212: The European Theater, 1943

History That Doesn't Suck

This episode examines the shifting tides of the European Theater in 1943, focusing on the high-stakes aerial campaigns and ground invasions.

Key takeaways

• Staff Sergeant Eugene 'Wing Ding' Carson survived a mission to Schweinfurt despite discovering mid-flight that he had no parachute.
• The German SS successfully kidnapped Benito Mussolini from the Gran Sasso d'Italia to establish the puppet Salo Republic.

Main topics

• Daylight precision bombing raids
• The Italian campaign and armistice

Notable quotes

Wing Ding, you're either crazy as hell or you've got balls.

Conclusion

The episode illustrates how 1943 served as a pivotal year where strate

Transcript preview

Speaker 1 (0:09) It's early in the morning, October 14th, 1943. We're in Nettishol, England, where Eugene T. Carson, or Wing Dean as he's known, is seated in the mess hall with fellow servicemen of U.S. Army 8th Air Force's 388th Bombardment Group, choking down what he calls a usual breakfast of square eggs, spam, and SOS. That last item is creamed chipped beef on toast. what the whole U.S. military calls SOS, short for shit on a shingle. A fair note of disapproval for a discerning, small-town Pennsylvania baker, even if that life is now an ocean and thousands of miles away. Here in England, he's a tail gunner and staff sergeant, hoping this morning's quote-unquote crummy weather gets today's yet-to-be-announced attack pushed off. Suddenly, the curtain dividing the mess from the briefing room is pulled back. So much for a silver lining for today's clouds. And the news gets worse. Today's target is Schweinfurt, Germany. The room explodes with exclamations of shock and trepidation. Oh, Jesus. No, not again. Holy mother of God. This is my last mission. Speaker 1 (1:29) Yes, Schweinport, located in the heart of Nazi territory in Bavaria. The town is home to factories producing the ball bearings so essential to German aircraft. When these daring airmen struck the city back in August, they devastated Nazi ball bearing production, which fell from 140 tons per month to 50. But it came at the steep cost of 20 % of all participants. 370 airmen, friends to many in this room. did not make it back. With losses like that, statistically, an assignment to the 8th Air Force is a death sentence. And now, these airmen, many survivors of August's raid, are being asked to go back. to again fly their bombers, largely without escorts, right over Germany. It feels like a death sentence. Yet, the briefing officer doesn't miss a beat. His voice bellows over the room's laments. This is a very important mission. Germany's ball-bearing works must be destroyed. Speaker 1 (2:38) It's later that same October 14th morning. Eugene Wingding Carson's B-17, nicknamed Tiger Girl, is soaring over France in a formation of 16 flying fortresses. As they fly, Wingding is at the aircraft's tail turret, or the stinger, checking gear and test firing his guns. Something feels off, and then it hits him. His parachute is missing. Eugene sits at his gun in terrified silence. He knows that if he informs the pilot, Otis Ingebrigtsen, a.k.a. Dingle, he'll turn this flying fortress around. But between one B-17's takeoff-turned-crash landing, ironically, or wholly appropriately, a bird nicknamed Hard Luck, and other mechanical failures, their group is already down six bombers. No, Eugene won't be the cause of yet one More American plane not flying today. One fewer to drop bombs and fend off the Luftwaffe. He sits in panic. This is a death sentence. He prays. He hears a female voice say, trust me. What? That's insane. He checks his mask. Is he sure he's getting oxygen? Yes, he is. Okay then. With little other thought besides, oh Jesus, he accepts his fate and prepares to engage the enemy. Crossing from Belgium into German air, Eugene watches as their fighter escorts, now at the limit of their range, peel off. And only minutes later, with his group of B-17s still 200 miles from Schweinfurt, the dreaded Nazi air force, the Luftwaffe, arrives. Across hundreds of miles of sky, some 500 aircraft, 229 American bombers, and more than 300 German planes exchange machine gun fire. Worse are the Ju-88s. These powerful twin-engine fighters launch 21-centimeter rockets from 1,000 yards out. Rockets that don't just down bombers, but incinerate them in the air. Black funnels fill the sky as wrecked planes fall, as airmen's parachutes open, taking some to safety, but in other cases, bursting into flames, leaving a young airman to fall to his death. To quote Eugene's later recollection, the scene was one of carnage beyond imagination. It was strangely not frightening. The intensity of the action left no time for alarm. However, despite my calmness, I was satisfied the end was near. Speaker 1 (5:27) Incredibly, Eugene's entire formation, all 16 flying fortresses, reaches Schweinfurt. Here, the fear isn't the Luftwaffe, but the anti-aircraft artillery. It's a deadly exchange. The B-17s drop 1,122 high-explosive bombs, while Schweinfurt's guns answer with shells set to explode as shrapnel-spraying, side-obscuring black clouds at the formation's altitude. A shell strikes the B-17 just next to Tiger Girl. Eugene watches in horror as it goes into a spin for a few seconds, then explodes into a thousand pieces. Not a single man had a chance to parachute out. With the bombs dropped, the bombers turn around to again face the same hundreds of miles of Luftwaffe gauntlet between them and relatively safe air. As they fly, Eugene sits in concentrated silence, letting his .50 cal machine gun rip. As he'll later recall, I had nothing to say. My tail guns were doing my talking in short, nasty bursts. Then, suddenly, the attack ends. The sounds of battle fade, leaving only the roar of Tiger Girl's four engines. Eugene leans forward, rests his head against the window, as he physically shakes and sobs, barely catching his breath enough to mutter, Thank you, God. Speaker 1 (6:54) It's now 6.30 p.m. Tiger Girl has just landed safe and sound back at their base in England. As they clamber out, ground crew chief Paul Ireland hollers for all to hear. Wing Ding forgot his parachute. The pilot, Dingle, turns to Eugene and asks if he knew. Eugene answers. Yes, sir. In a mix of dismay and respect, Dingle replies. Now I know why they call you Wing Ding. The cruise engineer, Chuck Allred, chimes in too. Wing Ding, you're either crazy as hell or you've got balls. Welcome to History That Doesn't Suck. I'm your professor, Greg Jackson, and I'd like to tell you a story. Speaker 1 (8:07) This second Schweinfurt bombing raid cut Germany's ball-bearing production by 40%. Unfortunately, it cost 77 B-17s, 60 lost, 17 no longer airworthy, and over 600 American casualties. Meanwhile, Germany's ball-bearing production quickly recovers. Hence, the date of this bombing, October 14, 1943, will be known as Black Thursday. Yikes! Maybe these daytime air raids without escorts aren't worth the risk. Well, we'll get to that. Today, we leave the Pacific and return to the other side of the world to catch up on the European theater of 1943. Well, most of the year. We're putting Allied boots on the boot of Italy. We'll learn more about these bombing raids in Europe, why they aren't escorted, and why Americans believe the precision of their northern bombing sites makes daylight raids worth it. We'll see the Nazis' submarine or U-boat domination in the Atlantic come to its demise, thereby enabling crucial lend-lease goods to make it to the USSR. Goods that the Soviets desperately need as they battle at great sacrifice in the East. And then we'll return to France to find a growing resistance maturing. A resistance that, thanks to Jean Moulin's bravery, is coordinating just enough for Charles de Gaulle to assert his leadership in exile. And with Allied secret agents parachuting in, it's a France preparing for its liberation, for Operation Overlord's D-Day. Which is what we're really pointing to. In fact, you could say this is the pre-pre-D-Day episode. So, when we do still skip a few important events from this year, like the Tehran Conference, don't worry. Just know that we're saving those for next time, for the pre-D-Day episode. And with that... Let's pick up where we left off with Europe in episode 201, with fascist Italy signing an armistice. Rewind. Speaker 1 (10:16) On September 8th, 1943, the world learns that fascist Italy has signed an armistice with the Allies. Allied Supreme Commander in the Mediterranean, Dwight D. Eisenhower, personally announces the news that evening via Radio Algiers. And truly, Italy had no choice. The Allied invasion of Italy's great Mediterranean island of Sicily, codenamed Operation Husky, was a complete success. Such a success that British and Canadian troops have already made the mere Two to three miles skip from the Italian island to the quote-unquote toe of the Italian mainland, an action known as Operation Baytown. The writing's on the wall. Fascist Italy is done for. Even its tepid king, Victor Emmanuel III, can see that. Speaker 1 (11:04) Ah, but that's not how the Nazis see it. From their perspective, Italy isn't folding with a losing hand. It's throwing in the towel as a traitor to their pact of steel. Hence, German Field Marshal Erwin Rommel writes, Italy's treachery is official. And hence, Germany has no intention of simply walking away from the Italian boot without a fight, particularly when its vast armies are already spread across so much of its fascism-founding former allies' territory. Thus, even if Italy won't fight the Allies any longer, the nation will nonetheless become a major battleground as the Wehrmacht stands against the advancing Allies. Speaker 1 (11:48) That gets us back to where we left off at the end of episode 201. It also gives us the background and context needed to continue following the Allies' imminent invasion of mainland Italy via two more operations. The British executed and all but unopposed seizure of the southern Italian port of Taranto and an American-led, heavily opposed, more northern amphibious landing, Operation Avalanche. Given its American flavor and far more significant action, we'll follow the latter. Speaker 1 (12:19) Thrown together in haste as the Allies secured Sicily in August, Operation Avalanche will land troops significantly farther north up Italy's western coast than where the Brits and Canucks have already planted the flag. The Yanks are heading to Salerno, a coastal town just 30 miles southeast of Naples. Now, Naples is the real goal. Its massive port is just what the Allies need to punch into the heart of Italy. The problem, however, is that it's just out of reach of the Spitfires currently calling Sicily home, and invading Allied ground troops will need those single-engine monoplane fires' air support to make any amphibious landing successful. Otherwise, well, just cast your mind back to this episode's opening with Eugene Weandine Carson. Yeah, we saw all too well how terrifying it is to attack without fireplane escorts these days. So, sitting just south enough of Naples to be at the northern edge of these Spitfires' range for an attack window of 20 minutes or so before having to turn around, Salerno is the obvious choice for Operation Avalanche. Of course, that's also the problem. It's so obvious. The Wehrmacht sees it too. Even before Eich took to the radio and made Italy's quote-unquote treachery known, the Germans had sent the 16th Panzer Division into the Salerno plain and prepared defenses along the coast, including machine guns and their deadly 88mm artillery pieces. So there will be no element of surprise here. At least, not for the Germans, but the Allied troops, specifically the British X Corps and the U.S. VI Corps, both commanded by U.S. General Mark Clark as part of his Fifth Army, might be in for a surprise. Shipping out as Ike announces Italy signing the armistice. On the evening of September 8th, the infantrymen aren't grasping that just because Italians are no longer fighting doesn't mean that the Germans are no longer fighting. To quote maritime historian Samuel Elliot Morrison's summation of the average Allied soldier's thinking, we were landing in Italy and the Italians had quit, hadn't they? Senior officers on the ships transporting these soldiers across the Mediterranean take to the loudspeakers to set them straight, to shout at them, literally, that they'll meet stiff resistance from German troops. Even still, the message doesn't sink in. But the bullets will. Speaker 1 (14:57) It's 3.30 in the still dark morning, September 9th, 1943, a mere nine hours since General Dwight D. Eisenhower announced an armistice with Italy. And about one-third of the way up Italy's west coast, several landing craft are cutting through the freshly mine-swept waters of the Gulf of Salerno. Those toward the Gulf's northern edge are filled with British boys who will move on the town of Salerno itself. But eight miles down the white sand shore, In the shadows of 2400 year old Greek temples, yes Greek, ruins even older than ancient Rome, these landing craft carry American boys from the 6th Corps' 36th Infantry Division. Originally a Texas National Guard unit, they're a well-trained bunch, but green. When that gate drops, this will be their first battle. And the intention is that, striking in the almost still dark with no naval bombardment, they'll have the element of surprise. But that doesn't seem likely. Not with German flares flying in the sky. Do the Germans know they're coming? as dozens of landing craft bow ramps drop across four separate beaches. A German loudspeaker blares at the disembarking Americans, and in English no less. Come on in and jump. You're covered. Oh God. Not a moment later, well-prepared German machine gunners unload on the landing craft. Some soldiers drop dead before they can even take the first step. Others lie wounded, writhing in pain, and the Gulf saltwater. Those who make it onto the beaches must contend with mortars, 88mm cannons, and the strafing fire of the Luftwaffe, all while trying to cut through barbed wire in advance. But as the sun rises on what will be an endless day of battle, as Allied landing craft navigate around remaining mines