wing under the command of General Curtis LeMay, after dropping its bombs on target, continued on across Europe to bases in North Africa in a record breaking 1200 miles non-stop flight under combat conditions.

This is an absorbing, fast paced narrative of that epic raid-from the planning at the highest levels of the Allied command to the minute by minute ordeal of the heroic airmen who flew the mission. It draws heavily on eyewitness accounts by the participants, and includes many official logs and documents relating to the operation, as well as twenty-nine photographs.

We are given a vivid, often chilling portrait of air warfare, the newest, and in many ways the deadliest theater of modern combat-fought, as it was, in three dimensions, five miles above the earth, over battlefields that could stretch for a thousand miles.

Genres: History, World War II, Nonfiction, Aviation, Military History

271 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1974

About the author

Edward Jablonski was the author of several biographies on American cultural personalities, such as George Gershwin, Harold Arlen, Alan Jay Lerner and Irving Berlin, as well as books on aviation history.

Jablonski was born in Bay City, Michigan to a family of Polish-American journalists and writers. His father had been a writer for Sztandar Polski and another relative, Paul F. Jablonski, wrote for the Bay City Times. Early on he fell in love with the music of George and Ira Gershwin. A fan letter he wrote to Ira while in school quickly turned into regular correspondence and eventually a lasting friendship with the lyricist.

While Jablonski was interested in music, his true fascination was with aviation. Supposedly, he spent much of his time watching the planes at the James Clements Airport near the South End of Bay City. He had grown up, he said later, listening to the music of the day as he ''hung around the airport watching the planes.'' As a schoolboy he also started a correspondence with Gershwin. Later on in his life, he became interested in aerial warfare. Telling an interviewer in 1986, "Aviation makes possible the most deadly form of warfare ever -- the perversion of one of man's greatest inventions."

He served in the United States Army Field Artillery in New Guinea during World War II. For his actions in New Guinea, he was awarded the Silver Star.

After leaving the army, he attended junior college in Bay City as a pre-journalism major. He continued his studies at the New School for Social Research, receiving his bachelor's in 1950. He also completed postgraduate work in anthropology at Columbia.

While working for the March of Dimes charity in New York, Jablonski wrote articles and music reviews for a number of small magazines as well as liner notes for albums; this was the beginning of a fifty-year freelance career.

At the time of his death, he was working on "Masters of American Song", which would have been a comprehensive history of American pop music.

Reviews

[Marc · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a good book on the first Regensburg-Schweinfurt double raid, filled with lots of personal recollections by pilots and crewmen who flew the mission. Since the book was written in 1973, it doesn't contain much on the German side, aside from recollections of Luftwaffe ace Heinz Knoke (and this was probably taken from his book, "I Flew for the Fuhrer"), and there isn't much in the way of post-strike analysis. Despite these shortcomings, the book holds its own as an account of the battle with good detail on the American forces involved and the problems which plagued the mission from the start. For a book which is now 50 years old (at the time of this review), it has a surprising amount of oral history

If you're not well-versed in the 8th Air Force and/or the air war over Europe, this book might not be the best as it seems to assume a fair level of knowledge on the reader's part.

Now, the most important part of the review: How does this book compare to Martin Middlebrook's tome on the same battle? I'd say apples and oranges as they are both products of their times. That being said, Middlebrook's book is the better of the two as it contains a more well-rounded narrative of both the American and German side of things, along with a better post-strike analysis.

[Read1000books · Rating 4 out of 5]

A read that will keep you on the edge of your seat. [spoilers ahead] During the World War 2 era, machinery, including military hardware, ran on ball bearings. The Allied idea was if we can eliminate or cripple the German's production of ball bearings, we can shorten the war. The 8th Air Force, based in England, was assigned the task of destroying the ball bearing factories in the cities of Schweinfurt and Regensburg. The problem was the distance to the targets. London to Schweinfurt is 462 miles. Fully loaded B-17's flew at 150 mph. Thus this was about an 8 hour flight out and back, without friendly fighter cover most of the way. German fighter planes (which flew at 300 mph+) knocked down 60 B-17 bombers that day - each with a 10 man crew. And the factories kept producing. [Historical note: The 2nd mission to these same targets on October 14, 1943 yielded the same results: 60 bombers lost; factories kept producing].

[Chris Brimmer · Rating 4 out of 5]

Should make hard men weep.