Battle for the Skies

World War II with Tom Hanks

This episode explores the pivotal air war over Europe during WWII, focusing on the Allied struggle to gain air superiority through strategic bombing. It highlights the challenges of daylight precision bombing, the devast

Key takeaways

• Strategic bombing aimed to cripple German industry and morale

Transcript preview

the History Channel Original Podcast. In 1942 and into 1943, hundreds of thousands of Americans descend on the east of England, to live, fight, and maybe die in the joint effort to defeat Nazi Germany from the air. Combat at 25,000 feet and 300 miles per hour has never been attempted before. The physical, mental, and emotional challenges, will be unique. Victory in World War II will be largely determined by who controls the skies, the German Luftwaffe, or the Allied Air Forces. This is World War II with Tom Hanks. Episode 12, Battle for the Skies. is building elaborate coastal defenses in Europe. As they continue to battle the Soviets in the East, the Germans know that it's only a matter of time before Britain and America attack from the West. From the English Channel to the plains of Russia, Germany controls most of Europe. But as people said at the time, yes, but he forgot to put a roof over it. And the Allied bombers are going to take advantage of that. In the First World War, both sides bombed each other to little effect. But as aviation evolves, a new concept of warfare develops in the 1920s and 30s. Strategic bombing. core tactical school. They come to be known as the bomber barons. The theory is we'll use this novel weapon in a novel way not to attack the enemy's armies, to attack the enemy's homeland, his factories, his infrastructure, destroying his economy, and thus making it impossible for the enemy to make war. These airpower advocates say this is a This is a better way to fight war. No need for that horrible trench deadlock of World War I. That's the old way. The new way is strategic bombing. East Anglia is the England of little churches, hedges, fields, medieval buildings, and it's turned into one gigantic aircraft carrier. In the spring of 1942, the US 8th Air Force begins construction on dozens of air bases, transforming a quiet corner of East England into one of the most vital fronts of the entire Second World War. It's flat, it's perfect for airfields. So you get this massive, massive influx of American bombers. It's flat, it's perfect for airfields. So you get this massive, massive influx of American bombers. carrying the most destructive weapons ever produced and just as strikingly young American airmen. They all had grown up dreaming of flying above the clouds at over 300 miles per hour. Something their parents and grandparents could never imagine and all of a sudden here's this opportunity. The English used to complain. They're oversexed, they're overpaid, and they're over here. The Royal Air Force has been striking the German homeland for two years. Take off off and go. Prime Minister Winston Churchill understands how important such raids are for British morale. But the RAF pays a grievous cost. In these early amongst the war, there were raids with hardly any aircraft coming back. important lesson that took away from it is that daytime bombing was very hazardous thing to undertake. Arthur Harris is the man put in charge of Britain's bomber command and it's his idea to switch to night bombing, to use night as a cloak to protect these bomber forces so they can drop their bombs and they have a better chance to making it home. What they're doing is merely area bombing. They're flying over German cities at night and letting loose their bomb loads. And that means civilian casualties. There's a lot of retribution in this British strategy. The Blitz had smashed British cities and factories in the winter of 1940-41. And the Brits planned to smash German society so badly that it knocks them out of the war. They sell the wind and now they are going to reap the whirlwind. Meeting in Casablanca, President Roosevelt, Prime Minister Churchill and their staffs strategize how to continue the Allied assault on the Third Reich. One of the major outcomes of the Casablanca conference is the Allies declared unconditional surrender as their war aim. But something else happens at Casablanca as well. argument on air strategy between the British and Americans. The US Army Air Force, particularly its commander, General Henry Hap Arnold, insists that daylight precision bombing on critical wartime industries will be more effective. And as so often in World War II, American expectations come up against British experience. Churchill is going to go to... and tell him that look your daylight precision stuff it's not going to work we tried it it didn't work that's why we are doing bombing operations at night and that is the way forward well help Arnold gets wind to this Arnold's a pioneer in aviation taught by the Wright brothers how to fly and he is a believer in strategic air power and when the British say hey you guys should bomb at night just like we do and he says no no The Nordic bomb site. The Nordic bomb site is an analog computer. You punch in various data, wind speed, altitude, wind direction, air pressure, and it correlates all those things together and tells you exactly when to drop the bomb. According to the advertising slogans, it can drop a bomb. barrel at 18,000 feet. Americans claim the Norden bomb site, which requires daylight and clear weather, promises greater precision, and therefore fewer civilian casualties. So Henry Arnold and his advisors come up with this plan, the combined bomber offensive, which means the British bombing at night and the Americans bombing precision targets during the day. The Americans are going to sell it as this round the clock bombing. And this utterly appeals to Churchill with the idea that his adversary will never catch a break. Attacking an enemy from 25,000 feet presents unique challenges. Temperatures dip below minus 50 degrees Fahrenheit. If an airman's supply of oxygen is cut off for more than 60 seconds, he will die. You look out the window as a crewman on a B17 and you begin to see black puffs. And they might not look too dangerous until one actually makes contact. The most infamous German weapon of them all was the Flack 88 millimeter gun. It's capable of sending 29 pound explosive projectiles to altitudes approaching 30,000 feet. The dilemma with Flack is you can't maneuver to avoid it. So the best you can do is sit tight and grit your teeth. Once the Flack stops, there's silence. It's a deathly silence because they know what's coming. German fighter pilots are seasoned combat veterans. Many of them have hundreds of kills because they've been engaging this war since 1939. The best way to kill a German fighter is to send Allied fighters to shoot them down. But when the United States starts to bomb Germany proper, their fighters don't