17th November 1943. A: 20/687 (10 aa), X: 17/615 (5 gd). A relatively quiet turn.
MTO: Some light tactical strikes and sweeps, one of which hits the freeze-ray and then attracts all the interceptors from northern Italy. Still, losses are easily manageable.
ETO: [>:]
BC: 4 Group hit Bonn; well, they try to, but more than half of them hit a decoy site north of the city. [:@]
18th November 1943. A: 354/3507 (57 aa), X: 199/2893 (6 gd). Yee-hah!
At last, some major activity; almost a maximum effort by the 8th AF. 205 B-17's lost in total, but 121 Axis pilots killed in return. [:)]
MTO: The usual B-26 and Mitchell tactical strikes supporting the 15th AF B-24's, with another P-38H sweep to Aviano in support doing well catching some RTB 109's.
ETO: Major attacks by the 8th AF, timed to try and exploit OKL's recent concentration on returning 8th AF raids to sneak some more raids into the Reich at widely-spaced points.
1st group consists of 300 B-17G's with full escort routed south of the Ruhr hitting targets around Frankfurt - Agomer and Rohm RUBBER as well as Hoechster CHEM. As per normal Werner sends his interceptors up to attack on the return leg as the supporting tatical strikes (9AF Marauders & 2TAF Mirchells) appear. 33/528 f, 83/300 b and 150 e/a claimed. The tactical raids do little - 2TAF with 2/306 f 0/71b 2 e/a and 9th AF losing too many bombers for too few claims with 0/141 f, 21/64 b 13 e/a.
Then a second raiding force of B-17F's head for a Ruhr port across southern Holland, only escorted by FC Spit Vb sqns. While the raid avoids substantial resistance, it misses the primary and only hits targets of opportunity on the way out. It also loses a few Spit Vb's when the Axis manage to react. [:@] 27/67 f, 12/160 b and 7 e/a.
Meanwhile a third raiding force of unescorted B-17F's, routed out over the north sea to hopefully delay their appearance on the radar screen and mix their radio activity in with the early force, attempts to hit Hamburg port. While the timing was good, and only a couple of NJG units make contact before it reaches Hamburg, again the weather frustrates and only targets of opportunity get hit and the raiding force gets massacred on the way out. 109/256 b, 76 e/a.
BC: 5 Group go for the AGFA CHEM plant in northern Berlin. My raid replay gives out before they get there, but the raid report and area damage indicates they did hit the target area for 3/334 b while another Mossie raid hits Berlin city centre for 0/23 b.
In total the escorting fighters lost relatively few - 20 P-38L and 9 P-47D as well plus 28 Spit Vb and 2 Spit IX. But the 8th AF escorts were particularly disappointing, doing little to stop concentrated Zerstorer attacks on the return leg of the Frankfurt force. The plan of attack was bold, but to be honest it didn't pay off in terms of bombing damage, with only the Frankfurt force doing anything useful. Overall it was a reasonable attritional exchange, but overall Axis losses as a percentage of their record sortie total are disappointing, while mine hit the 10% level I wanted to impose on the Axis. Overall I'd have to define it as a limited defensive success - although still an expensive one.
